BY JOE APU

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WITH the AFCON 2017 double header barely a month away, President General of the Nigeria Football Sup­porters Club, Dr. Rafiu Ladipo says Super Eagles manager, Sunday Oliseh and his crew can’t afford to fail Nigeria and must scale the Pharoahs of Egypt hur­dles warning that a continued dwelling on the insults the coach heaped on Nigerians would only distract the team.
Speaking ahead of the encounters that comes up in Kaduna and Cairo, Dr. Ladipo called for unity among Nigerians to enable the Super Eagles overcome Egypt.
“We all felt insulted by the ranting of our coach but he should realise that no coach goes without criticisms. Nigerians are passionate about football and are free to air their opinions. As a coach all he needed do is to sieve useful information from all of it and make the best out of it.
“Nigeria has seen coaches before him and they were all criticized. He should also realise that as a player, many supported him and even when he was appointed, he was hailed but when he is not doing well, people will voice out. No one expected that Nigeria will lose out at the preliminary stage of CHAN.
“However, I am glad he realised his mistakes and apologised to Nigerians. I believe we can beat Egypt in Kaduna and pick a draw in Cairo. Nigerians should come out enmass and support the Eagles in Kaduna for us to record a win so as to make the second leg easier.”
Meanwhile, the Super Eagles manager had been ordered to Abuja to defend his list of invited players before the Nigeria Football Federation technical com­mittee.
According to africanfootball.com, Oliseh will ap­pear on Friday, February 26 before the committee and is also expected to discuss his game plan for the double header against the seven-time African champions.
Nigeria will welcome group leaders Egypt to Ka­duna on Friday, March 25, before a reverse fixture in Egypt two days later.