My first big shocker in my years following Nigerian football was in 1985, when, as a secondary school student, I watched in dismay as the Nigerian league ended and the organisers were unsure who was the top scorer.
While, Davidson Owumi who played for Sharks claimed he ended as top scorer with 9 goals, Efosa Osayi of NNB FC was so sure he had scored 10 goals. This scandal I followed led me to start keeping records of Nigerian football.
In my search for knowledge of Nigerian football, I became a voracious reader of materials. I would not miss Complete Football Magazine. I would also not miss the Nigerian Soccer Digest and the back pages of almost every Nigerian newspaper I could lay my hands on. I digested everything I could about Nigerian football.
That was how I read that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) had increased tickets for the 1977 World Cup Qualifying game in Lagos between Nigeria and Tunisia causing the team to be booed by its fans who were angry they had to pay more.
I also read about how the NFF “retired” a lot of the players that won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980 because, wait for it, they were too old and decided to build a new team, leading Nigeria to the worst ever Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title defence in 1982.
Do not forget that in the same 1985, I followed how the NFF suspended/ banned 5 Eagles players in the heat of the World Cup Qualifiers- Wilfred Agbonivbare, Stephen Keshi, Sunday Eboigbe, Bright Omokaro, Henry Nwosu to the Eagles at that time was like banning today, Stanley Nwabali, William Troost Ekong, Calvin Bassey, Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman. Who does that, and why? The players were one day late to camp.
In 1989, with the Super Eagles coached by Paul Hamilton, they were having a good run in the 1990 World Cup Qualifiers until some NFF members in cahoots with Sports Editors based in Lagos began to sell the idea of a foreign coach to Nigerians. With an interview done just before the away game against Gabon, and with the new coach present in that game, we lost to Gabon, 2-1 but the loss also had a lot to do with the amount of indiscipline in the team and Hamilton losing the dressing room. The World Cup in 1990 was gone.
Between 1994, after the World Cup and 1998, the next World Cup, the Super Eagles had four coaches- Shaibu Amodu, Monday Sinclair, Phillipe Troussier and Bora Milutinovic. What a disaster that would make any saner person wonder the kind of characters that run Nigerian football.
Those who run Nigerian football have never been able to manage offices that they fought hard to get into.
As it was yesterday, so it is today, and forever more.
There will be no need to itemise all the failings of the Nigeria Football Federation from the very day it was formed until the present. That will be too much text to read in 7 minutes.
But one clear thing is that this is simply the case of a Shepherd, or one who calls himself a shepherd not being able to take care of his sheep. This is the curious case of the Nigeria Football Federation. A group of men, who once every four years, fight with their lives to run Nigerian football, yet, when they get the opportunity, do not have the faintest idea how to do the simplest of tasks.
The way the current leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation have handled their most prized possession, the Super Eagles makes this quote come readily to my mind- “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces,”
The sad testament of Nigerian football is the fact that from as far back as we can remember, we gave our football pearls to swine, and see where it has led us.
How difficult a simple task is made to look
When Gernot Rohr was sacked some years back, a lot of us were very happy to see his back. But the NFF that sacked him acted like the idiot who was made king and took decisions without first thinking them through. It seemed like they did not plan for life after Rohr and they appointed Austin Eguavoen in caretaker capacity, setting him up to fail. He did fail.
When Jose Peseiro was eventually hired and ran out his contract in February 2024, the NFF acted as though they had no idea that the contract would expire just after the AFCON. With World Cup Qualifying games coming up in June, the NFF failed to get a replacement coach and first appointed Finidi George in a caretaker capacity for two friendly games in March, and then making him a substantive coach in May, less than one month the games. They were setting Finidi up to fail, and he did fail.
In June 2024, Finidi George resigned as Super Eagles coach, four months before the AFCON Qualifiers begin in September. It is two weeks to the game and the NFF is yet to give the Eagles a coach, either substantive or in a caretaker capacity.
In four months, Jose Peseiro (Him again?), Eric Chelle, Tom Sainfait, Herve Renard, Steve McClaren, Jannie Andersson, Antonio Conceicao and Samson Siasia have been linked to the job. The case of Samson Siasia is amusing because he has been serving a worldwide ban and has not been part of football activities for five years.
Then the insulting one is the case of Ivorien-born Malian, Eric Chelle being tipped to coach the Super Eagles. Any NFF board member who conceived this idea needs to be banned from having anything to do with Nigerian football for life. A Malian? An Ivorien? Chiokike ikwe (God forbid)
It is less than two weeks to the AFCON Qualifiers and with no coach, the NFF is possibly planning to set another coach up to fail, most likely Austin Eguavoen again, Samson Siasia, or their regular Salisu Yusuf.
For those of you who have watched Nigerian football for forty years, thirty years, twenty years, or even the past five years, you will see that our administration is riddled with chaos caused by incompetence, or a lack of will too succeed, but why do we continue hoping that things will change? It is the fact that we are Nigerian, and are bound by birth to support the Super Eagles.
If only our administrators realised the enormity of the task in front of them. Then again, the question has always been that when they bought forms to contest the elections, did they think it was a tea party?
This is not an attack on the person of Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau and his team. He is a very good friend and I respect friendship a lot. But regarding how they have piloted Nigerian football, it is an epic fail. Disaster pro-max as the younger generation will say.
And please, do not cancel my name from the list to travel for the Super Eagles away game in October. Open Rebuke is better than hidden love!
