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Sunday Oliseh, Let the sleeping dog lie!

By Daily Sports on February 29, 2016

Dear readers, please permit me to start this week’s write-up by commending what l have described as an uncommon bold step by Sunday Ogochukwu Oliseh, former supremo of Nigeria’s flagship squad, the Super Eagles. l have made a similar point in several television interviews since it happened late Thursday, February 25, when he threw the job back to Amaju Pinnick, Christopher Green and their cohorts at the very controversial technical committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

Let me say that this is the first time l have seen this kind of honourable step by a Nigerian. To be honest with you, until it happened, I never believed that Sunday has a little integrity left in him. This his action, though, moved me to his side for once since Mali 2002 Nations Cup where he exhibited his bad side against late Sports Minister, Mark Aku.

Despite his widely respected action the other day, I am still not his fan until when he decides to purge himself of his arrogant foul-mouthed attitude. I digress.

Yes, Oliseh threw in the towel which climaxed his controversial employment with the NFF. I won’t bother with how he got the plum job because it is in the public domain. I won’t also liken his exit to the case of one that kills by the sword perishing by the sword.

I was among the constructive critics Sunday called insane. I said he won’t last on the job, for which he nearly swallowed me raw. Now some of us have been vindicated. I did not get angry at him because I knew he was under intense and undue pressure which Chris Green and his Oliver Twist trouble-making technical committee members subjected him to. He was like a thoroughly wounded lion roaring. Nobody wanted to near him. He was all alone licking his self-inflicted wounds.

Again, to his chagrin, Amaju in his true chameleonic character deserted him. Oliseh hit the roof. His anger boiled to high heavens. He would at that juncture be praying for the hour when the cup would pass him by.

The emergency Super Eagles coach told no one else for fear of leakage and reprisal action by the NFF leadership. When the hour came, he released the bombshell. He shocked NFF and unsuspecting Nigerians. The devastation of that action Amaju and company are yet to recover fro,m never mind the panicky initial gra-gra statement from them. I have been clapping as the ‘madness’ continues, saying that it is good for both parties. We must not lose sight that the NFF/Oliseh saga that ended on sour note could safely be attributed to another age-old adage that says a child who says his mother won’t sleep, he, too, cannot sleep.

Amaju Pinnick, Chris Green and Sunday Oliseh shamefully danced naked in the market square, leaving Nigerian football in limbo.

If he was sacked, trust, I would not have cried for him. He took the job from the same people that never allow the system to run its full course. They did not give him respite, they came for him head-on. He battled them; I was watching and keenly, following the melodrama with open soul amusement, even clapping in some cases when they were throwing jabs at themselves. I would ask nobody in particular, is this not Amaju Pinnick’s Pep of Africa? – as he did tell Nigerians when the romance was still intoxicating.

I say it served them right. Oliseh saw hell and made up his mind to leave the job for them. The situation on ground was not conducive enough for him to do the tedious task ahead. Green was outrageously on his nerves. The best was what he did when the ovation was loudest. He left with his self-esteem intact. He that fights and runs away, definitely lives to fight another day. He can boldly tell Amaju and Green to their faces his grievance against them. They were instrumental to his action. That is what Green is doing in the board. That was why he upstaged very accomplished administrator Felix Anyansi-Agwu as the original boss of the technical committee and few weeks after, he caused this uproar that saw Oliseh to the door. Truth is that the men at the centre of this ugly scenario are birds of the same feather.

Oliseh’s regrets and worries that could live with him for long – that is if he has conscience – would be the many enemies he made in so short a time. The players that left the team due to his high-handedness and bad manners of how to relate to people. As an old adage would say, you don’t learn how to use the left hand at old age. Sunday, like a leopard, cannot change his spots. It has become part and parcel of him. He thought he was doing well to please Amaju Pinnick. Now it has backfired. He left unsung and unwept. Poor Sunday; he came, saw but could not conquer. An irony, you would say.

My candid take on this confusion is that NFF should shut up and stop insulting the collective intelligence of Nigerians who have been comprehensively embarrassed. It has messed up the AFCON and World Cup qualifiers of the nation. Urgent steps must be taken to find a lasting solution instead of trading words with the former coach. What should be uppermost in their minds now would be to arm Samson Siasia and the other coaches working with him to hit the ground running. Amaju and his board should stop responding to all what Oliseh said – they are the truth. It will be diversionary and also an ill-wind at this juncture. We don’t need it for now. All what NFF leadership, Siasia-led technical crew and the players want is focus and concentration on the task ahead of them in the crucial game against fire-spitting Egypt.

The football body, instead of dissipating energy replying Oliseh on the obvious, should channel such energy towards consulting and possibly convincing Vincent Enyeama and Emmanuel Emenike on the need to come back to the Super Eagles as all is forgiven. Nigerians would be more at home seeing that the games against the over-ambitious Pharaohs of Egypt won’t be a nightmare at the end of the day. Oliseh has played his part and he is now history. No condition is permanent.

NFF technical committee caused this whole distraction and someone should call Chris Green to order. He was at the centre of Keshi’s headache, now Oliseh. The Rivers State-born lawyer would be better at home in the courts wearing his wig and gown than the damage he has been causing to our football. Someone should tell me how sound he is technically to head that very sensitive department in our football federation. What is his track record in the game? When they planned the ‘coup’ against Anyansi-Agwu, Amaju and others were applauding. Anyansi-Agwu would be laughing loud at them now as they wriggle in their own mess, licking their spit and vomit. What a shame! Nigerians would stone this group of committee members if the Super Eagles fail to qualify for Gabon 2017 AFCON finals.

Let me confess that they showed Sunday pepper and the equally heady coach had to take them by surprise. I hail him. Their interference was unbecoming of them – from match venue to dictating who will play the game. Amaju Pinnick must deliver the AFCON 2017 ticket to Nigerians as group leader, not as the best loser. No more, no less. Meanwhile, we wait!!

•Enyinnaya can be reached via 08055068145 (sms only) or by e-mail via sportzvictor@yahoo.com.au

Source Daily Sports

Posted February 29, 2016