As the match in Kasarani ended 3-2 in favour of the Nigerian visitors so many Nigerians, many who I do not know how they even got my phone number called me to praise me for keeping so much faith in coach Shaibu Amodu (MON) but I looked back into the cols of history and realised that heroes are the ones we kill in Nigeria while we praise thieves to high heavens.
I was keen on writing my feeling as usual from a satiric angle. I reviewed the purid, sarcastic and shallow depth of people who will be reading me who will not appreciate the values of a satire. All the same, satire I will write. Bear with me.
Why Amodu Shaibu must be sacked. Yes. He must be sacked NOW. If he is not sacked, the goons in the Glass House will use the African Nations Cup in Angola to plant the seed of discord in his team, make him look so ordinary and eventually whip Nigerian sentiments against him, sack him and recruit a coach even if it is 72 days to the world cup like they did in 2002 to take the team to the world cup.
The campaign that will be mustered now is that Amodu is not good enough to take Nigeria to the world cup. Yet, each time the criminal administrators of our football mess up with imposing half baked white skinned managers/coaches on the country and we have lost face, no one to trust us again, they run back to the same Amodu.
I have kept this piece for so long waiting until we qualify for the world cup before stating the content of my heart. There is a cabal that feeds fat on Nigerian football. They have been in the parlour here they share the goodies and make the coaches look like not good. They were the same people who had worked against Amodu in 2002 when he qualified Nigeria for the world cup.
Amodu has to go because if he is not ejected there is no way they can bring a foreigner from whose contract they will get their own share. If Amodu remains and is to go to the world cup, which he has deservedly worked for, they will be calculating how much money they will be missing. Catch my drift? This was why Amodu was sacked in 2002/2003. The choice of Adegboyega Onigbinde was a final smokescreen.
Now, know dear Nigerians. Every nation that qualifies for the world cup has a grant from FIFA to help in the preparation for the world cup. When this money comes, there is a share that goes to the players that would have qualified the nation for the world cup. This share was what the goons never wanted to share with the players. The Nations Cup was used to turn the nation’s emotion against the team.
That was why the likes of Oliseh and his ‘stubborn’ cohorts had to go. They needed to go with their coach. Now it is time for another FIFA windfall. Will Amodu and his “average” players be good for the money?
They have worked so hard for it. If they are allowed to eat from their sweat how much will go to these Nigerians Feeding on Football (NFF)?
This is why Amodu must be sacked again! This is why many of the players must be ‘sacked’ because “they are not committed”.
Mark my words. In other reasonable climes, it is the chairman or president of the FA that resigns once there is failure in the system.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
But in Nigeria, it is the coach that the sports journalists face and ask to resign or be sacked. If they had their way, Amodu would have been sacked immediately after the Tunisian 2-2 draw in Lagos.
They have forgotten that Amodu since he took over form the odourless and colourless Berti Vogts has not lost any competitive game. Even the friendlies he lost, the media chastised him so much. Whereas, the coaching crew were never allowed to experiment with new players.
We had a technical committee of the NFF where they are all contractors working for some players’ interest. That Amodu found himself in a fait accompli in the friendlies against Ireland and France, where the players imposed by extension on him chose not to honour due to injury or club engagement, he had to call up the like of Michael Eneramo, Omatsone Aluko, Femi Ajilore, Dele Adeleye etc
These “rookies” delivered. In the next game against Kenya, there was pressure on Amodu to field the ‘regular’ Eagles. The man stuck to his guns that those who did not play in his two friendlies are automatically out. That brought him the quality of play and result he had against Kenya. In the next game against Tunisia where the regulars came back, the lackadaisical attitude came to fore again.
Leave out some prophets who only 24 hours to the game started predicting a win for Amodu in Kenya and a draw or win in Maputo for the homers. Their results were off mark. Their crystal balls or gods probably did not show them the results clearly.
In sum, please ask me again, must Amodu be sacked after working hard to qualify for Nigeria? Must a white skinned man who did not sow come and reap where Amodu has worked? Must we not learn to stick to our homebred human resources like Brazilians do irrespective of what happens? This is the second time Amodu is qualifying Nigeria for the world cup, must he be denied from going to the world cup in the capacity he had qualified us? What are the problems of our football?
Is it Amodu? Is it Amodu’s job to go and cause a nursery and then the quality of players in the system? Uhm! I rest my ‘gurugu’ case here.
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });