Nigerian Coaches Vs Rohr: Amaju Pinnick’s False Alarm News

Navigation: Home / News / Columnists / Nigerian Coaches Vs Rohr: Amaju Pinnick’s False Alarm

Nigerian Coaches Vs Rohr: Amaju Pinnick’s False Alarm

By Daily Sports on August 5, 2019

I have always said it here that journalism is not a profession or trade for pretenders. Way back in the 80’s when I was in Times Journalism Institute (TJI), (a premier school of journalism in Nigeria founded in 1965), I could still remember vividly a quote by Mr Adams Aliu, one of the Senior Lecturers, also a Deputy Director who took us in Current Affairs.

Aliu, Soviet Union trained, always told us this phrase, “The good ones will shine even in darkness.” He was a no-nonsense man and he rose to edit the then historic Daily Times publication, Headlines, to profitability.

He told us in clearer terms that journalism is associated with imaginative thinking laced with a sound mind of news judgment.

Our last week’s write up again passed for that. Kano Pillars and former NFF President, Sani Lulu Abdullahi, were good copies if the number of people that read, visited or liked the article are anything to rely upon.

Thanks, readers for your unflinching acceptance of the page and by larger extension Daily Sports. I was preparing for a different topic this week, on our representatives in CAF Championships before Amaju Pinnick’s alarm went off the other day. According to one of the reports in the Guardian Sports page last week, President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick raised an alarm that desperate Nigerian Coaches are plotting Gernot Rohr’s sack as the supremo of the Super Eagles.

I was startled when I read it on this platform and later digested the whole points raised in the report. I discussed it with top editors of our flagship publication, News Express (www.newsexpressngr.com). Core newsmen know the workings in the newsroom and the vital roles editors play as gatekeepers. As a reporter who has been on the beat, I wondered where Amaju Pinnick got this from; his imagination or what?

After going through the calibre of indigenous coaches currently in the game, I concluded that Amaju Pinnick must have decided to fly this kite to score cheap popularity and sympathy from fans. Remember that he and his top executive committee members have been under heavy searchlight for alleged mismanagement of the federation’s fund running into billions. Again, since the Super Eagles could not win AFCON trophy, he needed something else that would remove attention off them for now. The truth remains that no Nigerian coach now has the capacity to take up the technical hand of our flagship team. If any of them are nursing such a silly and unrealistic idea, he remains a daydreamer.

Since the demise of Stephen Keshi, none of the so-called indigenous hand can head the senior national team crew. Amaju failed woefully to name names and left everyone blank. I will go further to say that it was speculation, which is dangerous coming from the calibre of Amaju. It showed how unserious our so-called leaders at all levels reason, think and condition their minds. Whatever led Amaju Pinnick to ridicule himself and the office he is occupying leaves sour taste in the mouth.

To say the very least, he talked before thinking. But to be honest with him, he does not indulge in talking on the drop of a hat; but truth is that he is under pressure because Nigerians are under siege from a Muhammadu Buhari led government that never respects the Courts. Rohr is far better than the present local coaches. None of them can withstand the demand Super Eagles job required due largely to technical deficiencies. The NPFL teams that could be pointed at to hire top-grade technical heads are just not there. Forget, Nigerians cannot be desperate for what they cannot defend nor can any of the coaches handle it better than the present man on the saddle.

It has exposed Amaju Pinnick as one of the leaders that pay more attention to rumours and idlers. These set of people are what the stomach will eat fellows paddling dangerous rumours. From that angle, therefore, let’s join issues on our social media platforms. Below is Amaju’s controversial report. Enjoy. I wish Rohr best of luck. Keep shooting hard till next week!!

President of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has revealed that some desperate coaches, who want to take over the Super Eagles’ job, are those engineering some Nigerians to call for the sack of Coach Gernot Rohr.

Even before the Super Eagles beat Tunisia in the bronze medal match at the just concluded Egypt 2019 African Cup of Nations (AFCON), some Nigerians had begun a campaign for the NFF to do away with Rohr, claiming that the coach had lost ideas on how to improve the nation’s football.

Speaking with The Guardian yesterday, Pinnick stated that no amount of campaign and blackmail against Rohr would force the NFF to change its stand about him.

“Does it really make sense for the NFF to sack Rohr now?” Pinnick asked. “What are his offences? Some Nigerian coaches who are so desperate to take over the Super Eagles are those engineering people to mount pressure on the NFF to sack the coach. But we won’t give them that chance. We know them, and what they are capable of offering the nation as coaches. “Nobody can push us around again on issues concerning the appointment of coaches. We gave some of them the chance to prove themselves in the past but they failed woefully.”

“Rohr still has an existing contract with the NFF and we believe in him. We appointed him in 2016 with the mandate to qualify Nigeria to Russia 2018 World Cup, and he did it. The Super Eagles finished unbeaten from a tough Group B that had Zambia, Cameroun and Algeria. We later extended his contract to 2020 after he qualified the team for the Nations Cup. The fact that the Super Eagles couldn’t win the AFCON title in Egypt is not enough for people to clamour for his sack. So many countries are looking for him (Rohr) as we speak. We should be thinking about how to build the team for future challenges and not how to look for money to pay off the coach and his assistants, and then begin the search for new ones. No, that is not on our agenda.

“I want Nigerians to remember where we are coming from. Before Rohr took over, we could not qualify for two editions of the Nations Cup. He qualified us to Russia 2018 with a game in hand and also booked the ticket to Egypt 2019 with a game in hand. And in Egypt, Rohr qualified us to the round of 16 with a game in hand. So, why should we sack him?” Pinnick queried.

Source Daily Sports

Posted August 5, 2019