By FIJ
The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) publicly mourned the death of Christian Chukwu, Nigeria’s 2004 football head coach who died in Enugu on Saturday, but owed him his wages and kept quiet about it.
The NFF owed Chukwu a professional debt of $128,000 since 2006 and refused to defray the debt despite persistent demands by the former coach until his death.
He led the Super Eagles to a third-place position at the 2004 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament. He was sacked in the build-up to the 2005 World Cup qualifiers.
In 2008, Chukwu told BBC Sports’ Oluwashina Okeleji that he was being owed $128,000. “He claims he is owed over US$128,000 since September 2006 when his contract officially ended with the NFA and has finally lost patience,” BBC reported.
“It is annoying that I toiled so much and these people at the NFA [Nigeria Football Association, which was NFF’s former name] cannot figure out ways of sorting out the money they owe me,” Chukwu said.
“I have made several efforts through writing, telephone calls and visits to the NFA office but there is still no word. The last time they assured me that they will get to the bottom of the matter.”It’s very frustrating and annoying to be treated this way, I am very sure a foreign coach will not be treated this way.”
The NFF then requested “concrete evidence” backing up the financial liability.
“If he claims he is owed some money he should provide concrete evidence and we will follow it up from this end,” Olajire told BBC Sport. But today we do not have such evidence and cannot act on verbal claims.”The new Nigerian coach [Shaibu Amodu] was being owed from 2002 and we sorted him out some months back,” the BBC quoted Ademola Olajire, then spokesperson for the NFF, to have said.
Maintaining that the NFF was still owing him, Chukwu reiterated the NFF’s financial indebtedness to him and how it was only local coaches who mostly received that kind of poor treatment.
“They owe Nigerian coaches. They don’t owe foreign coaches. It is a problem. You take on an indigenous coach who takes a cheap salary, and you owe him,” Chukwu told The Athletic Nigeria in an April 2024 interview.
“Is it proper? Are you encouraging him to do his job? I am still being owed up to today. They are still owing me till tomorrow. My files are there with the NFF. There is nothing I can do [to get them to pay me]. The file is there.
“Go to their office, and you will see how much they owe me. Not only me but other indigenous coaches are being owed, too. Some are late.”
The interviewer asked Chukwu what he had done to get his money. He responded, “What can I do?”
Paying tribute to the late football leader, NFF General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi said Chukwu was a great man but he was silent on the 20-year-old debt.
“We have lost a good and great man. Chukwu was the definition of a strong, dedicated and disciplined leader on and off the field. He was not nicknamed ‘Chairman’ for nothing. He embodied strength, vision and consistency,” Sanusi said in a post on X.
“We pray that the Almighty will grant his soul eternal rest, and also grant the family and friends he has left behind, and Nigeria football’s fraternity the fortitude to bear this big loss.”
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