By Patrick Omorodion

My friend and colleague, Victor Iroele of the Silver Bird Group and former Chairman of the Abuja Chapter of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) wrote this “Am surprised that my constituency is so silent on the back-to-back failure of Super Eagles to land at the Nations Cup?” on his facebook wall.

I am not surprised because the sports writing fraternity no longer speaks with one voice or with any voice at all. Everyone wants to remain in the good books of administrators because of one favour or the other.
Is it not shocking that these days, sports writers, rather than ex players, retired referees and former coaches populate the list of match commissioners appointed as Match Commissioners by the Nigeria Football Federation?

I was shocked when I overhead two of them at the National Stadium in Abuja blaming one of these two clubs (Lobi Stars and Sunshine Stars) for failing to ‘see’ them to help them fix a replay there last season for who gets a continental ticket.
If Sports Writers are really living up to expectation, they should be calling for the head of someone or a group of people by now after the Super Eagles failed to qualify for a second consecutive Africa Nations Cup and the third in four years.

Everyone is aware the way sports writers swooped on former Chairman of the Nigeria Football Association, NFA, Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima when the Eagles failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, especially after he tried to explain a word put to him that he has failed to qualify the country for a competition that has become our birthright.

Rather than seek reasons why the team couldn’t qualify, those who wanted Galadima out more because he refused to open the NFA vaults for them to feed fat on than for the failure of the Eagles, championed his removal and some sports writers were used to effect it.

This mentality was carried on to the era after German Berti Vogts fumbled at Ghana 2008 and the sports authorities wanted a local coach to handle the team. Opinions were sought but again, the cabal in football infiltrated the sports writers selected to advise then NSC and rather than advise the authorities well, they voted on sentiments and Shaibu Amodu got the job ahead of Stephen Keshi and Samson Siasia.

Amodu and his technical crew couldn’t do much at the Nations Cup hosted by Angola in 2010 and again, the NFF in their usual fire brigade style rushed to Europe to get a ‘sound’ technical adviser in Lars Lagerback who was also a disaster at the first World Cup on African soil in South Africa in 2010.
Lagerback’s exit paved the way for Siasia who was cruising right until the 2-2 draw against Guinea at the Abuja National Stadium which ended the Eagles qualification dream for the Nations Cup hosted by Equatorial Guinea in 2012. This caused the sack of Siasia and so Keshi was hired in his place for the Nations Cup in South Africa in 2013.

The romance Keshi had with the NFF under the leadership of Aminu Maigari was not a smooth one from the word go. The NFF Board were not comfortable with Keshi’s ‘arrogance’ and plotted right from the venue of the Nations Cup to replace him, win or lose the Cup.
The players protest in Namibia on their way to Brazil for the Confederation Cup in 2013 and another one before their second round match against France at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil were what the NFF needed to nail Keshi. So they refused to renew his contract after the World Cup.

Keshi’s return at the heat of the NFF election crisis at the behest of then sports minister, Dr Tammy Danagogo didn’t go down well with Maigari, who had lost out of the NFF but still had control over the Amaju Pinnick-led Board remotely.

Rather than let sleeping dog lie, Maigari and his henchmen, prodding the new Board, ensured they worked against Keshi and Nigeria by extension. They wanted Keshi not to qualify for the 2015 Nations Cup in Equatorial Guinea. They began by making sure things worked against Nigeria when they hosted Congo in Calabar and lost 2-3. They took the battle to Congo but were unhappy when the Eagles surprisingly pulled a 2-0 away win.

That victory put the Eagles on same point with Congo and they needed a win against South Africa, the group leaders, in Uyo to pick the second ticket ahead of Congo on goals in case they both end at 10 points apiece. So many things happened behind the scene but rather than think of their own image, the new Board played along with the Maigari group and their plot worked. Even though the Eagles rallied from 0-2 to a 2-2 draw, the damage was already done and the saboteurs popped Champagne to celebrate Keshi’s fall that day.

Pinnick and his Board needed no other reason to ease out Keshi after the crash. But instead of seeking a genuine solution for the way forward, a powerful group forced Pinnick, an apostle of foreign coaches, to give the job to a green horn in Sunday Oliseh, better known for his television punditry.

Over hyped from day one, Oliseh started by destroying the fabric of the team, quarrelling with and dropping his captain, Vincent Enyeama, dropping another player, Emmanuel Emenike before picking holes with the NFF over unpaid allowances after his CHAN debacle.

That was the beginning of the disaster and Siasia is now a bate given to the sharks to tear apart. No one must blame Siasia or any player for what happened. No Board in the history of Nigeria football has failed to qualify for two consecutive Nations Cup. So Nigerians should ask the Amaju Pinnick-led Board what happened to our football. And someone or people must take responsibility for that and do the needful. Resign now!