By Peter Duru in Makurdi
Former BCC Lions FC   skipper, and one time,  Super Eagles playmaker, Moses Kpakor spoke to Vanguard’s , where he bared his mind on nagging football issues.
Excerpts:

How is life after retirement?
Well, a lot has changed since then because in this part of the world when you are no longer entertaining on the field and you are not fortunate enough you will never be heard of again or remembered. Anyway, I’m grateful to God that wherever I go there are still a few people who remember me and would readily appreciate me for what I did for country through football, and that is a valuable consolation for me
How would you compare your days as a footballer and now?
In our days, most of us stubbornly became footballers because our parents did not want us to play football but wanted us to be 100% dedicated to our studies. And that in a way built into us the resistance, determination and the never say die attitude to success against all odds.
They failed to realize that the game brought great joy to us. But today the reverse is the case as parents are the ones encouraging their children to play the game but unfortunately a great number of them prefer other careers even though they are good at football.
In addition, we were boys who all started the game in the streets and thereafter in the primary and secondary school schools before landing big clubs, and that is the power of ideal progression. That reminds me of a personal experience in the national team. You see, I was first invited to the national team in 1982 but could not make it even though I was a bit good with just a few more years.
I was again called up in 1984 and 1986, but still could not play for Nigeria . But behold, came 1989 when I captained BCC Lions FC to the F.A.  Cup victory over Iwuanyanwu National in Bauchi with that excellent performance, “The captain’s stuffâ€. And finally in 1990, at the ECOWAS Cup in Bauchi I wore the green white green colours for the first time after eight years of patient apprenticeship. That is how to develop players. In most cases and most of us were developed in this manner, but how many of our players today would be ready to wait that long? Every body wants to be invited into camp to play for Nigeria despite their inexperience.
Like I said earlier, we were footballers who combined the game with academics and that also helped us in no small measure in assimilating what our games masters and later our coaches taught us. We were also taught to be disciplined irrespective of one’s ingenuity and we were warned that players who lack discipline do not go very far in the game, and we used to see a lot of them and learnt to be humble.
We were also held accountable for poor results in our days and it gave us added determination to approach the next game with seriousness in order to prove ourselves, but unfortunately, today the coaches are the ones held responsible for the team’s poor showing and this has made today’s players innocent of the outcome of a match that they played for 90 minutes.
Compare the Eagles of your time and now…
Just as I earlier on observed, there is always a battle between the past and the present, and throughout history it has been proved that it is the present that fights a losing battle because it is the past that helped to improve both the present and the future. Most of the past national footballers had played at the top level in the local league and had the opportunity of playing continental football against the best of teams on the continent and were enormously exposed and experience too.
Today we have players that don’t have any experience of African football and whenever they are on national duty against teams like Cameroon , Togo , Tunisia etc, and they do not have the slightest idea of the natural or typical Togolese football.
Again, because most of us played together and played against each other for a long time, we were able to understand our different strengths and weaknesses and even when others went abroad, whenever they came for national duties that bond was still intact. Our players today did not play together and most of them are training together just four days to a game and after the game they are gone to their respective leagues. That is why I would always voice
for a home based Supper Eagle, but I think we have not been serious about it yet.
The home based Eagles would also want to play abroad and how would you deal with that?
Quite simple, in principle I agree, but I know that in reality it’s not going to be easy. That not withstanding, we all need to honestly come together in tacking this issue because there are no longer stars in the league compared to our days. Your league can only attract serious investment if there are stars in it, at that point all investors would not be able to resist investing in it.
One way is for government to do something about the decree 101 and after that the Nigeria Football Federation NFF and the Nigeria Football League NFL would both sit together and come out with ideas that would protect the Nigerian player form the European football slavery.
For example, we could come out with an age limit that a player would get to before he can play abroad, or the number of years a player should attain before he will be free to play abroad. But these laws must not be seen to be violating the right of anyone. I am only giving an example which could be in the right direction for our football, for the clubs and for the players too.
Let me give an example, John Mikel Obi went to Manchester United and I am aware of a lot of things that happened, but unfortunately at the end of the saga both Manchester United and Oslo Club got a whopping ?15m from Chelsea as compensation. This money ordinarily should have gone to Plateau United who owned Mikel. Why would these two European clubs cheat Nigerian football of what belonged to us? Because there is no legislation in place and I believe it is about time something is done in that direction.
Having played under Amodu, do you think he is good enough for the Eagles?
For me, Amodu Shaibu is the best active coach in this country at the moment and his credentials are always there for anyone to see, especially his critics. I know there are some of the opinions that because Amodu did not play for the national team and for that reason he lacks the tactical know-how to handle the Eagles.
Reasons like these are just sentimental and they cannot be found in any football book.
Anyone of us who played for this country knows in his heart that there were better players than him who did not have the chance to play for the national team. We were only privileged that a particular coach liked our style and not because we were better so why would anyone of us come out today to think he was better than another player simply because he did not play for the national team?
On reflection, in any country you would always see players that really had nothing to do with their national team football, but they were eventually there, simply because the coach saw one thing in him that he liked and not because he was the best to man that wing in the country.
So, for some of us who were privileged to play under Amodu, we have no doubt about his tactical ability, knowledge of football and his personal level of education which has earned him numerous laurels.
Remember that Amodu was the first coach that won the modern day F A Cup for Northern Nigeria in 36 years when BCC Lions beat Iwuanyanwu Nationale 1-0 in 1989. Prior to this time, Kano xi had won the trophy in 1953 when it was called the Governor’s Cup.
Amodu also became the first indigenous coach to win the African Cup of winners’ cup in 1990 when the legendary BCC Lion of Gboko roared to a convincing victory 3-0 home win and 1-1 away draw. Nigeria ’s previous winners were IICC Shooting Stars in 1976 and Rangers International in 1977, but both teams were then coached by foreign coaches.
Amodu also won the African Cup of Winners runner_up medal in 1991 and added three more FA Cup trophies to his Kitty; El_Kanemi Warriors, 1992 and BCC lions 1993 and 1994, and also one league title 1994 and three super cups in 1990, 1994 and 1995.
More than that, Amodu became the first Nigerian coach to qualify this country for the world cup in 2002. In fact, that particular qualification was historic because it came at a time that everybody in this country gave up hope and the expatriate coach, Bonfere Joe was sacked.
This was the only time in my life that I saw our great country lose hope.
But thanks to Amodu Shaibu we were finally there, even though he himself was not to appear there. Does anyone remember that it was Amodu Shaibu who assembled the Atlanta 96 team from the beginning to the last minute? Before I forget, Amodu won this country a third place in Mali 2000 in his first attempt at the tournament.
I don’t think that  someone with such credentials and enormous experience could be a mediocre as some people are suggesting. To conclude on Amodu, let me say that he has been very consistent and that is why today he stands as the only coach who has been saddled with national responsibility on three
different occasions and by three different football boards.
What is your view on the Presidential Task Force for the Super Eagles?
Honestly, I think the Nigeria Football Federation needs every support and concentration to finish up the good job they have started since the departure of German coach, Berti Vorts. For the task force I express my profound support for them and I thank Mr. President for his vision which has shown that he has interest in football and he is also concerned. which makes it more commendable.
But from the look of things it’s like this good vision of Mr. President may at last prove to be the bullet that has shot down the Eagles as some of the members of the task force are already claiming credit for themselves to some extent and this is glaringly turning the vision into a distraction for the Nigeria Football Federation.
So my personal and candid advice to the force is for  them to function quietly in anticipation of when the President would call them and say to them “thank youâ€Â for a job well done, that would be their day of honour and pride, but not what is presently happening in the camp of  our rejuvenated Super Eagles. And to the NFF, they should remain focused and not lose concentration bearing in mind that anything of such could be disastrous.