Onigbinde, Mitchelle and others react as Oliseh, NFF show of shame lingers

By EDIALE KINGSLEY, ESTHER EGBE

FOLLOWING Sunday Oliseh’s resignation as coach of the Super Eagles, Nigeria Football Federation reappoints Samson Siasia to be in charge of the team. Despite the resignation and resolve from both parties the drama appears to still be building into more mess than it has already erupted. While the NFF claim to have managed to go borrow money to pay three outstanding months owed Oliseh, prior to the day he resigned. Oliseh insists he didn’t get any alert or payment and surges to sue the NFF.

Reactions have started to pour in. As Nigerians get amazed by the entire show being displayed in a game they dearly love. Some pundits believe that Oliseh handled the matter at hand in a very childish way. “An organization that started their relationship by paying you three months in advance and adornment of special names like ‘the Guardiola of Africa’ certainly must have meant well for Oliseh” Dafe a sport’s analyst voiced. According to the soccer buff, Oliseh should have been more sensitive to the plight of the NFF to know that they would pay if they had the funds.

Former coach of the Super Eagles, Chief Onigbinde blasted the NFF for not handling the situation well. Onigbinde said he was disgusted to have heard that at some point, the NFF begged Oliseh to take the Job. “We heard he was begging for the job initially but a top NFF official did spill the fact that they begged Oliseh to take the Job”. The former chief Coach however advised that everyone must move on now.

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The Twitter space was also flooded with reactions with many calling Oliseh as a foreign coach, “After the understanding shown by the NFF to a sick Nigerian who rather coach from abroad, our foreign coach has finally resigned” tweeted Shakiru Hassan.

Oliseh, whose appointment as the coach of the super eagles was made with much fanfare by the NFF, soon started having problems with the executives of the federation over remuneration, match tactics and results. His complaint about being owed was not well received by the NFF, which rather threatened to sanction him. He also had challenges managing the players. An altercation between the coach and the team’s former captain and the country’s most capped goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama, led to the goalie’s premature resignation from the team last October. Apparently, the last straw for Oliseh was the woeful outing of the Super Eagles at the CHAN competition in Rwanda, where the team were eliminated in the first round. Following widespread criticisms that greeted the team’s elimination, a Youtube video soon surfaced in which Oliseh lambasted his critics, referring to them as “insane”.

Sports journalist and mogul, Michelle Obi, had this to say to our reporter, “You talk about ‘abandoning the team’, and I ask what team? The one abroad or where? Then you talk about fairness of the matter at hand. If you are owed salaries by your organization is that fair on you and your ability to perform as well as you wish. Fair play encourages mutual respect and understanding. If you want to win you must be ready to lose, lest you won’t appreciate your victory. Fair is fair. A worker deserves his wages. What’s the way forward for super Eagles? Forward always backwards never. That’s the way. And where there is a will there is a way.”

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Speaking to Moses Etu, former media officer of Warri Wolves and now Chairman of the club, he said “It is unfortunate that it happens and bad because we have crucial games with Egypt. Instead of us consolidating, we have found ourselves in this mess. We must as a matter of fact draft in Siasia as an interim coach to start work. For now we have no choice than to give the job to Samson Siasia”

Assistant Coach of City of David football club, Kazeem Alabi, also made his own point, “It’s okay that Oliseh resigned if not we are heading for a doom if he continue as our coach with a lot of factors, he is inexperienced for such post. He is controversial and fights anyone that dares to challenge him. He does not accept responsibility for failure and a coach should accept responsibility either good or bad. He calls any one that advice him a critics and he should understand that criticism is part of coaching as it helps you to know your weak point which you need to act on. Keshi is far better than him in every aspect of coaching and approach. On if the NFF has been fair to our coaches, I will say no. They don’t honor their own part of agreement and you can never blame them. They are suppose to be an independent body that should always source for funds and not over reliant on government for sustainability. We need to start all over again from the grass root. Nigerian Football Federation should forget the act of eating our cake and having it”. Super Eagles Striker and Nasarawa united fourth highest goal scorer Esosa Igbinoba expressed his view, “It was not right for him to leave like that at this moment. He should at least lead the team to qualify for the Nation’s Cup and World Cup before thinking of quitting. He should have left when the ovation is loud”.

Tunde Adeniyi, Sunshine Star FC player who was second highest goal scorer of the NPL last season had this to say about the situation, “Yes, I think it was the right step, because they didn’t support him and his players. Owing us our wages, Nff owes and then want the team to bring out there best. It is not possible. Sunday Oliseh resigning was a good step, because if he doesn’t resign now he may be sacked, if he draws or loses against Egypt. Its better he leaves now. I think and know that our coach has done well, how many match did he lost? Things cannot be perfect all the time”.