[wysija_form id=”1″]March 11, 2015 – Coach of former Premier League team, Niger Tornados FC, Mr. Godwin Uwah has said that he would quit coaching Nigeria’s national team if he were Stephen Kechi, given the condition under which he operates.
Uwah who was speaking on Splash FM described Keshi as a professional coach that was not given the support he needed to excel at this moment. According to him, Keshi was initially given the needed support hence his initial success adding the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) and Nigerians have shown that they do not want Keshi to continue as national team coach.
He alluded to his contract in South Africa while he was on contract to coach a local league team, adding that initially he was told that all he needed was to win 6 out of eight matches when he joined the team and that he was told that if he wins all the eight matches he will receive a gold medal.
He said that he won all the matches but one but that when it was time to renew his contract, the management of the team told him to resume but that his contract would be signed later. He said he told them point blank that he is professional and not able to continue without a valid contract and has to leave South Africa for Nigeria.
He explained that the management of the league team told him he was hired not because there are no local coaches that could do the job in South Africa but because they felt he would do it better.
He said it is not true that there are no Nigerian coaches that could handle the national team but that the problem has to do with the lack of support from the NFF.
He said that with the support of NFF, he was in Germany for a coaching course that qualifies him to coach team anywhere in the world and that Nigerians even do better than most of the foreign coaches in class and on the pitch but that the problem was lack of support like welfare and free hand to operate.
He said Coach Samson Siasia suffered what Keshi is going through. He however tipped himself, coach Christian Chukwu, Amodu Shuaibu and Festus Onigbinde as coaches that could do better.
He however insisted that he would be hired to do a job not because an existing coach was not given the needed support to succeed but that an existing coach has failed given all the needed support.
He said his coaching course abroad affected his former team Niger Tonados now on relegation and that all the matches were played while he was away. He however said his absence was not deliberate but due to postponement of the course which was hitherto scheduled before the league season.
He described Onigbinde as a very sound technical person whose value is not appreciated because he is a Nigerian.
According to him, the Nigerian mentality that only foreign coaches would do better is unhealthy. He attributed his string of success with Dolphine FC and other local teams he coached in Nigeria league to massive support he gained initially but that the support was withdrawn later on for fear that he would become too popular.
