Maigari awarded Nigeria Sports Personality of the Year

President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Aminu Maigari will be the cynosure of all eyes on Friday when he is honoured as the Sports Personality of the Year 2012 at the African Development Magazine Awards in Accra, Ghana.

The 2nd Annual ADM Awards of Excellence in Development will take place at the Novotel City Centre, Accra on Friday evening, starting from 6.30pm.

According to the top-flight magazine’s Chief Executive, Ayo Ilesanmi, President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency, Dr. John Dramani Mahama will be Special Guest of Honour while the Executive Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Barrister Godswill Akpabio, will be the Special Guest.

Maigari, who was honoured in Lagos on Saturday with the year’s Achievement Award at the annual Awards Ceremony of the Lagos Junior League, has been severally honoured this year for the remarkable turn-around in fortunes and wave-after-wave of success of Nigeria football in the past 16 months.

No Nigeria National Team has failed to qualify for a major tournament in the past 16 months, with the Super Eagles lifting the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 19 years, at the 29th edition in South Africa earlier in the year.

The U-20 and U-17 National Teams also impressed at their continental championships in March and April respectively, in the process qualifying for their respective FIFA World Cup championships. Victory in South Africa has also earned the Super Eagles the ticket to represent Africa at the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil next month.

The keynote address for the day will be delivered by Professor Robert Woode while Professor Leonard Karshima Shilgba will give the day’s lecture.

Last year, the U-20 and U-17 Women National Teams impressed at their different FIFA tournaments in Japan and Azerbaijan respectively, while the Super Eagles, Flying Eagles and Golden Eaglets all qualified for African tournaments.

After finishing third at the 12th African championship in Algeria, the Flying Eagles qualified as one of Africa’s representatives at the FIFA U-20 World Cup Turkey 2013, which will take place between 21st June – 13th July. On their part, the Golden Eaglets finished second at the 10th CAF U-17 Championship in Morocco, losing on penalties to Cote d’Ivoire, and also qualifying for the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2013, between 17th October – 8th November.