ON Wednesday, 15th July 2015, Nigeria hopefully took a major step towards the repair of its tattered football when Mr. Sunday Oliseh was unveiled as the new Chief Coach of the Super Eagles following the sack of former coach, Mr. Stephen Keshi.

An excited President of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), Mr Amaju Pinnick, described him as the “Pep Guardiaola of Africa”. Also unveiled was his foreign technical assistant, Mr. Jean François Losciuto, a Belgian.

UNVEILING: New Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh (m) was unveiled yesterday in Abuja. Here NFF President, Amaju Pinnick(l) and Sec.General Sanusi Mohammed display Oliseh’s No 15 Jersey during the ceremony

At the colourful but brief ceremony held at the Abuja National Stadium, Oliseh declared that though he was not “a messiah” he is ready “150 per cent” to serve his fatherland. An affirmation of Oliseh’s acceptability for the assignment manifested when Pinnick led the Board of the NFF and formally presented him to telecom giants, Globacom, the official sponsors of Nigeria’s national teams at the company’s corporate headquarters in Lagos.

An official of the company, speaking on behalf of Dr. Mike Adenuga (GCON), applauded the NFF’s choice, and assured that Globacom remains irrevocably committed to its support of the nation’s football growth.

Oliseh is coming in at a time the nation’s football is at its nadir, with the latest FIFA/Coca Cola ranking putting Nigeria at 57 (10th in Africa). This was a country that ranked 12th in 1994 when Oliseh was one of the Eagles players that won the African nations cup and transformed into the Dream Team two years later to win the gold in the soccer event of the Atlanta Olympic Games.

The irony of the situation is that only in 2013, Nigeria won the African Cup of Nations in South Africa and qualified for the Brazil World Cup in 2014 where we got to the second round only to fail miserably in qualifying to defend our trophy. Nigeria now finds it difficult to beat even the meanest of opponents because it appears we lack the talented players which we used to have in such great abundance.

Watching the Eagles play these days is like going through a bout of malaria because of lackluster displays and terrible mediocrity, all of which are indicative of a deep problem that only a visionary coach can decipher and solve.

We throw our support behind Oliseh. Right now, he is the most qualified coach both academically and by exposure, and as a former player who helped take Nigeria to the top in Africa, we expect a dramatic turnaround in our football fortunes.

Oliseh must be firm, matured and totally above board. He must be ready to work with players and well meaning officials. He must also be ready to scout for genuine new talents.