Who Should lead Nigeria to the World Cup?

Who Should Lead the Super Eagles to World Cup 2010?

By: Ehimwenma E. Aimiuwu
November 17, 2009

I would like to approach this issue from a spiritual perspective while balancing it with common sense. In 2001, the last time the Nigerian Super Eagles qualified for the World Cup, it was this same Coach Shaibu Amodu that qualified us for it against all odds. In fact, the then NFA (Nigerian Football Association) had already given up about our qualification, sacked our incompetent French coach, and basically placed Amodu there to while away the time as the NFA looked for a more qualified (foreign) coach for the future. Against all odds, physical expectations, and mental comprehensions, Amodu did his magic and Nigeria miraculously was in the World Cup again for a third consecutive time (1994, 1998, and 2002).

Amodu was much younger then, a successful coach of BCC Lions of Gboko, and the first and only Nigerian coach to qualify Nigeria for the World Cup (maybe also the first Black African for any African nation). This was unbelievable. A local Nigerian coach takes Nigeria to the World Cup!!! Can that be true? When it was time to take Nigeria to the African Nations Cup and World Cup the following year, NFA started their drama as usual. They stopped paying the coach and players their salaries, started questioning Amodu professionalism, and claiming the players were no longer respectful. This affected the morale and concentration of the team so much that they lost to Senegal in the Semi-Finals of the African Cup of Nation.

The NFA was so glad that they used it as an opportunity to get rid of Amodu and called him a failure who had no control of his team. This was a man that qualified the nation for the World Cup after all hopes were lost even in the hands of an experienced and overpaid French coach. NFA claimed they needed a more experienced (foreign) coach to take Nigeria to the World Cup. After working so hard, they found no other creditable human being on the face of the earth other than a misguided and an outdated Coach Festus Onigbinde, who was a mere assistant coach of Trinidad and Tobago at the time. What an insult to the soul of man!!!! Do you replace a head coach of Nigeria with as assistant coach of a Caribbean team? Is NFA (now NFF) really interested in Nigeria winning the World Cup or they are just interested in a meaningless coach that can help them steal money through paperwork? Many Nigerian sport writers stupidly claim that Onigbinde has been the only Nigerian coach to take us to the finals of an African Cup of Nations in 1984. Is that to be compared with 2001, 2009, and a Nigerian coach that has qualified Nigeria to the World Cup TWICE? This obviously can not be progress even in the eyes of the Devil.

Nigeria went to World Cup 2002 and did not even win a single match unlike before. They only came out with a draw because England only needed a draw to move on and did not want to take too much risk. Through this act, Nigeria placed a curse on itself by not allowing a man to enjoy the fruits of his labors. Many southerners felt that it was a case of the Edo coach slaving away to qualify us, then a Yoruba or a WAZOBIA coach takes us to the World Cup to earn the glory under the disguise for a need of a foreign coach. When 2006 came, God denied us the qualification to the World Cup because a great injustice took place on Nigerian soil and was never corrected. Instead of Nigeria moving forward in time as a nation and in soccer, God took us back to 2001 in 2009 – a difference of 8 wasted years of no achievement. We are back to Amodu again and still he gave us the World Cup ticket a SECOND TIME. This is where Nigeria should have been 8 years ago, but when you fail to learn, you are bound to repeat and waste time.

I have told my friends a year in advance that Amodu will qualify us for the World Cup but he will be pushed aside for a European or a WAZOBIA coach to take us to the World Cup under the deceit of more technical experience. Many of my friends, even of WAZOBIA origins, agreed that Nigeria will make it to the World Cup 2010, but disagreed that NFF (formerly NFA) will dump Amodu. Amodu was given a contract to qualify us for World Cup 2010. This he has done, but the Nigeria press is already talking and campaigning about a better coach to take us to the World Cup.

Nigeria is a nation that never learns. NFF has NO intention of giving Nigeria a coach that is competent enough to win the World Cup. This is because they will have to pay him so much that they can’t steal any money or get kickbacks. God has shown us that HE has chosen Amodu for Nigeria. Anything other than this will result in a Christian Chukwu, Festus Onigbinde, or Ladan Bosso, and only NFF will benefit from it at the expense of the nation. Amodu, God has given you a mandate like HE did in 2001, to go to South Africa and bring back the World Cup to Nigeria. Let us all stand behind this great Nigerian. God can’t be wrong – not twice by the same man. Let little David go kill Goliath for NIGERIA. UP SUPER EAGLES!!!