In my little village of Ekpon in Edo State, the elders used to talk about the tortoise always being in the news. That it is always involved in one scandal or the other. A Nigerian writer, Anezi Okoro wrote a novel, One Week One Trouble in 1972. The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF may have been on Okoro’s mind.

And like, Wilson Tagbo in Okoro’s novel who jumps from one trouble to another every week, no month passes without one ill-decision coming from the NFF. When the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, the NFF blamed it on poor coaching. Former Super Eagles defender, Augustine Eguavoen who was on a rescue mission with the team after the ouster of Franco-German handler, Gernot Rohr was in-charge.

He was deemed to lack the capacity to handle the team. He was, however, allowed to take the team to the AFCON. He crashed in the second round and that nailed him. The NFF board, then headed by Amaju Pinnick went for a relatively unknown Portuguese, Jose Peseiro who failed with the Venezuelan national team. Nigerians wondered why they went for Peseiro and voiced out their disgust but the NFF called for patience, citing that Clemens Westerhof had no coaching pedigree when he was hired also.

Under Peseiro, the Super Eagles were not playing sassy football. The same happened under Rohr. The football body threatened to drop him but when he accepted a pay cut, he was allowed to continue with a proviso that he must get to the semi finals of the 23 AFCON or be fired. He met the target, surpassed it but lost the Cup to Cote d’Ivoire. Emboldened by his silver medal and a misplaced National Honour from the government for failure, Peseiro demanded a salary increase.

Our ever broke NFF couldn’t afford that luxury, so he walked away, happy that he has boosted his profile with the Super Eagles job. The NFF, now led by Ibrahim Gusau, appointed Peseiro’s assistant, Finidi George in a substantive position. Just two competitive 2026 World Cup qualifying matches in-charge, Finidi was told he wasn’t good enough to be Chief Coach and therefore should be ready to work under a foreigner they were expecting to hire.

Finidi wouldn’t accept that and thus threw in the towel, thus becoming the second local coach after Sunday Oliseh to throw the job back at the NFF. The Gusau board hurriedly got a foreign coach, another unknown quantity by name Bruno Labbadia whom they announced without properly sealing the contract. And it fell through, making a mockery of the country before the football world.

Because the 2025 AFCON qualifiers were around the corner, they recalled Eguavoen to step in. The Edo-born gaffer, who in his first stint as national team coach took the Super Eagles to the semi finals of the 2006 AFCON in Egypt, qualified the team for the 2025 edition with a game to spare. He toyed with the idea of giving some fringe players in the team a chance to prove their mettle in the last qualifier against Lesotho in Uyo.

They lost the match and the insatiable Nigerian fans yelled abomination. Why on earth should Lesotho beat Nigeria on Nigerian soil or anywhere for that matter. Latching on the fans uproar, the NFF told Nigerians they will get a ‘sound’ foreign coach for the Super Eagles early in the New Year to finish the World Cup qualifiers.. It was therefore a shock when on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, they announced a French man, Eric Chelle, with Malian background as Super Eagles new coach. The outrage that greeted that decision is yet to abate, five days after.

Apart from Nigerian football lovers and sports journalists who have voiced their concerns, former players have added their voice in condemning the appointment. They reason that first, Chelle is not better that Eguavoen or other Nigerian coaches like Emmanuel Amuneke and Samson Siasia. And secondly, that Mali that he handled are equally struggling in the World Cup qualifiers. Some fans and sports journalists have however, hailed Chelle ‘s appointment, stressing that though Mali crashed out at the AFCON, they play attacking football.

A sports journalist, Desmond Ekwueme, who is livid over the Chelle appointment sought the opinion of some ex players. They too are angry with the NFF for choosing the Malian over Nigerian coaches.

HERE ARE WHAT SOME OF THE EX PLAYERS SAID:

IFEANYI UDEZE: A coach Mali sacked for a poor run in the World Cup qualifiers, does he deserve this job? The most annoying thing is that Augustine Eguavoen, who was our interim coach, has a better CV than this Eric Chelle.

VICTOR ANICHEBE: I would love to know what process was carried out when selecting this manager. That being said, good luck to him. The pressure he will face managing the Super Eagles is a heavy one.

MOSES KPAKOR: This appointment is not only disgusting and disappointing, it’s also an insult to Nigeria as a great football nation which has produced some of the best football players in the world, most of whom have become coaches today. I am not opposing the choice of Chelle because he is non-Nigerian, but because he has far less quality than what we already have, and only wondering why the NFF would decide to go for less.

ETIM ESIN: This is arrant nonsense. Who is Chelle? Despite the outrage, the NFF has made a decision which will be binding on the country once the contract is signed.