Former factional president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Mr Chris Giwa, is back to fulltime politics after being hit with a five-year ban by FIFA.
Much was not heard from the lawyer turned soccer administrator sequel to him and four others receiving the axe from the apex soccer body in February.
Giwa had continually paraded himself as the rightfully elected president of the NFF since August 2014 before the ban.
The controversial administrator contested and lost the Plateau State governorship elections under the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) in 2011.
Now it appears, Giwa has decided to completely abandon his stuttering football-related aspirations and instead resurrect his crumbling political career.
This became clear after he defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday.
Giwa, who is founder of the now defunct Giwa FC, acknowledged that the former ruling party is a much better option having tested both parties.
ACN is one of the political parties that merged to form the now ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
“Nigerians have tested and tasted the PDP and the APC. From experience, the average Nigerian believes that PDP is a better option. I have opted to go with the majority,” he stated.
Chris Giwa added that he has “no immediate ambition” now and instead will join forces with Senator Jonah Jang (PDP, Plateau North), who was one of the high-profile personality present to welcome him at the party’s secretariat on Thursday.
In response Jang, who was Plateau State governor from 2007 to 2015, said the PDP was intact and ready to regain power in 2019.
Incumbent Governor Solomon Lalong is a member of the APC,
“We had a setback in 2015 but we have put that behind and moved on. The defeat was a temporary setback that has made up stronger after realising our mistakes.” Jang said.
He, however, cautioned PDP members against the temptation to jump ship simply because the party was out of power, and declared that those doing so would regret “very soon” .
He stressed the need for the PDP to remain united, saying that a divided opposition had no chance against an incumbent government.
“As your leaders, we will do everything within our powers to ensure that the PDP remains a strong and united entity.
“It is good to have an ambition, but no ambition is more than the PDP because it is the platform through which we can achieve such ambitions,” he said.
