TheCable

As I grew older and observed issues involving Nigerian football closer, the more things became clearer to me. Consequently, the sadder these things seemed to make me. 

Two weeks ago I was on a BBC World service programme during the FIFA presidential elections and I was unequivocal in my view that football across all countries and leagues is corrupt. There is too much money involved for the sport not to be corrupt. Having established this my premise let me carry on. I also went on to explain that what helps the developed societies is the availability of checks and laws that reduce the corruption to manageable levels. These checks and laws are not available in 3rd world countries. They are certainly not available nor enforced in Nigeria hence corruption will thrive.

The current ruling party in Nigeria campaigned under the banner of #Change. They claimed their plan was to change what was universally accepted as high level of corruption in every area of Nigerian public office.

How many Nigerians are genuinely ready to accept change from the status quo of doing things? How many are prepared to accept that root and branch purging is needed for real change to take place in Nigeria?

On the 26th of February 2016 I woke up to the news that Sunday Oliseh had resigned his post as the head coach of the Super Eagles – the senior national football team. I was absolutely stunned by the news. My astonishment was based on the fact that only 3 days earlier I had spoken to him for over an hour where he told me his plans for the Egypt match and subsequent friendly matches. Nothing in our conversation told me he was going to walk. He did tell me things that he was not happy that were going on but I will get to those later.

Since that Oliseh’s resignation the reaction I have heard, read or seen has had me shaking my head in disappointment. My disappointment based on the fact that the long and short of those reactions was “this is Nigeria did he not know that he will be owed salaries?” “Was Keshi not owed salaries but still won AFCON and qualified for the world cup”. “He is a weak person. Things don’t work smoothly in Nigeria he should have manned up and done his job like others before him”.

I can’t even begin to imagine the mindset that leads to this type of thinking. Clearly we are a country or a people so used to dysfunctional settings that we have come to accept it as normal. We have become so used to people never resigning positions on points of principles that we call the person who has done it names.

When Oliseh got the job we met up 2 weeks after and I asked him how he was going relate with the NFF. He said he got contractual assurances that he will be paid on time as will his assistants; that he will have final say on the squad he assembles for any match which means he will have no recourse to the famous Technical Committee of the NFF. Are you sure? I asked him. “Trust me na I won’t take these things for granted as my reputation is at stake” he answered me.

Nigerians have become so used to hearing that coaches employed by the country are NOT paid their monthly salaries that someone not willing to accept it is called a weak person. How on earth can we not reason that when a coach/manager is not paid we have asked him to go and get money however he can?

I still have in my records the bank details given to some players who were involved in one of our age group teams. The bank details were given to the players to pay 300k to enter the first 30.

In the late ’90s a Nigerian team to the World University games had a national team coach assigned to the team who told the players that “I have not been paid for many months now but my children need to eat, I have to fuel my car to come for training…” This not paying coaches as at when due leads to the corruption in which coaches are being bought by players’ agents to get national team caps. This is a fact. Nigerians however seem only interested in saying a coach who has refused to accept this as “running away from playing against Egypt”.

During my conversation with Oliseh that I mentioned above he let me know that he was under pressure by 2 particular people on the NFF Board to choose or call up specific players “e be like dem don forget say na me. Am not paying them any attention”. I know what I have been told by player agents with regards to getting their players called up by Stephen Keshi or Oliseh. So I can absolutely relate with the type of pressure Oliseh might have been under.

Sunday Oliseh was not without his faults. The main one was his inability to understand that by virtue of the job he had he should have steered clear of ALL forms of Social Media. The NFF probably regret to this day they did NOT sack him after a quite ill advised video blog. It was a monumental fail on both sides.

The NFF Board can rest easy. Nigerians don’t care what they do or how they do their jobs. Nigerians don’t care if the coaches are paid regularly. Come to think of it, not being paid regularly I hear is acceptable in Nigeria. So Nigerians should not complain if certain players fill the national team while better players don’t.