Rt Honourable Otuekong Nse Essien is the new elected board member of the Nigeria Football Federation, is also a current Member Akwa Ibom State House Assembly in this interview with Joel Ajayi spoke about his desire to build capacity, grassroots development, help the helpless, Nigeria league challenges amongst other.

You are the proprietor of a football club FC One Rocket playing in the National league. Can you tell us what led you to that?

I am not just into the National professional side, I also have an academy that grooms players to the main team, FC One Rocket and by the grace of God the club is not doing badly, we are trying to give the young people an opportunity to exhibit their God giving talent.

Life is about having a platform to exhibit what you can do in life and that is what we do for the young people.

How long have you been sponsoring this team or funding this team?

Over four years, I have been funding the club and academy.

What motivated you in pushing this project?

The desire to develop the young people and give them the opportunity to become whatever they want to become in life and also looking at football globally as a business.

Basically, no one wants to put his money where there is no benefit. Look at a player like Victor Oshimen, six years ago nobody expected him to be where he is today, he had an opportunity and today he was transferred for over 70 million euros, which is big for him.

Can you estimate how much this project has cost you in the last four years?

I can’t, it’s running into millions of naira to sustain a team, take care of the players, payment of salaries for over 50 staff and all that,  it’s huge, medical, feeding and the rest.

You have been grooming players, what is your focus for them, to play in the national team, club in abroad or what?

My focus is not just one player, I have players in the national team, my player Daniel Daka, an assistant captain of Nigeria team at the just concluded WAFU tournament In Niger.

So, my duty is to groom them, and expose them to Nigeria and the world at large.

And I would expect that revenue will come when these players are being transferred which will go a long way to help others to grow.

How is football and its economy coming to you in Akwa Ibom State?

We have been successful in transferring players overseas, a lot of young players want to come to my team because they know the platform we are giving to them.

Definitely, if one is earning money it will at least affect the father, mother, wife and relatives in one way or the other.

So, what we do is to encourage society. It’s also a known fact that anytime there is a football match the crime rates in the society reduce all over the world, football goes beyond barriers, tongue and ethnicity and so everybody comes together. It also goes beyond just the economic aspect of it, maybe you have people angry at home and one big match is going on, it will definitely reduce stress of such people in the society.

As a proprietor of FC One Rocket in Nigeria league, what is your target for the club?

Let me tell you, I envy people like Kunle Soname, who is my model, I want to be like him, look at the facilities he provided for the CAF Cup, I want to be like him, have such magnificent stadiums and also be able to go to Africa.

My desire for the club is to be in the premier league and even represent Nigeria in the continent of Africa. I am not here to play a second fiddle, not at all.

How would you describe your experience in the Nigeria league?

Actually it’s not very encouraging, that is why people like us came to NFF so we can also directly contribute our quota.

I travel to all match venues, except where we have security challenges, I go to all matches and when you go there, you are not encourage with what you seen, I don’t expect that we must win at all cost at home, that is why some of our teams are not doing well in the continent, my position is, let the better team win, once there is no cheating, syndrome of winning at all cost doesn’t help our league.

What would you attribute to be the major cause of these?

Fund, sponsorship and league should be on TV, I don’t Feel Okay, when I see the league like the Zambia league and other countries on TV, they are not lesser countries, but with their population they are lesser than us. Population of over 200 million people and our league is not on TV, is not encouraging at all.

So, funding is a problem, I think with people like us coming on board we will try and make sure that we have sponsorship not just for the league but for the National team.

With what we saw in Niger Republic, there is no doubt all eyes will be on your player Daniel Daga, how has it been managing him toward  putting his head down to be another star for Super Eagles Players?

Daniel is a gift to Nigeria, he is next generation of footballers that Nigerian are expecting, he is cooled headed, I am managing him directly, he stay with me, he is young boy I don’t allow his fame to enter his brain, the parent handed him over to me, so I am grooming him directly, I am not living him for anyone to influence in negatively.

Now that you have the opportunity to be on the NFF board. What will be your contribution to Nigerian football?

By the grace of God, I am bringing capacity that is the truth, we will bring integrity as well as grassroots development . That is why I have an academy, like I said earlier, my academy supplies most players. So these younger people are there in the rural and urban areas. There is a need for us to give them a platform.

I remember in the past, we use to have what we called the principal cup, where secondary schools are gathered across the state, this are kind of things I am reinventing in Akwa Ibom state, and I will also try to encourage the leadership of the federation to look into, thankfully NFF President have said he will not play with grassroots development.

We need to go back to the era when we had a state league, state league is not functioning anymore, I wish to also have a Governor’s cup in my state, and these are the kinds of things I want to encourage.