By the time you are reading this the new technical crew of the Super Eagles would have been unveiled in an unprecedented ceremony in Abuja. Never in the history of Nigerian football has such an event being held for a Nigerian coach. It is very significant as it marks a major shift in the relationship between Nigerian football and its indigenous coaches! Getting to this point has not been easy. Indeed, it took a major catastrophic outing in Ghana earlier in the year for Nigerians to unanimously agree that they should give one of their own an authentic chance to handle the senior national team. Before now, every Nigerian coach (except Festus Onigbinde) that had handled the national team had done so on a more or less as a stop gap between the hiring of foreign coaches! Even the last two terms of Amodu as head coach of the national team were laced with ‘landmines’ laid in their path by an army of those that felt it was not time to give the responsibility of such a big team as the Super Eagles to ‘small’ men! So, every time a Nigerian coach is hired the clamour for a foreign replacement begins almost immediately by a segment of the media. This is the first time there is unanimity that a Nigerian deserves the full treatment!

At first glance, the man who begins this new chapter in coaching-relations with Nigerian football is a veteran of the domestic game. His previous performance in the domestic game and at continental club level earned Amodu Shuaibu the right to manage the national team two times in the past. But not everyone seemed convinced of his ability to take the national team to the levels that a team of the standard of the Eagles deserved. That is really why in 2001 the Sports ministry officials could remove him as manager of the team and the heavens did not fall even when he had led the team to qualifying for the World Cup. Not everyone was convinced of his capability. It was easy to use the excuse of some poor judgment during the African Cup of Nations in Mali to relieve him of his position. Unfortunately for Shuaibu since then his records even in the domestic scene that he retired to have plummeted. As he sort respect for Nigerian coaches and moved from one club to another, the shenanigans playing out in the domestic league frustrated his quest for laurels to add to his previous credentials. He was either seen to be overpaid, or over-rated! When the story of his role in the transfer of Yakubu Aiyegbeni broke it almost destroyed any chances of his getting the present position but for the sympathetic media that chose not to put it on the front burner of discourse.
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At the ‘audition’ for a new manager for the Super Eagles Amodu was gifted by fate. Apart from Kadiri Ikhana in the domestic football scene, no other coach had made any appreciable impact. The team that had dominated the domestic scene, Enyimba FC of Aba, through the years of its success was handled by several Nigerian coaches with such successes not completely attributed to them. That honour belongs to another man, the team’s financier and chief motivator, Chief Uzor Orji Kalu!
Kadiri Ikhana MON did not indicate an interest in the job. Perhaps if he did Amodu would have been better challenged for the position. Kadiri is the most consistent and most successful coach in domestic Nigerian football in the past decade and more. The new generation of coaches, with better international football backgrounds and more recognizable images, all either had one spectre of controversy or the other from their past creating some distrust in the minds of Nigerians of their capability or are considered too ‘rookie’ for a big team like the Super Eagles. Stephen Keshi, unlikely to have been given the job anyway, was offered another by Mali. Not even his exploits with Togo, taking that small nation to the World Cup, could make some Nigerians fully embrace his return. Austin Eguavoen was lumped with the dismal performance of Berti Vogts and became its major Nigerian casualty. One day, like all those before him, he will return.
Perhaps the only coach that seemed totally acceptable and qualified was Samson Siasia who for four years has slowly but steadily built up a reputation as a serious, hardworking, no-nonsense personality, with recorded successes with the junior teams as his testimony. He was the ‘best’ candidate but fell ‘victim’ to some clever internal politics in the football association. The simple, reasonable argument that he could not handle the Olympic team that he had led to the Olympic finals as well as the Super Eagles team meant that the coast was clear for another candidate. At that point, looking at the radar of Nigerian football, no one could argue any more that there was a better candidate than Amodu Shuaibu. Thus he returns more on the strength of expediency than on capability, as man gifted by fate!

In moving from this point forward, therefore, Amodu must grab the opportunity with both hands and create a new future both for himself and his constituency of Nigerian coaches! It is a huge responsibility. On his shoulder lies the fate of Nigerian coaches and their relationship with the senior national team into the future. Will this relationship sustain beyond Amodu? This would depend on how Amodu leads the Super Eagles in the execution of this new mandate. I can guarantee that immediately after his first match in charge he would come under very close and critical scrutiny. Unlike in previous times he would not be given time to build anything. He has to deliver from match one. This he has to do without a team in place! There is no authentic Super Eagles in place at this time. Not after what Nigerians saw in Ghana. Amodu must build a new team in little or no time. He has to put his distinctive imprint on the team to reveal something new and exciting! He must convince Nigerians watching the team with microscopes of his capability this time around. That’s why in listing a player (Chris Obodo) who has been down with an injury for close to one year in his first call-up to the national team, he started on a poor note. Fortunately, it was a major gaff that the media has chosen not to play up so soon into his new assignment. Next time he may not get off so lightly!

I have a few tips for him!
Amodu must take this assignment very seriously. He must elevate himself to fit into the position of manager of the Super Eagles of Nigeria. He must discard any trace of a complex in his work both within and outside these shores. He must shun any attempt to do ‘business’ with players. In order words, he must not trade in players directly or indirectly. He must distance his private work from his national assignment and devote maximum attention to scouring the world for information on the players available to him to build his team. Finally, he must use Daniel Amokachi to the hilt! Although he must also use the others (Fatai Amao, Alloy Agu, and so on), it is to Daniel he must turn for his greatest support. As far as I am concerned Daniel gives the technical crew the technical edge the team needs to grow. Fiery, frank, impetuous, almost arrogant, but knowledgeable, respected, known, and intelligent. Daniel ‘the Bull’ Amokachi knows his onions when it comes to football. He is only one of very few ex-players that I have encountered that read and analyse teams well. I have watched him work in the past two years and I know. Just as I knew by watching Samson Siasia many years ago and realized he would make a good coach one day. Just as I know now that Jay Jay would make a fantastic manager if he ever chooses to be one. Just as I know that Sunday Oliseh would make a damn good coach if he is given a chance.

Amodu must lean on Daniel to provide technical leadership. He should be the pilot of the team using his maturity and experience to steer the other members of his technical crew to work for him. He should give his young technical crew the freedom to express their technical depth. He should concentrate more on managing the egos of his players to get them motivated and ready to play for him. He should anchor his reign to driving his technical crew, taking care of the players’ welfare, motivating the team to play beyond their normal capacities, scouting for players, arranging matches, and fighting the psychology battle against opposing managers.