BY JUDE OPARA, Abuja
As Nigerians continue to react to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations draw which pitched the Super Eagles in Group G alongside Egypt, Chad and Tanzania, the Nigerian Football Federation

HUMBLED: Super Eagles players listen to their coach before training ahead of the return clash with Sudan on Wednesday.

(NFF) has been advised to immediately hire a substantive coach to handle the senior national team, the Super Eagles so as to avoid the disaster of not qualifying for the championship.

A sports enthusiast, Mascot Uzor Kalu told Sports Vanguard in Abuja over the weekend that the NFF must avoid the pitfall of last year which denied the country the opportunity of going to defend the trophy she won in 2013 by making haste to employ a coach.

The 2013 champions who incidentally missed out of the last edition in Equatorial Guinea are yet to have a manager after Coach Stephen Keshi’s contract end in June 2014.

“It is a high time Keshi and the NFF put their house in order,” Kalu said, adding, “it is either he is the coach or he is not, we can’t talk about going to play a Nations Cup qualifiers without a strong team. We don’t have a coach. We always put in last minute preparations and expect a resounding record.

“Go and watch other African countries, they have already started training but we are still debating whether Keshi will stay or not. That is why those small African countries continue disgrace us. In Nigeria we don’t plan. We did not qualify the last time and since then nothing has been done. It will be a miracle for us to qualify as up till now we don’t have a team, we don’t have a coach, so if we don’t qualify for the next edition of AFCON, nobody should be angry about it.”