Dr. Lekan Are, a sports lover who raised the Cocoa Research Institute Team in Ibadan, Oyo State, many years ago, spoke on the just concluded African Cup of Nations, NFF, Stephen Keshi’s efforts and other issues in an interview withAKINWALE ABOLUWADE
What are the lessons from the just concluded African Cup of Nations?
I think the first thing is that we should all congratulate the coach, Stephen Keshi. He knew what he was doing. People were trying to intervene but fortunately, people like Chief (Adegboye) Onigbinde and Segun Odegbami said that they should leave him alone. He knows the format he wants and what he wants to do. If you disrupt his plans, he might not be able to do exactly what he wanted.
All the same, I am so happy that he succeeded because he is a Nigerian like any of us and also because for 19 years, we had not won this cup and out of the blues, we got it. The first thing I would like to say is that the Nigerian Football Federation is the clog in the wheel of progress. They never gave Keshi all it takes to perform. You read that the man resigned— I was happy that he resigned for one main reason — it would bring to limelight the fact that the NFF as it stands, is not an organisation we should rely on to promote football in this country. Unfortunately, you find that a lot of people who are in the NFF should not be there.
What makes it possible for them to be there is because of Decree 101, which has yet to be scrapped and that allows the Federal Government of Nigeria to have people to be nominated and also allows them to put the chairman there. The people who should make up the NFF should be the stakeholders, that is the football club owners, ex-internationals, coaches and principals of schools where they promote football. Unless you do things like that, the private sector and sponsors will not be interested because your money will go down the drain. Are you not shocked that they owed Keshi his salary for four months? Are you not shocked that up till the time the man resigned, he had no official car and no accommodation? This is a shame.
If it were a white man, they may give him one house in Abuja and one in Lagos. We have seen that before. Two, you find that the people don’t want to encourage Nigerian coaches because of corruption. We have very good Nigerian coaches but any time they are put in charge of the national team, the NFF frustrates them because they won’t feather their nests. Most people don’t know the English FA chairman but we know the coach. But here, the officials of NFF are too visible. It shouldn’t be. Many of them are acting as if they have no work other than to be members of NFF. It is not a full time job and it shouldn’t be. Unless you make it unattractive for people who want to make money, you will not have the right kind of people in NFF.
Nigeria is ranked 30th in the latest FIFA ranking; what is the fate of the country in future if politics is not divorced from sports?
The fact that we moved 22 steps from 52 to 30 is not really the issue. We moved up because of the performance. Because of the points we accumulated from the African Cup of Nations, we had the leap. The important thing is for us to continue winning. You can improve your ranking but the ranking is not foolproof. Have you ever heard the NFF release information about how many people watched a big match in this country? If you watch British football, before they finish a game, they will quote the number of people that watched it, but not so here. What I am trying to point out is that the NFF takes money from government and they are behaving as if they are not accountable. We should know how much they make after a match. I don’t know when they ever release that. Secondly, you find that the Ministry of Sports maybe, has not been performing its oversight function. We should thank the sports minister for coming to our rescue by ensuring that the differences between Keshi and NFF was amicably resolved. Otherwise, I would support that the man should resign. They are not treating him fairly like a first-class citizen. If he was a white man, it would be super first-class treatment. People had been writing that Keshi had no car, no accommodation and that he was not being paid as and when due. But NFF officials would reply that they were paying. To make matters worse, I read it in newspapers that NFF officials and others who went — not the footballers — were spraying dollars in South Africa. Also, they went on a shopping spree. They said some Nigerians were ashamed of the attitude of these Nigerians. That was at a time when they had not paid the winning bonus of the players. What we are saying is this— they are just there to make money for themselves. They are not there to develop football. In the past, we had players developed from secondary schools who played for Nigeria. I can remember Ojo Gabriel in the 50s, then Disu, immediately he left Amadiyya, he played for Nigeria. They discovered them early. But now, these people are only after their interest. It is when the stew is fully cooked that they will now call everybody to eat. In other words, they are now only looking for names. That is why you must praise Keshi for saying, ‘no, I am not going to play only foreign-based players but also encourage home-based players.’ And they played extremely well. If you don’t begin to inject some of these players from now on, it will reach a point where the present crop of players would reach their peak and start to decline. He has done a very good thing to mix the foreign-based with the local-based players. This is a step in the right direction.
For things to be put in the right perspective in football, are you suggesting the restructuring of NFF?
I am calling for two things: they should disband and restructure NFF. If you read people like Segun Odegbami, late Ayo Ositelu and Fabio Lanipekun, you will discover that our football desires necessary checks. The non-payment of Keshi’s allowances and denial of other benefits is dereliction of duty and they should sack everybody there.
It was learnt that the NFF has not paid some of the match bonuses due to the winning team. How do you react to this?
I don’t know whether it has been paid now or not. From what I read in the papers after they beat Ivory Coast, the officials went spending our money on shopping. Some were even pasting dollars on people’s heads at parties and yet, they had not paid the match bonus. What kind of thing is that? Whether they have paid up now, I don’t know. If they have not paid, it is a shame.
Do we really need the services of a foreign technical adviser?
I have been totally opposed to the recruitment of foreign coaches. The so-called foreign coaches recruited by NFF are not first-rate coaches. If they give all the support they give to foreign coaches to Nigerians, they would do well. We have very many good coaches. You remember Shuaibu Amodu, Samson Siasia, Kashimawo Laloko, Onigbinde and others? But they didn’t give them any encouragement. Why would anybody in his senses recuirt Lagerback? It was Amodu that qualified us for the World Cup but they threw him out and then brought a white man. What they paid him in five months was more than what they would have paid Amodu in three years. That is terrible. This was a man that could not even qualify his own country, yet you appointed him. Of course, I was happy he didn’t do well. I don’t support the idea of a foreign coach because we have materials that through exposure and attendance of courses, can still be better than what they are. It is like you telling me that we should go and recruit a foreigner as the boss of Senator David Mark. The man is doing a good job, why do you want a foreigner to be his boss? If you do things like that, you have to replace everybody in the university and every organisation. The people in NFF want foreign coaches because they have a hidden agenda. They will make more money by saying, ‘let’s go and camp in this country and that country.’ If it is a Nigerian coach and he says, ‘let us go and camp in Kano,’ will they get estacodes? They won’t. So, it is corruption. I have played at every level and I raised a first-class team and produced at least five players who played for Nigeria. If there was professional football in those days, maybe I would have been a professional footballer. Let our home-based coaches be exposed to advanced courses in coaching, they will be good. At least, Keshi has proved them wrong. In his case, they did not give him any support, instead they gave him a lot of inconveniences. I wrote my memoir titled ‘Serving to survive and succeed.’ You will find that Keshi has done exactly that. They made life so difficult for him that the first thing he tried to do was to survive to keep the job. I am sure that if they had not put all this hurdles in his path, he probably would have produced a first-class team earlier than now, but he stomached all the insults because he felt he should satisfy Nigerians, not the NFF. I am happy that after surviving, he succeeded.
How do you think we can nurture this winning team?
You cannot nurture anything if the coach is not given a free hand and support. You don’t withhold his salary; you give him a conducive environment to perform. Also, the coach should draw up a plan, which I am sure Keshi is already doing. If the coach says, ‘I want to play a team’ and the NFF says, ‘no’, how will you not end up with a fire brigade approach when you don’t have practice matches to test the formation that you hope to put in place? There must be continuous friendly matches to fine-tune the lapses in the make-up of the team. Unless they allow the coach to implement his plans, he will continue to have a fire brigade approach. We are going to probably prepare for the World Cup. The coach in his wisdom will draw up the plan. Let them allow him to follow his plan.
Punch Nigeria
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