To be fair to Okorocha, he wasn’t the one that authorized my removal as Heartland FC GM
Fan Ndubuoke
In this concluding part of an interview conducted by Chris Abiaziem and Gele Agbai, Chief Fan Ndubuoke, a renowned figure in sports journalism and administration opens up on his removal as GM Heartland FC Owerri while on his hospital bed following a ghastly motor accident he had while sweating for the club.
He also reveals his other life experiences. Excerpts:
Lagos SWAN poll
I was chairman Imo State chapter of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria SWAN. During my tenure, we did a lot of stuff. As soon as I relocated to Lagos, members swooped on me to replicate the things we did in Imo State. Everybody was rooting for me. But I didn’t know the politics of Lagos SWAN well.
They requested I picked Olu as my secretary. Being new in Lagos, I needed someone who had contacts. Yemi Ojo had it and I decided to use him.
The second reason I rejected Olu was his dress code. Meanwhile the Edo/Delta axis in SWAN had drafted Emeka Odikpo into the race. At the poll, I scored 52 votes while Odikpo garnered 54 votes to win. Those who wanted quality were disappointed. Though I felt the loss but I never knew it was a divine orchestration because late 1990, crisis hit national SWAN and its executive was impeached. I was listening to the radio at 4:00pm and heard the story of the impeachment and constitution of a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the organization. Surprisingly, I heard my name as a member of the committee.
Weeks after the Lagos SWAN election, all state chairmen went to Ibadan for a convention. At the convention, it was resolved that no state chairman will contest for the position of chairman of national SWAN. They also zoned the position to Lagos.
We were four that campaigned from Lagos but at a point national said they wouldn’t allow Lagos to just pick anyone for the position. We were asked to come to Kaduna.
I had to travel by road to Kaduna. At the manifesto night I made my presentation and retired to my hotel room. But at 3:00pm Ndidi Okafor who speaks Hausa fluently woke me up. He was surprised I was sleeping. I was truly tired. He told me the North said they wanted someone who would be transparent and accountable; one who would agree to the North producing his successor. I said why not. That was how I won. Initially, I felt bad that I lost the Lagos SWAN poll but if I had won, I would not have been eligible for national SWAN election.
NFA presidency
In 2010, I presented myself for the Nigeria Football Association NFA presidency. The Mafia there had a different idea. I was able to get the required endorsement of three zonal chairmen. Amaju Pinnick (South/South); FA chairmen in Kwara and Kaduna endorsed my nomination form. You know apart from your state, you must these nominations to contest. The kind of money involved was huge. The expression of interest form then was N200000 which I paid. I discovered they had made up their mind on who was going to be the chairman.
But there was a live television programme all the contestants took part in. I didn’t know Gov Ikedi Ohakim watched it.
Work as GM Heartland FC
After some few days, my phone rang and it was Longers Anyanwu. He told me he was calling on behalf of His Excellency Chief Ikedi Ohakim; that the governor wanted to see me and that it was urgent. At our meeting at a hotel in Abuja, Gov Ohakim said he wanted me to take over Heartland FC; that he watched my presentation during the TV programme and he felt I was the right man to salvage Heartland FC. I had to travel to Owerri to meet with some aides of the governor after which we started work. I discovered certain things in the club. 60 per cent of the players were not owned by the club. They were owned by officials of the team. So if you succeed in selling any player, 60% of the proceeds would go to the real owners while the club gets 40 percent. Majority of the players were also on loan.
I looked at the feeder team and found out that some of the players were 32 and 28 years old. It was shocking. I had to disband the team and recruited young players. Unfortunately, we didn’t do well in the league that year; we were retooling the team then came the 2011 general elections and Dr Ohakim lost.
Retaining the position after Ohakim was difficult. Many people angled for the position. There was a day I traveled to Ogboko where Gov Rochas Okorocha was operating from then and I saw a whole lot of people who had come to seek my position. Prince Eze Madumere(God bless him) intervened when the pressure was much on Gov Okorocha to replace me.
Prince Madumere did a lot of things for me. He interfaced many times with the governor to ensure the club didn’t die. What also endeared me to the Governor was when I briefed him that the club had just received its TV rights amounting to 300,000 dollars. The money boosted the morale of the governor to see the need not to rest the club because he was thinking where the money to run the club would come from.
Herculean task
Managing Heartland FC under Rochas was truly a Herculean task. There were times I would take money from Mr Fans Fast Foods to enable the club honour matches. Prince Madumere would approve such expense. At that time, the annual budget of the club was N8 million. You won’t believe it but that was what it was.
Before matches, I would sign cheques of N500,000 and tell the players that it would be theirs if they won. It was not part of their allowance or salary. At the FA Cup final in 2011, the boys trusted me and did me and the state proud by beating Enyimba FC of Aba to lift the cup. Governor Okorocha who was not giving us money had to charter a flight filled with politicians to watch the final. When we won, he was so happy that he confessed on national TV that he had not been giving money to the club. In his usual razzmatazz, he said when he returned to Owerri, it would be money, money, money.
There was a roadshow by the team at Owerri with the governor. There was also a state banquet. But did Okorocha fulfill his promise of money, money, money? No.
I want to thank Prince Madumere. He helped the team. He wrote letters making case for improved funding for the team. I had to investigate to find out what the subventions of other teams were. Abia Warriors was getting N28million while Warri Wolves got N32million. Enyimba and Rangers were getting N30m plus. But ours was N8million. I did a memo for increased subvention for Heartland FC
We also won the 2012 FA Cup. I had eliminated players on loan. I would also sit during trials to ensure the team recruited only qualified players purely on merit. I would co-opt three coaches and made them to sit differently to help mark the performances of players during trials. At the end of the trials, only players that got pass marks from the three coaches got hired.
The Gabonese team played us 1-1 at home and my boys assured me they were going to beat the Gabonese at their home soil. But we couldn’t get money on time to travel. We were on air when they walked over us. But Prince Madumere kept pushing for increased subvention to the team. But the time the improved subvention was approved in 2014, I was no longer the GM so I never presided over the money.
To be fair, Okorocha was not aware of my removal. There were two government officials who requested for certain favours like recruiting their people as players. One of them brought 23 players for recruitment. I couldn’t grant their request because the players they put forward for recruitment into the team were not good. So, they released a statement announcing the removal of chairmen of boards of paradtatals. But I wasn’t the chairman of Heartland FC. Heartland FC had no board then. But my name was included. At the time, I was in the hospital nursing the severe injuries which I sustained during a ghastly motor accident while working for the team. I have had seven surgeries in Lagos, United States and Germany on my left leg.
This was my journey at Heartland FC. Mr Fans Fast Foods closed because of Heartland FC. Since then, I have been watching Imo State; I have been watching Heartland FC. I have nothing to say.
