BY JUDE OPARA, ABUJA

It is no longer news that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has settled for Stephen Okechukwu Keshi as the coach of the senior national team, the Super Eagles. The federation in announcing the recruitment of the former captain of the national team described him as the best man for the job.

But many people who have closely followed the progress of the national team in the past few years have continued to insist that beyond the glitz of contract signing and lofty speeches, it is not yet time for celebration even with the second coming of Keshi.

Keshi

The task ahead of Keshi is very enormous especially concerning the qualification for the next African Cup of Nations (AFCON) championship to be staged in Gabon in 2017.

Nigeria who surprisingly failed to qualify for the last edition in Equatorial Guinea are drawn in the same group with another ‘wounded lion’, Egypt who also lost out in the last three editions of the championship. Other contenders on the group are Tanzania and Chad.

Many analysts strongly believe that the failure of the Super Eagles to have defended their 2013 AFCON trophy was because of the leadership style and quality of Keshi who appeared to have given the players too much liberty so much so that they began to see themselves as demi-gods who had no responsibility to anyone including their coaches.

For Keshi and Nigeria to succeed, he must also change his own attitude which arguably worked against the true development of the game during his first coming. For instance, he must review his selection policy which seemed to reserve positions for some players irrespective of their club performance.

A critical review of the qualification series for the 2015 AFCON suggests that Nigeria did not prosecute the matches with her best legs. Some of the boys who represented the country were truly not better than some who were left out. It was even so at the World Cup in Brazil.

There are also those who think that most of the good upcoming players were not given a chance because they did not allow the coach to manage them. For instance, the way and manner Keshi treated Sunday Mbah who played so well to help the team to win the trophy after 19 years and was equally in good form during the qualifiers left much to be desired.

Another classical example is the issue of former U-17 talisman, Kelechi Iheancho whom Keshi invited to the camp of the Home Based Eagles for the 2014 African championship (CHAN) in January 2014 but because the young man allegedly did a thing or two against his advise, he was never invited again and when asked why he simply said he was too young for the national team.

Now the question is whether the player was older or younger after 10 months had elapsed, The Super Eagles must give opportunity to the young and talented players to fight for shirts amongst the older ones and the more productive ones are given the chance to represent the country the brighter the future.

We have seen a number of quality players especially in the national U-20 team; players like Taiwo Awoniyi should be encouraged to have a taste of the big action. The reign of a cabal among the players must not be encouraged hence the need to do a thorough screening of the players that will form the new national team.

One other area Coach Keshi must watch is his relationship with his employers. The Coach must give his bosses at the federation all the respect they deserve. He must always remember that being an ex-international is not enough for him to excel as an employee of the NFF. The penchant to run to Security Service men for protection at the slightest excuse must be discarded for a number of reasons.

All said and done, both the NFF and Keshi must find a way of operating in a harmonious manner that will rub off positively on the national team. Nigeria cannot afford to miss out of the next AFCON and to avoid that, we must hit the ground running immediately by forming a team that will most likely upstage Egypt who are in the same group with Nigeria.