| NFA Scribe not big deal
Owunmi says running the nation’s soccer
secretariat cannot be as tough as managing Enugu Rangers International
By EMMA NJOKU
Saturday, September 23, 2006
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• Davidson Owunmi
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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For Davidson Owunmi, running the Nigeria Football Association
(NFA) secretariat in the capacity of Secretary-General won’t
be as problematic as running a big traditional soccer outfit
such as Enugu Rangers International.
The Special Assistant to Governor Chimaraoke Nnamani on Rangers
Matters, who is strongly favoured to emerge as the new scribe
at the Glass House in Abuja told Saturday Sunsport in Abuja
recently that he has enough credentials to serve in that capacity
if he is so considered eventually.
“I would rather not be dragged into the debate regarding
who becomes the new NFA Secretary-General for personal reasons,”
the former Green Eagles and Enugu Rangers pacy forward began,
when querried if he could cope with the challenges that come
with the position of the NFA scribe.
“By every standard, and without sounding immodest, I
think I have enough qualities and qualification to serve as
the Secretary-General of the NFA,” Owunmi went on.
“Beside my educational qualification, I think with the
experience I have acquired in the past 30 years that I have
spent in football, I am ripe enough to occupy any position
in football administration and management.
“I have not done anything outside football all my life.
It’s like I eat football, sleep football, dream football
and drink football. So serving as the Secretary-General of
the NFA would be like an added responsibility. That’s
how I look at it.
“The Secretary-General position, to me comes with less
problem than I have handled in the course of managing a big
traditional club like Enugu Rangers International. The pressure
of running such a traditional soccer outfit is enormous.
“Granted that the Secretary-General of NFA has its colouration
and set of problems, a well articulated person should not
have much problems coping with the challenges, because problems
arise only when you don’t know what to do. But a man
with sound conviction would always know what to do especially
under the new dispensation, where everything is being demilitarized.
“We are going into a lot of civility and democratic
procedures and I think everything is made a lot easier.”
Football in Delta State
While the Delta State-born graduate of political science has
steadily steered Enugu Rangers back to reckoning in the past
five years, football in his home state has continued to take
a downward slide. Is it a case of a prophet not recognized
by his kinsmen?
“I am not a politician, honestly speaking. I don’t
dabble into politics. The politicking in Delta State as it
concerns football is so intense that if you love yourself,
you would rather stay too faraway from it.
“I played football in Warri. I made my name in Warri
before I moved out for greater challenges.
“A lot of people currently at the helm of affairs in
football in Delta State today were not even my contemporaries.
And if they think they want to develop football in Delta State,
we know the right people because we have a lot of talents
all over the place.
“Outside myself, there are other football administrators,
coaches and former players. It is disheartening that Delta
State has no club in the Premier League. But my joy is that
it doesn’t seem to bother the people there. If it doesn’t
bother them and I have people that think that football is
a good investment, if they call me to come and serve, I will
honour the call. But when the present set of people running
football in Delta State leave, and a new set comes in and
are willing to make football in Delta State the No. 1 sport,
then we shall all go back home and put things right.
Facilities
“The government of Delta State has done creditably well
by putting structures on ground. That’s the only state
in the federation that can boast of over nine standard stadia.”
Priority
“For now, I think those in authority prefer athletics
and other sports to football. Therefore, I cannot criticize
the present administration because to them, Delta has won
the National Sports Festival many times. Perhaps, that’s
their priority. But some other person might come in tomorrow
and say, look, if you win every other medal without football
event, you have not done anything at the festival, so, let’s
go back to football. If such a person comes on board, we will
come in because the present government has tried to put structures
in place.
“The question of bringing up a club becomes a matter
of months. To guide a club to the Premier League can only
take some months because the state has the resources and infrastructures.
The only thing lacking is just the will. For now, I’m
not a politician and I’m not ready to dabble into Delta
State politics.”
Biggest challenge at Rangers
“You know that Rangers followership cuts across ethic
boundaries in the country and without sounding too boastful,
Enugu Rangers are one of the most followed clubs in the country
by any standards. Managing such a club is like managing a
national team.
“Secondly, the fact that I do not come from the same
geo-political divide as the location of the club brought its
own problems. But for the support of a highly detribalized
Nigerian in the person of His Excellency, Governor Chimaraoke
Nnamani, I would not have been able to achieve anything with
Enugu Rangers. The governor has always given me all the support
I need to run the club in spite of sustained distractions
and antagonisms from certain quarters, which ordinarily would
have dampened my enthusiasm to run the club.
“With the support of Governor Nnamani, I have been able
to surmount some of the ethnic problems and agitation’s
from some ex-Rangers players. For the past five years, its
been a success story for Rangers, given the peculiar circumstances
under which we’ve had to run the club. If not for anything,
bringing Rangers back to the psyche of the average Nigerian
football follower, is a big achievement. For the past five
years, if Rangers were not first, we were second.”
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