Pay Keshi’s Salaries

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On the 16th of this month, the second leg of the final qualifying round of the 2014 World cup match between the Super Eagles of Nigeria and the national team of Ethiopia will take place in Calabar. Though the Super Eagles had won the first leg played in Addis Ababa by 2 goals to 1, there should be concerted efforts to ensure that our national flag is hoisted at the Mundial in Brazil. Characteristically, this is the time the officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have chosen not to pay the salaries of the technical crew of the Super Eagles. Available records show that the salaries of the technical team led by head coach Stephen Okechukwu Keshi are seven months in arrears.

This is unacceptable in any sane society. It not only vitiates the contract terms initialled by the individual members of the technical team and the NFF; it also shows that the helmsmen at the NFF have scant regards for the wellbeing of the technical team. This is the same technical crew that, in January this year, won the Africa Nations Cup in South Africa after 19 years. The same Keshi-led crew has qualified the country for the Nations Cup for home-based teams for the first time, and now on the verge of qualifying for the World Cup.

 The same scenario played out in the final phase of the U-20 Africa qualifiers held in Morocco when the coach, Mr John Obuh, refused to travel with the team because he was owed six months’ salary arrears. This, perhaps, explains why some of our national teams seldom perform optimally. The claim by NFF officials that members of the Super Eagles technical crew should be contented with the allowances and other perks of office they receive begs the issue. Their salaries are their statutory right. The operators of the Glass House should be warned that they should not for any reason give any of these coaches the opportunity of reporting this development to the world football governing body. Thankfully, the minister of sports, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi, has directed NFF to offset the salary arrears. However, it goes beyond issuing directives. The supervising minister should not feign ignorance about the plight of these coaches. Should an inquest be launched into why national team coaches, not just football coaches, are owed salaries?

NFF should think outside the box. The Super Eagles being the reigning Africa’s champions are a brand that should be in hot demand. The NFF marketing department should explore this area, which has the potential of being a gold mine, especially in a World Cup year. While we are not certain how much is allocated to the NFF for its recurrent expenditure every year by the National Assembly, we implore the committees on sports in the two chambers to urgently investigate the NFF to ascertain, among other things, its financial status.