Penultimate weekend, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) fired the chief coach of the national team, the Super Eagles, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, alluding to breaches of core terms of his contract.
Hired after the failure of the erstwhile gaffer, Samson Siasia, to qualify Nigeria for the Nations Cup Tournament jointly hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea in 2012, the “Big Boss” as Keshi is better known in the football circle was saddled with the onerous task of turning the fortunes of Nigerian football around following a string of failures that trailed the national team after the dismal outing at the South Africa 2010 World Cup that saw the Super Eagles exiting in the first round under the watch of a foreign technical adviser named Lars Lagerback, a Swede.
It was after Lagerback that Samson Siasia was engaged with the task of qualifying the national team for the 2012 AFCON. His inability to deliver earned him a sack and subsequently brought Keshi to the saddle with the mandate to earn the national team a qualification ticket for the 2013 AFCON held in South Africa. Keshi passed his first test and took the Super Eagles to South Africa. After lumbering through the first round of the tournament, the NFF led by Alhaji Aminu Maigari began to lose faith in the ability of the “Big Boss” to deliver.
So disillusioned was the leadership of the federation that it began the process of wooing the foreign technical adviser of Zambia’s Chipolopolo, Herve Reinhard, who were the tournament’s defending champions. But in a reversal of fortunes, the Super Eagles took the tournament by storm and emerged as the champions. That apparent loss of confidence sowed the seed of discord between the federation and the head coach.
However, the crisis was patched up and Keshi was allowed to continue with his job with the mandate to qualify the Super Eagles for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Finals staged in Brazil. Although the “Big Boss” was able to fly the Super Eagles into the round of 16, they eventually crashed out of the tournament in a manner that many blamed on the technical deficiency of the coaching crew besides the bonus crisis that dogged the team en route to Brazil.
After Brazil 2014, the NFF refused to renew Keshi’s contract in the midst of the controversy that engulfed the federation over the leadership succession tussle between the incumbent president, Amaju Pinnick and Chris Giwa. With Keshi eased out of his contract, former national team head coach, Shuaibu Amodu, was appointed to handle the team for the remaining qualifying matches of the Super Eagles for the 2015 AFCON held in Equatorial Guinea.
But Keshi reportedly lobbied the Presidency in order to return to the saddle. He was brought back to complete his assignment. At the end of the unfortunate saga, Nigeria finished second in its group and consequently lost the opportunity to be part of this year’s tournament as it was the case with the 2012 tournament.
After a long period of prevarication, the current leadership of NFF grudgingly re-engaged him with a mandate to qualify Nigeria for the 2017 AFCON.
With the exit of the Jonathan presidency, the NFF did not see the need to retain his services longer than necessary, and has decided to sack him, even though the 2017 AFCON qualifiers have already begun. The Stephen Keshi saga has come to an expected denouement, just like many other chief coaches before him.
And it marks the beginning of another era as the federation engages another former Super Eagles’ skipper and Keshi’s team mate, Sunday Oliseh, to replace him as head coach. According to feelers from the federation, the new gaffer would come with a foreign technical assistant whose job description would centre on development programmes.
He is also expected to work with clubs’ youth teams and certified football academies towards developing the game from the grassroots. However, Oliseh’s unveiling billed for today has been stalled by the National Sports Commission because the federation was said to have sidestepped due process in the recruitment exercise.
The NFF has been in the eye of the storm in the past half a decade since the dramatic exit of Sani Lulu’s beleaguered leadership after the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Consequently, Nigerian football has been the worse for it. Now, the current NFF’s management has finally picked the gaffer after its own heart.
But we have our reservations about the choice of Oliseh. If Keshi whose soccer pedigree is well known could end up the way he did, we wonder what fate would await his successor who is a relatively starter. As far as we know, the NF’s pet boy has not been tried and tested. He may have been certificated as a coach. However, football is about practicalities, and experience also plays a critical role. Oliseh lacks these essential attributes.
