Sanusi charges Nigerian coaches to be upright, diligent

General Secretary of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Dr. Mohammed Sanusi has called on Nigerian indigenous coaches to be upright, diligent and alive to their responsibilities while on duty with any of the National Teams or their clubs.

Sanusi, himself a certified coach, made this call on Tuesday when the new executive team of the Nigeria Football Coaches Association paid him a courtesy call at the NFF Secretariat in Abuja.

“I will tell you the home truth because I am also one of you. We have a situation in which some coaches are not alive to their responsibilities. We know some of them who instigate players to agitate unnecessarily, especially in the National Teams, because they stand to benefit from such agitation. It is not appropriate.

“I hold this body in high esteem, as I made my name in football and not even in academics. We will look at the various requests that you have made, including strengthening the Technical Department. I can assure you that we will also grant the NFCA an office at the new NFF Office, make even more robust the CAF coaching courses that we have been running and look at the issue of a few National Team coaches that are being owed with a few to offsetting those debts.”

Earlier, NFCA President Isah Ladan Bosso thanked the Nigeria Football Federation for the support and encouragement that the body has continued to enjoy from the Federation, while outlining a number of requests including the need for any expatriate coach employed to work in Nigeria to register with the body before starting on the job.

On the request for the NFCA to be qualified to have a member on the board of the NFF, Dr. Sanusi told the body’s executives to allow the NFF Bill – which is awaiting the assent of Mr. President – to unfold and the NFF Reform Committee to conclude its work to see what is possible.

Bosso, a former Head Coach of the U20 and U23 National Teams at different periods, was in company with Victor Nwakanma (second vice president); Etta Egbe (public relations officer); Diana Asak (welfare officer), Justine Madugu (financial secretary); Danlami Usman Akawu (assistant training officer); Abdulrazaq Usman (auditor); John Sam Obuh (treasurer) and; Stanley Eguma (secretary).

Also at the meeting were Dr. Emmanuel Ikpeme (NFF Deputy General Secretary); Bola Oyeyode (Director of Competitions); Bitrus Bewarang (Director of Technical); Charity Kadiri (Director of Finance); Ademola Olajire (Director of Communications); Abdulrafiu Yusuf, Siji Lagunju and Dr. Robinson Okosun (Assistant Directors, Technical) and; Ruth David (Head of Women Football).