(Interviewed by Mike Awoyinfa)
I feel so nauseated. I did not expect what happened to us in Abidjan. We should see ourselves as a nation that must qualify, not just for the Cup of Nations but even the World Cup. We have a country of over 254 million people. We have football talents all across the world, doing well in the various clubs. We even have some good local players to play for Nigeria. The problem with our football is the administration.
In 2018 in Russia, I said our football was dying. But nobody believed me. I have been part of football for 48 years of my life, putting my money, time, influence and everything at the risk of my life and that of the Supporters’ Club. Nobody gives us a kobo. I go round to beg Mike Adenuga, Dangote, Sifax to give us money. Government doesn’t look at us.
On the match per se, what happened to Nigeria was very much unexpected. If we had been a serious nation that we were supposed to be, we won’t find ourselves in this situation. How can Benin defeat the Super Eagles? We scored them first. We could not hold on to that one goal lead. They came from behind to outscore us 2-1. How do you explain that? Ah, South Africa! Look at the way we were disgraced at home and outside!
The match in Cote D’Ivoire was a home match for Nigeria. But we lost it. The one at Uyo earlier, we even forced the Bafana Bafana to a draw. Why should that be happening? Is it the players? No sir. But I have told them, since they don’t want to listen to me, I am just watching. In the last nine years, what has Nigeria won? We have dropped from No.5 in the world to what number now? We were in the United States in 1994, adjudged to be the fifth best in the world. We were in Atlanta 1996, we were the best. But since then, rather than maintain that tempo, or move up, we have been dropping. We have refused to tell ourselves the truth. And at my level and at this stage of my life, I can no longer deceive myself. For a cause that I believed in and I served selflessly, meritoriously, to the extent that even FIFA adjudged my group to be the best in the world.
So, we have a problem. The problem is administration. Because it is the administration that would employ the coach, it is the administration that would dictate what happened even to the players. A situation where the Super Eagles coach is paid salary, and the backroom staff are paid only allowances. Do you think those backroom staff will be happy? A situation where a group of Nigerians would sacrifice their money and time at the risk of their lives, and no mention is made about them. You tell them now, they would say he has come again. I told them since 2018 that our football is dying. That was about seven years ago. They said I was talking rubbish. Is our football not dying? So, let us put our heads together, let us put our thoughts together, and see how best we can bring back the good old days of Nigerian football. We have those that are technically sound to be in the NFF. We have those who have played football and those who have managed football to be in the NFF. Did we allow them to get there? We did not. Who are the people running our football? What is their pedigree?
Our last coach Jose Peseiro left and we need to probe why he left. He said he was being paid a particular amount of salary on paper but he was getting something different. How true is that? What can we do to rectify that? We went to the Cup of Nations with Peseiro. We did not win the Cup of Nations but we did not do badly. We got to the final. Peseiro’s mistake was that having gotten to the final, he should have changed his tactics at the final match. Because we were playing in Cote D’Ivoire, Cote D’Ivoire people were watching us. We were all the time playing defensive and we were winning our game. During the final, what Peseiro ought to have done, was to have played attacking football. Thank God we scored them in the first half. If we had gone ahead to continue to attack them, we would have won. But we went back defending, until we allowed them to score. For me, Peseiro left and there must have been a reason. Because Peseiro was not happy with the condition, particularly when he asked for more money by way of increase in his salary. And of course, the NFF said they could not pay. So, we are where we are now.
Gernot Rohr on his part had left us since. It was after he left that we brought in Peseiro. But look at the same Gernot Rohr coaching the Cheetahs of Benin. Gernot Rohr knows our system of football. He knows our weaknesses. He knows our strength. So he went to use the little experience he has about Nigeria to attack us. And it worked for him. Our qualification for the World Cup now is by the grace of God. We have only garnered three points from possible twelve points. That is not a good show for Nigeria. If we had won the match, we would have been topping the group. Unfortunately we lost. So we went down. And now, we have at least six matches to play. If we want to qualify for the World Cup, we must be able to manage and win four of those remaining six matches. Anything short of that would not be palatable. And I must let you know: since our first time at the World Cup in 1994, we have been to six World Cups tournaments. Last time in Qatar, we were not there. Why? It was due to maladministration. Ghana came here, and in Abuja, they took the ticket away from us.
In those days, the NFA, the Ministry of Sports, will gather together and put a committee in place. There are people out there who would work behind the scene and give advice. That is no longer the norm. We have to go back to that. If the NFF think they can do it all alone by themselves, it is not going to work. Let us go back, constitute a Success Committee that would look at what we have failed to do and what we should be doing to start winning our matches.
In anything, you need a little bit of luck to succeed. We have seen teams with 90 per cent possession of the game losing to teams who only had 10 per cent. All because they were lucky. They got the result. Where does that result come from? A lot of people would misunderstand me. They say prayer doesn’t work. Prayer works! When the Super Eagles were winning in those days, there was a group fasting and praying for the team. In Atlanta ’96, I started with my group singing: He is a miracle working God. After that, I have a Father who never fails. We were doing that while fasting. You need a bit of luck to succeed. It is not by juju.
Do I blame Finidi George? No, I don’t. Those who employed him knew why they did. It is possible we qualify. If only the needful is done. Oga Mike, I am happy talking to you after several years.