From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

 

The possibility of aggrieved Nigerian goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama, making a return to solve the Super Eagles goalkeeper crisis may have been foreclosed after the France-based keeper snubbed the National Assembly leadership appealing for his return.
Chairman Senate Committee on Sports, Senator Obinna Ogba, who made the disclosure in a chat with journalists at the NASS Complex Abuja, expressed disappointment over Enyeama’s refusal to speak to the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, adding that he also refused to pick the several telephone calls put across to him.
Senator Ogba further explained that the former Lille of France goalkeeper did not only cut off phone on him and the senate President when they attempted to appeal to him to stage a comeback, but snubbed further efforts to plead with him to return to the national team.
Narrating his efforts to intervene in bringing Enyeama back to the Eagles, Senator Ogba said: “I personally called Enyeama up to three to four time to plead with him. It got to the extent that I got the Senate President involved.
I went to the Senate President’s office, put a call across to him for the Senate President to speak to him, but when I told him that the Senate President wanted to speak to him, he cut off the line there. I called him severally but he refused to pick again.
“Some of us played this game without getting any appreciation. Those of them, who have come to play with thank you and the money, should know that without Nigeria, they would not have come to stardom today? If Nigeria were not a football playing nation, nobody could have come to Enyimba FC to spot him.
“So, we should be enough patriotic. When it is obvious that you are still in the game, your mates are still in the team, why must you snub calls for you to be part of that team? We can all remember very well, when Rodger Milla of Cameroon came out of retirement to join the Indomitable Lions during the 1990 World Cup,” the visibly angry Ogba noted.
Meanwhile the Upper Chamber has expressed concern over the failure of Nigeria’s communication giant, Globacom to pay the Nigeria Football Federation ((NFF) an accumulated debt of N1.2b before their sponsorship deal hit the wall.
Reacting to the situation, the Senate sports committee chairman, explained that Globacom has refused to pay up the bill and alleviate the federation’s financial crisis despite all interventions, noting that the development has not only affected the financial strength of the federation, but had affected the preparation of the national teams.