kayode OGUNDARE @kaybaba99
Amaju Pinnick, president of the Nigeria Football Federation sounded the death knell for indigenous coaches when he declared with magisterial finality that Sunday Oliseh, who threw in the towel penultimate Thursday, has all but closed the door on Nigerian coaches as none of them will ever have the opportunity to get Nigeria’s top football job. At least, he inferred, for as long as he will have anything to say about it.
Pinnick chose faraway United States to make this pontifical declaration and is quoted as saying: “After this Sunday Oliseh debacle, we have definitely turned the corner. We are now going to start shopping for a well-grounded and qualified foreign coach to tinker the team. Enough is enough. What we have learnt is that there is a world of difference between being a good coach and being a good manager.”
The first thing that will strike an observer, on hearing Amaju’s faux pas, was to wonder if he doesn’t have media minders or probably if he listens to his publicists at all.
What Amaju means, or unwittingly inferred by that statement, is that no Nigerian has been found worthy of that position, including the incumbent who’s holding the position although in interim capacity.
There’s no disincentive to hardwork than that. You cannot do worse than that if you want to de-motivate and demoralize someone you’ve given a job to do.
Though I’m not unaware that the Federation has been making frantic efforts to retract that gaffe by saying Siasia could get the job permanently afterall but anyone who’s discerning enough will know this is just the latest in a long line of cock-ups by the establishment.
According to news credited to the chairman of the Technical and Development Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation, Barrister Chris Green, Nigerians should rest assured that Siasia would be bag the job on a permanent basis were he to satisfactorily perform his function, mainly getting the better of Egypt and ultimately nicking the ticket to Gabon 2017.
’Yes, it is true. We have no choice than to elevate him to the position of chief coach of the Eagles’’, Barrister Green reportedly confirmed.
Pardon my pessimism but Green’s statement, rather than allay my worries concerning Siasia, comes across as vacuous, vague and lacks a binding force.
It looks like the current leadership of the NFF is determined to hire a foreigner, no matter the decibel of opposition to that plan. I’m under the impression that the plan did not just come up as a result of the ‘Oliseh debacle’, as Amaju not-so delicately put it.
As a matter of fact, the foreign manager would have been employed whether or not Oliseh did well. That he played into their hands by that ill-advised video rant which buried all the misdemeanours of the custodians of our national game and exposed his own naivety just helped to oil the plan already on ground to bring in the foreigner.
Therefore, with the stage already set for the coming of the almighty whiteman who will come to right all the wrongs bedeviling our football and use his managerial wizadry to win the World Cup for Nigeria with the snap of a finger, I want to just crave Amaju’s indulgence to hear me out before his foreign coach arrives.
Dear president, before this whiteman arrives our shores, can you kindly sort out the issues of his accommodation so that you will not need to pay his rent six months or one year after they are due.
Two, have you arrived on a sustainable source of funding pool from which his salary will be drawn or else we risk being dragged to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) for non-payment of wages. Note that the said foreigner will not have the fortitude to bear not being paid like Siasia and the other national team coaches who you gleefully hold up as examples for Oliseh to copy.
Note, sir, that the said foreigner will also not have the restraint of Oliseh who rather chose to walk away without raising dust in order not to embarrass the nation. If that happens sir, and we allow it to get out of hand like the current Oliseh drama, it will be internationalizing our disgrace.
For your information, as I write this on a Thursday night, I’m sitting in front of a television and Nigerian football is the topic of discussion on cable television which means our dirty linen is being washed abroad by people who are happy that we have such problems in the first place. And, sir, I put the blame squarely at your doorstep.
Thirdly, just before you signed the contract for our incoming manager, can you kindly confirm that the Federation’s image maker Ademola Olajire has gone to brush up his diplomatic and interpersonal skills because, frankly, this whistle-stop diplomacy that he’s doing from one media house to the other is doing more harm than good to the Federation.
When he uses words like ‘amateur, violent, aggressive, ungrateful, and inexperienced’ and all such unbecoming language against Oliseh, the gains are immediate but the long-term repercussions reflect badly on the federation you lead.
Frankly, by using those words, Olajire is questioning your judgement because you stood in front of the whole world on July 14, 2015 to talk us into accepting Oliseh. Need I remind you sir, that on that occasion, you especially referred to Oliseh as the ‘Pep Guardiola’ of Africa. Do you, and Olajire, see the disconnect in your disparate public utterances or is it me suffering from unnecessary paranoia?
Fourthly, before the ink runs dry on the contract of our new foreigner manager, I will need you to confirm that the problem bedeviling our football today is simply that of the manager of the national team in isolation to the deeper issues that we, including your good self, try too hard to cover up. Can you guarantee us that as soon as we hire this new manager; all our problems will be solved?
Finally, have you decided what the role of the technical committee will be in the new epoch? Should we still expect that it will stand in direct confrontation with whoever is manager of the national team or that their roles and responsibilities will be better defined and they’ll serve as a vehicle for development? Will you redress the abnormal situation in which the technical committee has emasculated the technical department of the Federation which should chart the direction our football will take and drive its attainment?
Mr President Sir, once you have addressed all these fears to your satisfaction, then go ahead and name the new manager and you are assured of our support.
Thank you for your time.
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