Christian Chukwu Begs Nigerians To Prevail On NFF To Pay His 19 years Outstanding Salaries
By Ekanem Asuquo
Former Super Eagles handler, Christian Chukwu, has implored influential Nigerians to prevail on the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, to pay his outstanding salary arrears 19 years after leaving the saddle as the head coach of the nation’s national team.
According to Chukwu “It is unfair and inhuman that almost two decades after I was relieved of my appointment as Super Eagles coach, the Nigeria Football Federation is yet to settle my unpaid salaries”.
Chukwu who made the startling revelations during an interview with the Athletic Nigeria on Monday, blasted the NFF over the poor treatment of ingenious coaches by the country’s football governing body, describing the trend as unacceptable.
Recall that Chukwu, who is now 73 was the head coach of the country’s men’s senior national team between 2002 and 2005 during which he led Nigeria to a bronze medal finish at the 2004 Africa Cup of Nations in Tunisia before he was relieved of his job in 2005 during the qualification campaign for the 2006 World Cup, staged in Germany.
It was gathered that apart from Christian Chukwu, other indigenous coaches engaged at intervals to manage the Super Eagles are still being owed by the NFF including Late Shuaibu Ahmadu and Stephen Keshi, who led Nigeria to win its third Nations Cup triumph in 2013.
Chairman, as he was fondly called in his heydays, lamented their ordeals in the hands of successive NFF leadership despite their sacrificial contributions to the growth of the game in Nigeria.
“They owe Nigerian coaches. They don’t owe foreign coaches. It is a problem because they know them. You take on an indigenous coach who takes a cheap salary, and you owe him,” Chukwu lamented.
“Is it proper? Are you encouraging him to do his job? I am still owed up to today. They still owe me till tomorrow. My files are there with the NFF.
“What can I do? There is nothing I can do to get them to pay me. The file is there. Go to their office, and you will see how much they owe me. Not only me, but other indigenous coaches are being owed too. Some are late.
“They are owing us because we are Nigerians, when I was in Kenya I was not owed and when I went to Lebanon I was not owed there and you can see the difference. We did our best and those people appreciated us.”
On whether his plight is the sacrifice to his father’s, the former Eagles captain said, “If it is a price I think the nation should have paid me and not me paying the nation, for serving the nation and serving them well. I think I should be paid and not them owing me.”
He hinted at plans to approach the current NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, with a passionate appeal to consider paying him.
“It is my money lying down there for nothing, I will go and discuss everything with him (Gusau), and if he pays me that is wonderful.”
Christian Chukwu, then of Enugu Rangers captained the national team to their first-ever Africa Cup of Nations title on home soil in 1980, he later suffered prostate cancer in 2019 which still affects his leg after major surgery.
Financial constraints compelled the family to initiate a GoFundMe appeal to solicit funds for the Nigeria football legend’s medical treatment before billionaire business tycoon, Femi Otedola, donated N18m to cater for the medical treatment of Chukwu abroad.
It would be recalled that apart from captaining Nigeria to her first AFCON success in 1980, Christian Chukwu also led Enugu Rangers to win the Africa Cup Winners Cup in 1977.
He also served as the assistant coach of the first team to win a FIFA World Cup trophy for Nigeria – the Golden Eaglets that triumphed at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in China in 1985.
The defense marshall was also assistant coach of the team dubbed the ‘Golden Generation’ comprising the 1994 class of Super Eagles that qualified Nigeria for their first FIFA World Cup finals.
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