Former Nigeria internationals, Mutiu Adepoju and Garba Lawal have condemned the decision of the Nigeria Football Federation to open the application for Super Eagles’ coaching job tobonly one candidate — Stephen Keshi.
Two weeks ago, the NFF said Keshi, whose contract expired after the 2014 World Cup, was the only one that applied for the vacant job, giving its technical committee an easy job in settling for him.
However, the ex-Eagles revolt that it would be in the interest of Nigerian football to give room for other candidates to apply and compete for the job. They said it was wrong for the NFF to jettison the norm which is to advertise the vacancy for the national coaching job; receive applications from as many coaches as possible and shortlist a few before choosing one.
Adepoju, noted that should Keshi get the Burkina Faso coaching job, for which he has been
shortlisted alongside ex-Ghana coach Milovan Rajevac and ex-Gabon and Niger coach Gernot Rohr, and decides to take it, the NFF would be forced to begin a fresh recruitment for Eagles coach.
He said that would further delay the commencement of preparations for the 2017
Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, which will kick off in June.
“Like the Burkina Faso football federation is doing, under normal conditions, we should be
considering many candidates for the national team coaching job. I think the people in charge should try and do that as soon as possible. If it is Keshi that will continue, that should be decided as soon as possible,” Adepoju said.
The former attacking midfielder urged the NFF to allow a few more candidates to join the race for the Eagles coaching job before it becomes late.
On his part, Lawal argued that the NFF should have made it an open race from the beginning, saying it’s already too late for an open race.
“It’s too late to open it up to other candidates now. You can only go for one or two now, or
even one,” Lawal said. “They should have opened it up since, because if
you want it to be an open race, you have to collect CVs of the candidates; you have to
interview them one after the other; you have to compare them to pick one. That is not easy.
They should have done all that before now. At the moment it’s advisable for them to decide on who they want. If it is Keshi, let them act fast on it. If it is not Keshi, they should choose
another person fast.”
Lawal added that other coaches, particularly the indigenous ones, may be hesitant to compete with Keshi, considering that he was recalled reportedly on the orders of President Goodluck Jonathan, after his earlier dismissal by the NFF.
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