The ex-Army Private and grass-root coach was with the Five (5) Battalion Infantry. His zeal to serve fatherland saw him go on a Peace Keeping Mission with NIBAT 28 to Sierra Leone.
Gwegwe in an interview with NaijaSportsXtra Rasaq Oboirien spoke on why the former NPL champions got relegated last season, hailed the League Management Company (LMC) for a well package football season, which saw Enyimba FC of Aba winning a record 7th title and other areas that need better organization.
Below is the excerpt of the interview:
NaijaSportsXtra: Coach could you please introduce yourself?
Gwegwe: I’m Ada Gwegwe an Assistant Coach with Bayelsa United and an ex-army Private. I left the Nigerian Army in year 2000.
How was the army like?
It’s a noble profession, and I must thank God that I am alive today. I went on a Peace Keeping mission to Sierra Leone (ECOMOG) for two years; it was a terrible experience which I really would not want to talk about. If I don’t tell people that I was once a soldier they don’t believe me. In a nut-shell, I was forced out of the army as I never intended to quit that early.
However, it was not a Peace Keeping Mission I experienced in Sierra Leone, as we were fighting both the Revolution United Front (RUF) and Sierra Leone soldiers who defected to the RUF.
You recall that the then government of Sierra Leonean was not having its own soldiers, so it was the ECOMOG that played the role as soldiers for the government, as we were defending them and fighting as well.
So it was not Peace Keeping, rather Peace Enforcement, as we were fighting the RUF and the dissident Sierra Leonean soldiers.
So it was really a terrible experience then, there were casualties, but the painful one was when I lost my best friend when the RUF invaded the capital, Freetown.
But as a soldier, who is on a mission and making his country proud, it was a feeling I would not have carried for too long, as we all have signed our death warrant when we joined the army.
However, my army experience too has helped me in my new career as a football coach.
As a young coach, how is coaching in the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) like?
I think it’s full of ups and downs and for those of us who started from the grass-root, that has come this far, it dream fulfilled.
Coaching ideally should be a passion but in Nigeria, some persons just venture into it to make money which they didn’t make in their former profession, while some are coaches as a result of frustration. This is one of the problems I have observed having met with other coaches.
You said your army experience has played a big role in your coaching career, could you please explain?
Yes, the army is about discipline and once you add it to your chosen career, I don’t see why you won’t excel. So my coaching is about discipline, if I say training starts by 9:00am, it won’t commence a minute before or after. This I have also imbibed in my players, as they too need to be disciplined, as once fame comes, its either you manage it well or it manages you.
Let’s talk on the standard of the Nigeria Premier League, are you satisfied with it?
I want to score the League Management Company (LMC) 90%. The results of last season were very fair, as we saw teams losing at home and some picking points on the road.
Harassment on match officials and hooliganism too reduced to the minimal, while fans too are beginning to support their various teams by coming to the stadia and buying replica jerseys too.
I also want to urge them to continue with this trend in the coming season, also they must see players and coaches welfare as key.
Bayelsa United got relegated, were did the ex-NPL winners get it wrong?
It was indeed a tough season for us and also a painful experience, however, we got relegated not because we didn’t have a good coaching crew or crop of players that can win games, and rather I think not playing in front of our fans at the Samson Siasia Stadium was the real setback for the team, as having our home games in Oghara, Delta State was like playing away from home.
If we had played at the Siasia Stadium, the players get results as they know they must do well in front of their fans or they become subject of criticism, unlike in Oghara were we hardly recorded 1000 fans even when the gates were thrown open by the management.
So am appealing to the incumbent Governor His Excellency to please fix the Samson Siasia pitch.
I know there are good football coaches in the Nigerian Army because I grew up partly in the barracks, so any word of advice to them now that the army is set to have a team in the lower division?
Like I said earlier, there is always an option in anything one does in life. Yes there are good coaches in the army but the truth is how many would want to leave for full time coaching or be a soldier at the same time a coach.
NaijaSportsXtra: Thank you very much, as it’s been a pleasure chatting with you.
Gwegwe: The pleasure is mine and you are most welcome.
