A SPEECH DELIVERED BY THE BOT CHAIRMAN OF THE STEPHEN KESHI FOOTBALL AND VOCATIONAL TRAINING CENTER (SKVTC) OBAZUWA, DR. LOUIS BROWN OGBEIFUN ON THE ANNUAL LECTURES IN HONOR OF STEPHEN KESHI, THE LEGEND, ON OCTOBER 11, 2024, WITH THE THEME “COACHING CONUNDRUM: PERSPECTIVES ON THE MANAGERIAL STATUS QUANDARY BETWEEN LOCAL AND FOREIGN COACHES”
On behalf of the Board of Trustees of the SKVTC, Obazuwa, I warmly welcome our esteemed Guests and Speakers to the 5th Stephen Keshi Memorial Lecture. We are deeply grateful for your presence here in Benin City, a city that Stephen Keshi loved and where he spent most of his productive life. Your participation underscores the significance of this event. It enriches our discussion on the theme of this year’s annual lecture, “Coaching Conundrum: Perspectives on The Managerial Status Quandary Between Local And Foreign Coaches.” Your insights and experiences are invaluable to us.
We are here gathered to honor a hero and a legend. Though we have been tortuous in birthing the Stephen Keshi project, we know we will soon overcome the teething problems. One of the reasons we are uncompromising in pursuing the dream of immortalizing Stephen Keshi is to reverse the culture of forgetting our sporting heroes once they exit their service stations. We aim to build a football and vocational training center to bring together past and present football legends in a hall of fame that would make a living believe in sacrificial services to the nation.
Secondly, we want to ensure that we cultivate a culture of regularly honoring and serving retired and forgotten sportsmen and women so that the younger generation knows there is virtue in service. The collective belief in these goals was the birth of the SKFVTC, a crucial initiative in preserving the legacy of our sports heroes and inspiring future generations.
The project was conceived as a public-private partnership project with the clear objectives of providing comprehensive football and vocational training, fostering a culture of respect and honor for sports
