By Bethel Kalu
NFF Presidential candidate, Dr. Christian Emeruwa says he is looking forward to creating jobs for millions of people through football when he becomes NFF President. He spoke to Magic FM Aba on Tuesday morning
He reeled out his achievements with CAF and FIFA, being to five different World Cups, including being the head of safety and security for the Russia 2018 World Cup final game, making him the first African to hold that position. He also works with the United Nations office on counter terrorism among others
Dr Emeruwa talked about his dream for the NFF and how he intends to achieve them
“I decided to come back home to run for this position because I sit in Cairo and everyday we evaluate what is happening in each country across Africa and I noticed that Nigeria is really not progressing in terms of the developmental pillars and this concern of mine was also confirmed just recently by the Director of the National Bureau of Statistics who was invited by the Presidential panel that was planning the 10-year Master Plan for football and he was asked what data he could present from football and he told the panel that the NBS has no data for football which means that the sector does not exist.
Nigerian football as it stands today is running on an old template, a template that has probably long over lived its usefulness and cannot catch up with contemporary football system as it were.”
He said that it would be difficult to succeed with such a template because it was used in the 70s and 80s and has no place in the 21st century
The CAF security chief said that state FAs and their secretaries are not properly trained despite the number of matches they organize. He said the secretaries have not been exposed to international best practices for the last 20 years. He also talked about the inability of the NFF to organize coaching courses for the indigenous coaches
“As I speak to you today, no Nigerian coach has been trained by CAF in the last five years. How do you want to develop your football when your coaches are not trained?
He also talked football development programs
“We do not have any football development program in relation to grassroots. We don’t have anything going on the schools across Nigeria, we don’t have anything going on in the communities across Nigeria, our leagues are nothing to write home about compared to other countries that we should be raising our shoulders and competing with and I talk about countries like Morocco; Egypt, South Africa, Tunisia and Algeria. None of their big players is in a hurry to leave the country to another league because the league is paying them very well.
We want to use football to create create job opportunities for millions of Nigerians.”
Dr Emeruwa said that since he declared his intention to run for the post in April, he has been speaking and consulting with the delegates and that soon, he will begin zonal interaction with the delegates. He added he has a story to tell about his achievements and how he moved a new department in CAF to the second best in the world after UEFA.
Dr. Emeruwa recounted his experience and how it will help Nigerian football, saying it would be fair to use his wealth of experience in order to rejig the system which he described as faulty and that he will open opportunities for Nigerians in CAF and in international events
“In CAF and FIFA, there are freelance opportunities for people to work as freelancers. These freelance opportunities are actually the operators of football at the continental and world stage. How many Nigerians are functioning in this capacity?
Nigeria as a country has two general coordinators, only one is functional. Nigeria as we speak today do not have any Nigerian as a Media Officer in CAF. Are you telling me that all the media journalists in Nigeria do not qualify as media officer? Have they been trained in any way? Are they functioning as Media Officers? No Nigerian is a CAF Medical Officer or club licencing agent
For Dr. Emeruwa, the race to occupy the number one football seat in Nigeria is not war, hence he has a good relationship with the incumbent president and other aspirants.
Dr. Emeruwa was the first to pick form, followed by Peterside Idah