The road to Rio (1)

It is amazing to see the kind of chicanery playing out in a section of the media. Long before any of those persons now struggling for the front pages, the Nigeria Football Federation believed in Stephen Keshi and appointed him Head Coach of the Senior National Team in November 2011, following the exit of Samson […]

It is amazing to see the kind of chicanery playing out in a section of the media. Long before any of those persons now struggling for the front pages, the Nigeria Football Federation believed in Stephen Keshi and appointed him Head Coach of the Senior National Team in November 2011, following the exit of Samson Siasia.
While there was clamour from this same section of the media for a foreign technical adviser/Coach at that time, the Nigeria Football Federation stuck by our decision to continue to support indigenous Coaches. Today, that section of the media is the one loudest in promoting confusion and shouting all over the place about a non-existent ‘frosty’ relationship!
As a person, I always gave support to Stephen Keshi, even before he got the job. I respected his contributions as a player and captain of the National Team for more than a decade and believed firmly that he deserved an opportunity to show what he could do with our Senior Team, given that he knew so much about the set-up. He had also worked as Assistant Coach of the team and as Head Coach of the U-20 team.
For some weeks now, I have been doing a lot of traveling, from the friendly with Mexico in USA to the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Costa Rica and the FIFA seminar in South Africa. But I never missed anything concerning events in the country, thanks to the worldwide web. I have followed all the developments, sometimes with bemusement and  sometimes with a sense of indignation.
There was so much hue and cry about a query that was given to Coach Keshi by the NFF. It is unimaginable that a query from an employer to an employee would generate so much debate and ‘crisis’. Some self-serving ex-internationals went to town to ‘blast’ the NFF for giving Keshi a query “at this time that we should be focused on the preparations for the World Cup”!
I recall that even Directors in the NFF have been issued queries at one time or the other. A query is a simple administrative procedure to seek explanation(s) for what may not be clear to superior officers. It is not e bullet! Yet, because some sections of the media wanted to, deliberately, play it out of proportion, it became a big issue.
Some of the persons who wrote about the query not coming at the right time have been issued queries in their companies at one time or the other. Did they answer those queries, or simply shouted to the heavens about the unjust nature of the query?
Coming quickly after that was the several scandalous statements by Sylvanus Okpala. Okpala’s matter is already before the CAS so I do not wish to say much about it, but once more, it was an opportunity for a section of the media to make big noise and sustain a campaign of calumny against the NFF.
One day, after the case must have been fully dealt with at CAS, I would  be willing to tell the full story about the issue of Sylvanus Okpala.
The postponement of a meeting of the Technical Committee with Coach Keshi also became a big issue. Rats were being smelt everywhere, even in ovens! Those who desperately wanted to sustain their theory of ‘icy relationship’ expanded it and suggested thickly that we had concluded plans to employ a foreign Coach.
Most amusing was the contention that the NFF was deliberately planning for Keshi to fail in order that the Federation would have no reason to renew his contract! How ridiculous!
I recall that the Nigeria Football Federation signed a four-year contract with Coach Keshi way back in November 2011, which means he would be in the job until November 2015, unless otherwise mutually agreed for parting of ways. Even as the Coach is working assiduously to ensure a good outing for our African champions in Brazil, self-styled ‘brothers’ and ‘friends’ are already talking up a new contract, more than one-and-half years to the expiration of the current agreement.
I recall that after giving Keshi the job, the NFF has done everything to support him and ensure success for the Senior National Team at all competitions. As the Chairman of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee, High Chief Inyama said during the week, no tree makes a forest. The successes that have been recorded by the Super Eagles over the past two years cannot be possibly be the handiwork of one person.
While the Coach has worked quite hard and shown energy and innovation, and resourcefulness, the NFF has also played its part well to provide every support needed, including organising 16 friendly internationals across four continents in the past two-and-half years of Keshi’s tenure, not counting the several training camps at home and abroad.
Opponents have included Italy (four-time champions of the world), Mexico (champions of CONCACAF), Egypt (seven-time champions of Africa), Peru, South Africa, Angola and Venezuela.
The NFF also sat down with Keshi from the beginning and agreed that there are good players on the domestic front as well, and that there was need for them to be given opportunities in a level-playing field.
This also has worked well for the team, with the likes of Sunday Mba, Gabriel Reuben, Azubuike Egwuekwe, Godfrey Oboabona and Chigozie Agbim, Solomon Kwambe, Benjamin Francis, Ejike Uzoenyi rubbing shoulders with the overseas-based pros at different times.