Posted by By Miebi Senge on
VICE Chairman of the Delta State FA, Amaju Pinnick has described Tuesday night's suspension of Super Eagles Chief Coach Christian Chukwu, by the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) as 'timely" and a vindication of 'my earlier call for a foreign coach for the nation."
VICE Chairman of the Delta State FA, Amaju Pinnick has described Tuesday night's suspension of Super Eagles Chief Coach Christian Chukwu, by the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) as 'timely" and a vindication of 'my earlier call for a foreign coach for the nation."
Pinnick who called Sports Vanguard from Port Harcourt, Rivers State where he is attending the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) meeting on marshaling a programme on using ‘Sports as tool for arresting youth restiveness' in the troubled oil belt, said: 'Nigeria was not yet ripe for a local coach to handle the Super Eagles effectively."
He stated that 'Nigeria would not have got to this logjam we found ourselves if the right thing had been done earlier. It is not a campaign against Chukwu or any other Nigerian coach. I have a lot of respect for the ‘Chairman' as he is a hero to all of us. But the issues are beyond hero worshiping at this moment. It is about professional integrity and competence."
'This has always been my point, although people tried to pitch me against my brother, Adokie Amiesimaka on the issue. We see ourselves everyday, even now we're working together in a project in Port Harcourt. Adokie, I so much respect, but on this issue of a Nigerian coach, we differ."
Emmanuel Ibru, Chairman of 2E Sports Management had also told Sports Vanguard in an exclusive interview before the ‘suspension' that 'Nigeria needed a seasoned and highly professional expatriate to head the technical department of the NFA."
Ibru believes the professionalism or otherwise of the FA would impact effectively on the output of the field coach. But he like Pinnick also questioned the professional competence of the Nigerian coach in handling the Eagles.
'Tell me, who is that Nigerian coach so detribalised and can also call the bluff of the players and (also) overcome the incompetence of the NFA. Part of the problem of the local coach is that he is too mindful of losing his job that the takes whatever nonsense placed before him," Ibru said.