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After 24 years of
football reporting, I genuinely thought I’d earned passage into the
exclusive club of hardened, experienced and weather-beaten hacks that
couldn’t be surprised or shocked by any story exposing the game’s
underbelly.

But the revelation
that Eucharia Uche, coach of the Falcons, the reigning African women’s
champions, has been without a wage from her employers, the Nigerian
Football Federation (NFF), for 21 months, has unexpectedly left me in
utter shock. It is a disgustingly new low, even for us.

It is a
catastrophic sign of the depth of decay in our football, and indeed our
national psyche, inured to the ill-treatment meted out to our people,
on a daily basis, that barely a whimper has resulted from the expose of
Oluwashina Okeleji, the BBC reporter who uncovered the scandal.

Sani Lulu, the
previous NFF chairman – currently under criminal indictment – and his
board, who never denied themselves, for a moment, the perquisites (or
is it the egunje?) of office, had no problems giving $1.5m to a white
European coach, Lars Lagerback, for a World Cup debacle that left
Nigerians humiliated and bitter.

But the Lulu-led
NFF, which hired Uche, a former Nigeria international, just couldn’t be
bothered to pay her? Or Uche’s former assistants, Ann Chiejine and
Idris Gidado, recently sacked without an explanation?

What happened to the money that was, certainly, budgeted for the payment of her salary and that of her assistants?

The silence of the
current NFF board, also complicit in this mess, as they have not paid
Uche a kobo of her wages since they assumed office last August – seven
months ago – is deafening.

A few weeks ago, a
frustrated head coach of one of the youth national teams, in a brutally
frank conversation with me, had no qualms about firing salvos at his
employers.

“Apart from the
Super Eagles, which the NFF sees as their cash cow, they don’t give a
daaaamn (emphasis his) about any of the other national teams!” “Is
football in Nigeria just about the Super Eagles? These guys just don’t
understand that all the national teams deserve to be properly treated
and respected,” he said, his words coming with a huge dollop of
bitterness.

But the biggest
question, for me anyway, is why Uche, known as ‘Abacha’, for her
ruthless enforcement of team discipline, keeps mute over the
unpardonable crime being committed against her.

Is it because she
is frightened of the callously cold hands of unemployment? Or is she
gripped by an inferiority complex, from a purported lack of polish and
finesse, rendering her impotent in the face of her unfeeling, uncaring
employers?

A key member of the
current NFF board, in a chat with me on the competence of Uche as
coach, made it clear he had little regard for her abilities, claiming a
lack of tactical nous made her a liability for June’s World Cup finals
in Germany.

“The only reason
Uche remains in charge is that Nigerians will not accept her removal
after winning the African Championship,” he said.

While I share some
of his reservations about Uche’s ability to manage the Falcons to a
credible position at Germany 2011, what is not in question is her right
to be treated with dignity and respect, as long as she is in the employ
of the NFF.

And what is also
not in doubt is the right of Nigerian coaches to receive fair and
decent treatment from the country of their birth, which they have
faithfully served.

Make no mistake, I
have issues with the technical incompetence of many (note I said many,
not all) Nigerian coaches. But does that mean the NFF should treat them
with contempt? Surely, a labourer in their willing employ, as the old
adage goes, deserves her pay?

What’s good for the
European coaches the NFF recruits – decent working conditions and the
prompt payment of wages – is also appropriate for their Nigerian
colleagues.

If Nigerians have no respect for their fellow citizens, how will the
rest of the world respect us? It is time to end this long harmattan of
self-hatred.