Samson Omeruah

Samson Emeka Omeruah (14 August 1943 in Zaria, Northern Nigeria – 4 December 2006) was an air commodore of the Nigerian Air Force,^[1] a former governor of Anambra State and a former three-time Minister for Information, Youth, Sport and Culture in Nigeria during the regimes of Buhari, Sani Abacha and Abdulsalam Abubakar.

He was once the chairman of Nigeria Football Association - Nigeria's top football governing body and still regarded as its most successful Chair. He was also the minister for Sports when the Nigerian Golden Eaglets took home the FIFA under 17 world championship cup. He returned to the position in 1994, in time to see the Green Eagles make their first World Cup and win the 1996 Olympic gold medal. He was one of the proponents of privatizing the game in Nigeria and removing control from state governments.

Apart from this, he championed the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) programme of the Buhari regime between January 1983 and August 1985. He was a committed Christian of the Methodist faith and earned a PhD from the University of Lagos in addition to degrees from Punjab University, India and Auburn University in the United States.

Omeruah had four children and the second of these is Chioma Omeruah aka Chigul who is a linguist and a comedian despite her fathers insistence that she took law as her career.^[2]

He died in London after a brief illness.^[1]

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