Why Oliseh quit as Super Eagles coach

Oliseh

When the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) appointed Sunday Oliseh as Super Eagles manager it was obvious the marriage of convenience between the two wouldn’t last. But it was still something of a surprise that the former Super eagles captain quit after less than eight months in the saddle.

Oliseh is a very stubborn individual who always insists on his way and the NFF has not eased on its reputation of legendary ineptitude. The NFF had just got rid of Stephen Keshi, another former captain, and they just wanted to fill the gap and move on. They forgot that Oliseh had little or no experience at top-level management, his UEFA coaching certificate notwithstanding.

Initially Oliseh said all the nice sweet things new employees say about their new job but soon the bubble burst. He had a fall out with the authorities as well as the players.

His hard line stance caused Vincent Enyeama and Emmanuel Emenike to retire prematurely from the national team. He also controversially substituted Lukman Haruna and Rabiu Ibrahim in the first half of matches because they didn’t play to his instructions.

The 41-year-old was even intolerant of criticism, calling those who spoke out against the Eagles’ abysmal outing at the 2016 African Nations Championship (CHAN)  “insane”.

“I want to speak on the insanity that has befallen some of our national team critics. I call it insanity because you must be insane to start seeking a plebiscite on the future of the national team coach of Nigeria because we lost the CHAN,” he said in a YouTube rant.

There was no love lost between him and the NFF. After the Super Eagles crashed out in the first round of CHAN, Oliseh blamed the NFF for the shocking exit. The football body replied in kind and it took the intervention of the Sports Minister, Solomon Dalong, before frayed nerves were calmed.

But the bad blood between the two parties kept boiling and it was obvious that something would give. The stage for a showdown was set.

Oliseh suddenly announced his resignation on Twitter, to the chagrin of many Nigerians who wondered why he decided to choose such a channel, not long after his YouTube outburst. But it seems the Delta-born coach prefers to make his views known through social media instead of dealing directly with his erstwhile employers.

He is said to have resigned after he found out the NFF had contacted former Ivory Coast coach Havre Renard to replace him. According to Tijanni Babangida, Oliseh’s former personal assistant, the latter was incensed that NFF offered to pay Renard $100,000 a month as salary while he (Oliseh) was being owed four months salary of N5 million.

“So many violations of his contract. No one can work like that. NFF cannot pay Oliseh N5 million but they went promising Renard $100,000. This is sad. Why won’t he not resign?” Babangida said.

“He resigned so that NFF can do what they want to do. With match bonuses owed, salaries not paid, camping allowances too. The house NFF promised him has not even been secured for him. So, where will he stay when he comes to Abuja? Hotel?” 

The NFF responded in kind, describing the development as “good riddance to bad rubbish.”

“Oliseh is gone and we have to move forward,” Ademola Olajire, the NFF spokesperson said in an interview with the Nigeria Television Authority. “As far as we are concerned, it is good riddance to bad rubbish. He is not the kind of person we thought he was.”

Olajire faulted the claim that the NFF violated the terms of Oliseh’s contract, challenging the coach to publish details of those aspects of his contract that were breached.

He said he didn’t know the NFF’s next step “but I can tell you that we will empanel a new set of technical hands for the team. And whatever Oliseh has mishandled in his few months in charge, they will have to right.”

Samson Siasia, who also left the coaching role under very bitter circumstances some years ago, has stepped in on a temporary measure, pending the decision of the NFF to appoint a substantive coach.

In the last 20 years no Super Eagles coach has parted ways with the NFF in a way that is not acrimonious. This has become a thing of embarrassment to the country and the NFF has to look for better ways to relate with those they appoint as coaches of the national team.

A former coach of the Super Eagles, Chief Adegboye Onigbinde, said the problem with the NFF was administrative, not technical.

In an interview with Goal, Onigbinde said, when he handled the Eagles between 1982 and 1984, he “went through hell, but thank God I am alive today.”

He added: “Throughout my three years stay, I did not have an official room as a residence. For a whole year, I was not supplied with balls, from January to December in 1983.

“I requested for 30 balls but the then chairman of NFA wanted to beat me up for requesting for more than two balls.

“The painful aspect of it was that if I were a white man requesting for 30 balls, he would send someone to Germany to bring 100 balls.”

Onigbinde, who took the Eagles to Japan/Korea 2002 World Cup after the team that was captained by Oliseh was disbanded, said, he is not revealing these things to abuse people or expose them.

“What we need to do now is to learn from the past and improve, knowing that the beginning of lunacy is doing the same thing the same way all over and over and expecting a different result. We cannot get a different result.”