The INFORMANT247
12/03/2018
By: Ayodeji Ismail
One of the laudable Achievements of the Governor Abdul Fatah Ahmed led administration in Kwara State, Particularly in the Area of Sports was the Promotion of Kwara United Football Club into the Nigeria’s top Flight league NPFL after their two Consecutive years in the Lower division.
The Promotion brought the most anticipated Joy and happiness not only to the football lovers but the entire Sporting fraternity who have been thirsty of seen Harmony Boys playing in the Nigeria professional football League. The expectations of the stakeholders from Kwara United in terms of Performance and sustainance of Status quo in the Current league season is very high Considering their Contributions towards their elevation but reverse is the case as they are currently seating in the bottom of the League table after Match day twelve with just eleven points.
The Ugly incident started with home defeat in the North Central derby against Niger Tornadoes of Minna in the match Day-1 where victory and triumph was expected and anticipated by the fans, Spectators but they lost suffered in the hands of the visitors (Tornadoes) raised questions from the fans to technical crew about their preparedness for the challenges and battles ahead, to make matter worst, Kwara United lost three Matches in a row which Prompted the Stakeholders including Journalists to express displeasure and doubt in the ability of Obuh led Coaching crew to maintain the team’s status in the League. Some followers of the team later vindicated Obuh from their Submissions that he was never the problem of the Club but Government inadequate attention played a significant role in the misfortune bedeviling the Club.
From the Investigation recently carried out on the team, it was revealed that Players were not Motivated as expected and with no adequate and enough Motivation from the concerned authority, Disaster and poor Outing will be the order of the day or what did we expect from a player taken Pap and bean cake beside drainage as meal to Play ninety Solid minutes on the pitch Compared to a Counterpart taken full Chicken with fried rice who plays the same duration? You cannot give what you don’t have. Apart from poor meal arrangement, Salary, bonus and other emoluments were not attractive compared to what is obtainable in other Clubs. Segun Alebiosu left Kwara United for tornadoes because he was owed two seasons arrears and was not even seen sign that it will be paid on time. He is doing well for Minna side now, providing assists and scoring on a weekly basis, its a bitter lesson learnt from our poor vision of not distinguishing between NNL and NPFL.
If truly Kwara United must be rescued from the looming frustration and imminent catastrophic exit from the NPFL, Government Should whole heatedly accept to take full responsibility of both the players and Officials through regular payment of salary, match bonus and other allowances without further delay, this should be priorities considering the hazardous nature of their job as they travel to all nooks and Crannies of the Country all in the name of honouring their NPFL matches. We must not allowed some disgruntled elements to jeopardize our efforts or loose our hard earned ticket to the apex league through their dubious act of milking players of their allowances and salary as alleged by Some players, hence the need for Proper Monitoring on how money exchange hands wrongfully. Failure to do the needful will amount to loosing the best out of the players we are parading presently to more Formidable, focused and articulate teams in the second stanza of the League ,yes that’s the irony of Competition.
If our sport loving Governor has no chance of watch the home ties of the Club due to exigency of duty, I want to urge him to delegate that duty to SSG, Chief of Staff and other Powerful government officials, doing so will create sense of belonging and motivate the players to do their best while on the field of Play. Rewarding players with certain amount on the goals Score both in home or away game will further encourage them to bring about desire result.
The Present Misfortunes of Kwara united can only turn to Fortunes only if Government intervene with aforementioned solutions and others that has been Suggested by Stakeholders. I want to see Kwara united that we shall all be proud of not a team that will give us a disastrous result and heart attack on a weekly outing. I want to see Kwara United of Olden days, of yesteryears that is synonymous with good football not otherwise.
Government must as a matter of urgency do the needful to avert looming relegation. Wishing them best of luck in their remaining Outings.