Former Nigeria Golden Eaglet goalie Emmanuel Babayaro, who represented Nigeria at the world under 17 championship made it known during a chat session with NSM, a group which has sports journalist and sports administrators as members that the team is yet to get all the things the government promised them after they won the world cup.
He said the then Head of Interim Government, Chief Ernest Shonekan promised each of them One hundred thousand nairas each, out of which fifty thousand were given out as cash and the remaining fifty thousand nairas is to be used in purchasing shares for each member in an oil company. It was gathered that the government also promised the team scholarship to further their education Babayaro said. ” First of all, nothing was heard about the scholarship neither was anything heard about the shares in the oil company”,
But the goal keeper confirmed that the then coach, Fani Amu was able to do something in that regard. “Many years ago Coach Fanny Amun reached out with shares in a paint company, it’s still there’. He told NSM.
He further enumerated everything given to them in total. “As for the second, If my memory serves me well, Chief Ernest Shonekan mentioned N100,000 largesse but said we were to be given N50,000 cash while the other 50,000 should be used to purchase shares in the oil company. So, N50,000 we got, but shares in the oil company never happened”. Babayaro concludes.
Emmanuel Babayaro is the elder brother of former Super Eagles and Chelsea of England defender, Celestine Babayaro. They were both parts of victorious 1993 Golden set which also have Kanu Nwankwo and Wilson Oruma as captain of the team.
The highly talented squad formed the bulk of the team that represented Nigeria at the football event of the Atlanta 96 Olympics which won Africa’s first Olympic gold medal in the football event.
