Solomon Dalung says the federal government is planning something big for late Stephen Keshi’s children. The sports minister says the FG will elaborately invest in the children of the late tactician. The former coach died in Benin on June 8, 2016, after he was said to have complained of a leg ailment The Minister of Sports Solomon Dalung says the federal government still has plans to take care of the children of former Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi.
Speaking on Thursday, September 8, in Asaba, Dalung said the federal government delegated its role to the Delta state government during the burial ceremony due to paucity of funds. Former Super Eagles coach STEPHEN Keshi won the African Cup of Nations in 1994 as captain and 2013 as coach. The former coach died aged 54 in Benin after complaining of leg pain. The minister who spoke to newsmen after paying courtesy call to Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, said: “When we had the challenge of the paucity of funds which even characterize our preparation for Olympics, we engage the Delta state government to say look we are incapacitated by funds but you can play the role of a big brother for us.
A cross section of Stephen Keshi’s children (blue attire) during his burial in Illah “When we are able to get funds approved for us we could be investing on the children and the family because the man has gone and left a very great family. “Whatever the federal government approves would be elaborately invested on the children so that it can sustain them instead of going to organize a burial for people to come and eat and drink.
That was the wisdom in which we engaged the state government.” Before his death, Keshi became the second African and only Nigerian to win the Nations Cup as a player and as a coach after Egypt’s Mahmoud El-Gohary when he won the AFCON 1994 and 2013 respectively. He will be honoured by naming a stadium in Delta state in his name after completion of the project. His death came barely six months after his wife, Kate Keshi, 54, lost her three-year-long fight against the cancer sickness on December 9, 2015. Kate passed on at the family’s home in the United States of America. Keshi who died in Benin on June 8, was buried in his home town in Illah, Delta state with some key dignitaries from the football house missing.
