By Chuks Iloegbunam
Watching  television news on Wednesday August 20, 2014, it was reported that 23 Coach-less Super Eagles players have been invited to camp in preparation for the qualifying series of next year’s Africa Nations Cup.

Why are the Eagles still without a coach? In searching for an answer to this question, I remembered Time To Call Keshi’s Bluff, an Internet article published on July 25, 2014 by Olusegun Adeniyi, a friend and professional colleague.

On re-reading Mr. Adeniyi’s article I became firmer in my conviction that certain powerful forces are strongly against Stephen Keshi returning as Manager of the Super Eagles. My thinking is that the powerful forces are wrong and that Mr. Keshi deserves to be immediately reappointed so that he can continue the good work he started doing for the Eagles in 2011.

But, let us first address the issues out of Mr. Adeniyi’s intervention. The man is the chairman of Thisday’s editorial board and has ample space to ventilate his views in the newspaper. Why did he instead opt to publish only in skytrendnews.com?

That question may appear to be begotten of a separate mother, but it is actually tied to the rather peculiar advocacy of the author. Adeniyi wants Stephen Keshi out of coaching the Eagles for three reasons: 1) Keshi threatened to resign his job once he led the Eagles to continental victory in South Africa in 2013, and had to be persuaded to stay on. 2) Keshi resigned immediately after the World Cup in Brazil. 3) Keshi has started to give conditions under which he would accept a job that he has not been offered.

For these reasons, Adeniyi concluded in this astonishing vein: “Now that Keshi’s contract with the NFF has ended, he should be encouraged to go. Given his rich CV in football management not only in Nigeria but on the continent, he will definitely not be lacking in lucrative offers. All factors considered, I do not think that Keshi is the manager that the Super Eagles need going forward.”

Why is justice on leave? After South Africa 2013, Keshi threatened to resign because he felt he hadn’t been properly treated. Is that a good reason for a competent coach to be separated from his job? It is not true that Keshi resigned after the World Cup and Adeniyi would have known this because Keshi himself denied a report that claimed he resigned. His disclaimer was widely published in Nigerian newspapers and on the Internet.

According to Adeniyi’s “news now”, Keshi “has started to give conditions under which he would accept a job that he has not been offered.” Well, the authentic news from the NFF and from Mr. Emma Ado, Keshi’s media assistant, is that a draft contract was handed Keshi and it is on its strength that he spelt out the conditions under which he would continue as Eagles coach. What is outrageous in giving conditions under which a would-be employee feels he could best be of service?

As far as I know, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, gave conditions under which she would return to the Federal Cabinet, and it is because she and the President Jonathan arrived at a modus vivendi that her performance has remained superlative ever since her second coming. Why should Keshi’s insistence on a mutually agreed contract be to his disadvantage? I thought Olusegun Adeniyi’s intervention was unfortunate and I have already contacted him to express my views on the matter. There are many points in Stephen Keshi’s favour.

His love for the beautiful game and his patriotism are not in doubt. As one of the earliest Nigerians to star on the international soccer stage, he was instrumental to the introduction of numerous Nigerian footballers into the European football scene. Many of the footballers in question lived in Keshi’s Belgian home when he was an Anderlecht defender, even without having any contracts with any clubs. Keshi’s debut with the Eagles was in 1981 when he was just 19. He had 64 caps with the national side over 14 years until his retirement in 1995. He captained the Eagles to Africa Nation’s Cup glory in 1994, and he repeated the feat as coach in 2013.

Only he and Egypt’s Mahmoud El-Gohary hold the distinction of winning the Nation’s Cup both as captain and as coach. As coach, he qualified Togo for their first and only World Cup finals, and he qualified Nigeria for Brazil 2014.

Above everything else, Keshi commands the respect and love of his players. Against this background, is it fair to say, like Adeniyi, that “Given his rich CV in football management not only in Nigeria but on the continent, he will definitely not be lacking in lucrative offers. All factors considered, I do not think that Keshi is the manager that the Super Eagles need going forward.”

Is it right for Nigeria to let go of an excellent coach simply because Keshi will be deluged with “lucrative offers” outside our shores? There is another question. Is it not true that Keshi was treated poorly as national coach? His right hand man, Silvanus Okpala, an Eagles veteran in his own right, was fired without Keshi’s knowledge or consent. When did it stop being the prerogative of a coach to choose his lieutenants? Keshi was owed eight months’ salary arrears in this country without his saying a word on it to the media. In which other country does this kind of thing happen? Keshi never had an official car and he never was given an official accommodation. Yet he made no noise about these shortcomings.

Early this year, I went to visit Keshi in an Abuja hotel where the Eagles were lodged. At the reception, I was pointed to his room on the ground floor without anyone verifying my identity. There was no security whatsoever.

I knocked on the door and Keshi himself opened the door of the single room, not a suite. I was speechless. Was Keshi abandoned in what could pass for a hovel because Abuja had run out of suitable accommodation for the achieving coach of the Super Eagles?

Should Coach Stephen Okechukwu Keshi be punished because we have in him a man that knows his rights and wants things properly done? Or is the new agitation for a foreign coach the ploy of faceless agents with an eye for dollar-denominated commissions? I think the NFF should do the right thing by quickly reappointing Keshi on the basis of a mutually agreed contract. The man has a chance of winning the Africa Nation’s Cup back-to-back for Nigeria.