SAN FRANCISCO, June 12, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung has expressed grief and shock over the death of the former Coach of Super Eagle and technical director of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Shuaibu Amodu, which came just two days after his one-time assistant, Stephen Keshi, passed on.
In a release signed by his media assistant, Nneka Anibeze, the Minister said that the sudden deaths of these two notable Nigerian coaches within a two day interval were shocking which invariably calls for prayers.
“I am short of words over this tragic news. Shuaibu was one of the very intelligent coaches Nigeria had”, the Minister said, adding that he’d just met with the late gaffer where issues affecting the welfare of Nigeria coaches as well as ways of moving Nigerian football forward were discussed exhaustively.
Dalung observed further that, Amodu’s death has robbed Nigeria of the services of a tested tactician, whose pedigree accorded recognition to indigenous Nigerian coaches based on the fact that he qualified the Super Eagles for the World cup twice in addition to his earlier exploits where he led BCC Lions of Gboko to FA Cup triumph and became the first side from Northern Nigeria to win the championship and recording an encore with Elkanemi Warriors of Maiduguri at the Nigerian Football competitions.
Similarly, a former Coach of Super Eagles, and also Captain of the Green Eagles, Christian Chukwu has described Amodu Shuaibu’s death as a severe blow to the development of football in Nigeria.
Chukwu who skippered the Nigerian Green Eagles that emerged champions at the 1980 AFCON said that, Amodu departed at a time his wealth of experience would have added immeasurable value in enhancing football management as the Technical Director of the Nigeria Football Federation.
Amodu, 58, was the second Nigerian indigenous coach to have won an Africa soccer championship, when he led BCC Lions of Gboko to continental victory at the 1990 edition of the Africa Cup Winners Cup (now Africa Confederation Cup) in a nail-biting final encounter against Club Africaine at the El-Menzah stadium in Tunis.
Story by David Oputah
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