JAY JAY’S AMBITIONS SELFISH – ESELEMO
Austin 'Jay Jay' Okocha
Nigeria's World Cup formerskipper, Austin 'Jay Jay' Okocha, is gunning for a seat on the board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) only for his selfish reasons. According to a patron of Association of Professional Footballers of Nigeria (APFON), Collins Eselemo, Okocha has done nothing for Nigerian footballers and he is rather running for a seat on the NFF executive board for “his own personal goal.
“All what Okocha has done were for his selfish reasons. He should tell the world what he has done to advance the lot of Nigerian footballers,” Eselomo said.
“Is it the talent hunt he did on behalf of a bank? Before him, John Fashanu pocketed more than N200 million for doing that. Jay Jay should tell us how much he put in his pocket.”
Eselemo continued: “He and (Segun) Odegbami were members of the Presidential Task Force (PTF), who wrongly advised the president to commit executive recklessness by trying to withdraw the country from international football for two years.
“Yet, these are the same ones who, rather than hide their faces in shame, have picked forms to contest elections for a sport that they wanted to kill for their selfish motives. They do not want to serve.”_
Eselemo further disclosed that he has been in the forefront for an improvement on the lot of Nigerian footballers by his morale and financial support for the players' association as well as championing a case for players of the defunct Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) to be paid their entitlements.
He said that it was not true that Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Iduaghan, has endorsed Okocha ahead of him to represent Delta State in the NFF polls.
“I expect the Delta State government to refute those false claims very soon,” said the man, who at a tender age of 15 was on the board of trustees of Eselomo Diamonds FC of Warri, who later metamorphosed into Sharks FC of Port Harcourt.
Last week, Okocha took a swipe at football administrators in Nigeria, accusing them of looting and taking the game backwards. He said that was why he was standing for the NFF elections.