Sports Minister John Enoh, the NFF as well as Super Eagles coach Finidi George are all fighting to keep their prized jobs after the Super Eagles could not fly past South Africa and Benin this past week in 2026 World Cup qualifying series.
Nigeria are currently second from bottom of a relatively easy Group C with three points from four matches.
They will now have to win their remaining six matches next year as well as hope front runners Rwanda, South Africa and Benin, who are all four points clear, also drop more points along the way.
On hindsight now, reaching the final of the 2023 AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire was The Great Deception.
The excitement that overtook Nigeria in those four weeks got many to believe that football in the country will now enjoy a new lease of life after many years of underachievement.
In this excitement, the NFF leadership, who many had right from the 2022 elections questioned its competence and capacity, foot dragged on appointing a successor to the Portuguese coach Jose Peseiro.
The NFF technical committee first met to set the ball rolling for a selection process for a new Super Eagles coach in March, but it was not until May that Finidi George was eventually appointed to the top post.
Committee member and former international Felix ‘Owo Blow’ Owolabi clearly conveyed the direction of the technical panel when he pronounced that competence and not the skin colour of a coach will be the main consideration in this appointment.
An unprecedented 50 foreign coaches applied to lead the Super Eagles.
The committee’s first shortlist of five coaches were all expatriates.
This unnecessarily long-drawn drama will take a different direction when the committee was ordered to look inwards for their man.
The excuse was that the Federal Government demanded for a local coach and it will not pay for a foreign coach.
Was this the decision of the NFF Executive Committee, NFF president Gusau or that of the Sports Minister?
And so when the NFF met with the Sports Minister in April, the shortlist of the coaches had Finidi George, Daniel Amokachi and Antonio Conceicao.
The insistence on the Portuguese Conceicao was that should in case, there is another rethink about the suitability of a local coach, the former Cameroon coach will be most qualified for the job.
The Minister questioned the choice of Amokachi, who for the past few years has been a politician and not a practicing coach.
Emmanuel Amuneke was therefore an afterthought as he has been without a job for some time.
He did not enjoy a good working relationship with the NFF leadership when he was last in charge of the Flying Eagles in 2017.
He was imposed on Augustine Eguavoen by the former Sports Minister Sunday Dare and Nigeria crashed out to rivals Ghana in the 2022 World Cup final playoffs amid turmoil in the team.
Two disappointing results by the Super Eagles this month have now caused the commotion that clearly shows that both the NFF and the Sport Minister are not ready to take full responsibility for bungling a simple selection process.
Rather it is now the usual case of fire the little ones before they fire you.
And Hurrah! The NFF can now afford a foreign coach that just a few weeks ago they could not.
Shame on all of them, truth in Nigeria has taken flight ✈️, landing with commotion, sorry, my dear nation