By Anayo Akwiti, Abuja <\/p>\n
The media aide to former Nigeria Coach Bonfrere Jo, Eze Okechukwu has accused the federal government of allegedly being complicit in the maltreatment of the duo of former senior national team coaches; Clemence Westerhof and Bonfrere Johannes.<\/p>\n
Both expatriate coaches jointly built a formidable national team for Nigeria that won the African Nations Cup in Tunisia in 1994, qualified Nigeria to its first ever World Cup in USA same year with the football governing body, FIFA ranking the team 5th in her global rating afterwards. Bonfrere would go on to win the Olympics gold medal for the Dream Team in Atlanta, USA two years later where he defeated powerhouses Brazil, Mexico and Argentina in dramatic fashion.<\/p>\n
Speaking against the backdrop of Nigeria’s recent poor global outings in football, Eze told our correspondent yesterday in Abuja that where truth is not appreciated, where past heroes are subjected to maltreatments and undue recognition, no meaningful progress should be expected, faulting federal government over its inability to build on the records of both Dutch nationals.<\/p>\n
” The administration of former military Head of State, Ibrahim Babangida through the Vice President, Augustus Aikhomu brought Westerhof to Nigeria in 1989. In turn, Westerhof brought Bonfrere as a technical assistant. A year in the job, in Algiers 90 Afcon, they won Silver, followed it up with a Bronze in Senegal 92, before ultimately winning the trophy in 1994. Please notice the steady questions on the ultimate price before they won it? That’s the pattern of a crew that know their onions. <\/p>\n
” They qualified Nigeria to its first ever World Cup in USA in 1994, playing with flair and technical discipline. The Super Eagles was rated fifth best team in the world afterwards, before Westerhof left the stage for Bonfrere Jo who went on to win the Olympics gold medal for the Dream Team in Atlanta, Georgia, USA two years later. <\/p>\n
” With their unbroken 30 years record, would you believe that the same federal government that claims to be worried over the dwindling fortunes of our football rewarded Westerhof and Bonfrere with a house each in Gwagwalada area of the federal capital territory. What happened to houses in the high brow areas of Abuja? What will it take the government to give them houses in Maitama, Asokoro, Wuse 11 or Guzape? Is the President, Vice President, Sports Minister, NFF President living in Gwagwalada? It shows you how the government rewards people that have exceedingly done well for Nigeria.<\/p>\n
” Bad as the federal government’s effort is, her own is better than that of Lagos state government who gave a plot of land each to the Dream Team contingent in Lekki Phase 3, Lagos in the euphoria of the Atlanta 96 victory only for every team member to receive his except Coach Bonfrere Jo. For 30 years, he’s been begging Lagos state government to honour their promise, but no way. Bonfrere’s lawyer petitioned the Senate since November 6th,2025 but close to a year afterwards, the Senate hasn’t deemed it fit to look at his petition. Do you think the Presidency is not aware of Bonfrere’s dilemma? Why should the government of Tinubu call out Lagos state government over the issue, when he was a former governor of the state? Someone certainly stole the property. And the person must be fat within the Lagos government corridors, else he would have been exposed. So,the federal government is unarguably complicit in the matter.<\/p>\n
“And I am really ashamed that the same Senate President who can’t attend to such a petition for almost a year will turn around to call the national sports commission and Nigeria football federation, through the Senate Committee on Sports chaired by Senator Abdul Ningi to ask why is Nigeria football fortunes declining? Why should it not decline? How well have they treated those that sacrificed everything for the country before now? By giving them houses in Gwagwalada, right? By watching Lagos state maltreat Bonfrere, subject him to such a harrowing experience for 30 years? What remarkable efforts did the Senate, FG do in honour of late legends; Christian Chukwu, Stephen Keshi, Rashidi Yekini and Coach Onigbinde? What have they done to Femi Opabumi, the youngest Nigeria player to feature in the France 98 World Cup after becoming blind later on? Today ,the lad, at such young age begs for alms at the Adamasingba stadium in Ibadan? Why should a country that treat her heroes that way progress?<\/p>\n
“Didn’t you hear how much money, energy they dissipated in the recent Osun elections? Can they half such energy into our sports, the support base of our youths? Look at Tinubu? Does he have any special adviser on sports? Tell me if he has please and name the person, okay? That shows you how they value sports”, Eze said agonizingly.<\/p>\n
Suggesting how Nigeria football could return to its glorious ways, Eze emphasized the need for the federal government to, as a matter of urgency dialogue and appease both Westerhof and Bonfrere Jo, using the forthcoming national day as platform. Reallocate their Gwagwalada houses to anywhere in Abuja main town, compel Lagos State government to release Bonfrere’s property to him after 30 years, do something meaningful for the families of late legends; Christian Chukwu, Stephen Keshi, Rashidi Yekini, Sam Okwaraji, Coach Onigbinde and Femi Opabumi before cleaning up the NFF board and bringing in former players, with the knowledge, connections and desire to succeed.<\/p>\n
” In France 98 World Cup, Nigeria beat Spain 3-2. In 2010, Spain won the world cup. Did Nigeria qualify? In 2026, Spain won the world cup again. Did Nigeria qualify? Even the Super Falcons, the once pride of Africa women football couldn’t qualify for next year’s world Cup Brazil. what a shame”, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Anayo Akwiti, Abuja The media aide to former Nigeria Coach Bonfrere Jo, Eze Okechukwu has accused the federal government of allegedly being complicit in the maltreatment of the duo of former senior national team coaches; Clemence Westerhof and Bonfrere Johannes. Both expatriate coaches jointly built a formidable national team for Nigeria that won the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-law-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16894,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16893\/revisions\/16894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyechoes.ng\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}