Nigeria's 51st Independence Anniversary celebration may be low-keyed, but not for Coach Christian Chukwu, who only last weekend, led Heartland Football Club of Owerri to win the Federation Cup after 23 years of no such glory for the Owerri, Imo State club side.
Just like it was in 1980, when 'The Chairman' lifted the coveted Africa Cup of Nations for the first time for Nigeria at the National Stadium in Lagos, the triumph over Enyimba at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, also in Lagos, last Sunday, brought cause for Heartland and all its crew to mark this year's independence anniversary in style.
Though Coach Chukwu described the anniversary of 1980 as his best ever, because that was the year he became a landlord and as well, bagged the MON award courtesy of that feat of winning the Nations Cup, looking back to the beginning of his career, he recalled that he became an outcast in his family simply because he would always sneak out to play football with his mates when he was still in his growing years.
“In my early days, those of us who played football were regarded as problematic children. Then, I often got strokes of the cane as punishment for playing football and sometimes my parents would denied me of my dinner because of the game,” Chukwu opened up.“My mother and her friends were always in the habit of saying; 'my son will be an engineer, a doctor or a lawyer.' It was a thing of pride for most parents then. So, playing football as a career was absurd. In fact, I was regarded as nobody and was treated like an outcast.”
Chukwu recalled that he did not see anything fantastic about being an engineer, a doctor or a lawyer, as most parents would want their children to become.“I was stubborn and stuck to my football, which later took me to the East Central State Academicals, Rangers International of Enugu and ultimately, to the Green Eagles of Nigeria.
“By the time I began to leverage on my various football trips abroad and started to bring some goodies home, my mother had a change of heart. I became popular. “Winning the 1980 Nations Cup was the biggest moment for my family; people gathered to congratulate me and they showed us a lot of favour. Football is what made me what I am today and if you watch the trend now, you will discover that parents are busy pushing their children to play football because the game is now very lucrative. Things are changing. If anyone had some years back said he was a comedian, he would be regarded as someone that was out of his mind, but today, comedians are everywhere living big.
“My advice is that parents should stop forcing their kids into occupations that do not appeal to them. It is good to guide children, but we should always allow them to make their choices in life, because it is what one does with pleasure that pays the one better.” On the state of sports in Nigeria, with particular reference to football, Chukwu gave a pass mark to the rate of sports development in the country. He was, however, quick to note that the country has yet to reach the Eldora do.
“Talking about Nigerian sports 51 years after our independence, I would say that we have done pretty well despite not having been at the level most Nigerians would have loved our sports to be. We have not done badly in football either. The truth of the matter is that we are making progress.
“Nigerian football, for instance, has grown tremendously, but we should consider the issue holistically. There are still petty problems in infrastructural development, players' welfare, administration of the game and so on.
“On infrastructure for instance, when you look at the National Stadium in Lagos, it was a masterpiece in the 1970s and '80s. The stadium was to Nigeria what Wembley is to England. To that one, we have added the Abuja National Stadium, which can compete favourably with the best stadia in the world.
“Apart from those two, we also have many others international stadia across the nation. The Teslim Balogun Stadium for instance, is good enough to host World Cup matches.
The same goes for the Liberation Stadium in Port Harcourt, Liberty Stadium in Ibadan, Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu, the one in Calabar, Kaduna, Bauchi, Kano, Benin, Abeokuta, Ilorin, Ijebu-Ode, Owerri and the ones in different parts of Delta State and so on. Before our independence in 1960, these stadia were not there, so you will agree with me that we have made progress in this area. But that does not mean that we have hit the bull's eye in sports infrastructural development. We still need to do more to accommodate our large population.” Chukwu also enumerated the various tournaments Nigeria had participated in since the country's independence and concluded that a lot of progress has been made in the country's football.
“Since 1976, Nigeria has continued to qualify for the Africa Nations Cup save for 1985 when Zambia sent us packing at the qualifying stage. We have won the trophy twice - 1980 and 1994. This is no mean feat considering the fact that some countries on the continent have never qualified for the Nations Cup. So, I do not share in the view that Nigeria has not achieved much in football.
“We have participated in four World Cups. We were the first country to win the Under-16 World Cup in faraway Beijing, China, in 1985. We have won the Under-17 World Youth Championship for a record three times. We happened to be the first country in Africa to win the Olympic gold medal in football event in Atlanta '96. We have really done well in football. We have equally won Olympic gold in many other sports, but that does not in anyway mean that we have achieved it all. There is still room for improvement.”
In all, Chukwu said that the major problem with Nigerian football and Nigerian sports in general lies with the administration.
“The administration of sports in the country is poor. If we can improve in this area, we will go places. And there is a glimpse of hope, which is why some of us have joined in sports administration in the country to help in making things right, and I think that things are now taken their right shapes, through gradually. For instance, before now, once the national team loses in any match, the coach would be sacked without first finding out the cause of the team's failure. At time, the problems came from the administrator, but the blame would be heaped on the coach.
“Again, the involvement of government in our football and sports in general is a hindrance to sports development in the country. As you may be aware, out of the 20 Premier League clubs in Nigeria, it is only one that is not owned by the government. Many of these clubs owe their players and officials several months or years of salaries, sign-on fees and other allowances.
And when you ask, the management would tell you that government has not released money to them, so tell me how such clubs would be doing well. “For me, to forge ahead, government should withdraw its involvement from our sports. It could be done gradually. Government can withdraw about 30 per cent of its involvement in the first year, 20 per cent in the second year and 10 per cent in subsequent years until it hands off completely.
To buttress his point, the former coach of Harambee Stars of Kenya, noted that Ikoyi Club 1938, Ikeja Country Club, IBB Golf Club, FHA Tennis Club and other privately-owned clubs in the country are doing well because they are being managed by business-minded individuals. “In all these, however, I still believe that Nigeria has done well in sports, especially football, in the last 51 years despite the challenges facing us as a nation.”
SOURCE;
http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/sportsonthehour/2011/oct/02/sportsbreak-02-10-2011-001.html
