The latest episode in the unending soap operas that has often been characterized with Nigerian football is the inability of the Super Eagles to qualify for the African Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.
Soccer fanatics, administrators and even the players have attributed their failure to obvious factors; technical inefficiency, discipline and comically, the failure of God being a Nigerian in this trying time that we needed him. After all was he not the one who performed the famous “Miracle of Damman” in 1989, the exciting comeback at the Olympics in 1996 against Brazil qualifying for the world cup in South Africa when we defeated Kenya in Nairobi while Tunisia failed to nick a win at home thus handing us the victory and qualification.
Now that our dear God has ceased being a Nigerian, we need to look at ways of endearing ourselves back to him if we admit that we failed in other areas of football administration and developing a culture of accepting that failure is evident when planning is non-existent.
I remember growing up in the early 80’s in the midst of my soccer crazy brothers; they regaled me with the stories of legends in Nigerian football, when secondary schools were the famous hunting ground for talents thus producing the likes of Stephen Keshi, Henry Nwosu and even Samson Siasia. I marvelled at the exploits of and legendary status of Otto Gloria and his technical superiority when Nigeria won the Nations Cup on home soil in 1980. My brothers also told me it was a sacrilege for Nigeria not to be present successive African Cup of nations, while the failure of the Flying Eagles to win the Tessema Cup for the under 20’s was never considered.
We were a country of eternal optimist; we knew that everything that needed excellence required planning. We planned for and got results, we hired coaches who had vision and fired those whose skills were not compatible.   When we realised that Manfred Hoener would not deliver the elusive world cup ticket, we unearthed a gem in Clemens Westerhof, the self styled “Dutchgerian” and he immediately told the world that he needed time.
In 1990, with a relatively unknown side we got to the final of the African Cup of nations inspite of our being battered five goals to one by Algeria in the opening match of the competition. The Dutchman discovered little known Daniel Amokachi as a school boy from Kaduna, Friday “elastic” Elaho, Uche Okechukwu, and a host of many others. Westerhof breached all bureaucratic protocols by making those in charge of Football realise that proper planning is the key to taking Nigeria to where it belongs.  He gained unfettered access to the then Vice president, Augustus Aihkomu and he gave us what has eluded us for over 30 years; the World Cup ticket and he added the of winning the Nations Cup in Tunisia to the cherry. Westerhof earned legendary status in our football hall of fame with the masterful performance of the super eagles in the world cup proper in the USA. Our country was ranked the fourth best playing team in world.
Then the rot started, odd elements were suddenly interested in the Nigerian Project, nerdy and tacky administrators saw fortunes in the new found status of the Eagles and other national teams. The team was seen by foreign soldiers of fortune as the Milky Way to their galaxy of fortunes.  Bonfere Jo, Carlos Alberto Torres, Thijs Libregt , Berti Vogts and the colourless Lars Lagerback have all tasted in what our coffers have to offer with nothing to match  what Westerhof did for the country. The reign of these fortune hunters had being punctuated with the appointment of local bystanders in temporary capacity and in sometimes tempestuous permanent capacity.  Shuabu Amodu, Christain Chukwu Adegboye Onigbinde, Austin Eguavoen and Samson Siasia have all been saddled with the same responsibility and with the exception of Amodu the rest have failed in impressing or recording any major landmark. At least Amodu qualified Nigeria for the World Cup on two occasions yet he was sacrificed for a mediocre local coach and a deficient expatriate.
The results yielded by successive local coaches and the recent failure of the super eagles have shown that they are still yards behind their European counterparts thus at times justify the appointment of mediocre foreigners over them when they fail.
The likes of Joseph Guardiola of Barcelona and  Andre Villa boas in Chelsea have shown that technical and tactical Prowess in football is not determined by being an ex footballer nor by your national quota but by simply adjusting to the new trends in football.
Our coaches still rely on who they know and what they will give to land the eagles job and when eventually they get it they call up players who are supposedly loyal to the national team without actually getting to unearthing genuine talents from both within and outside the country.   Apart from the maladministration which has become a permanent sore in our football, the nepotism of our local coaches has shown that their personal pride comes before the nation’s glory.
Samson Siasia’s appointment was heralded as the renaissance of football in the country. It was viewed that he possessed the qualities to actually turn around the fortunes of Nigeria football due to his exploits with the Flying Eagles. However nothing has changed since the debacle in South Africa, rather than genuinely revive our football, Siasia started another systemic rot of what might have been the perfect opportunity to make legendary status. He has not given the team any technical impetus; rather he continued to employ the old shadowy tactics of his local and foreign predecessors. With the exception of Joel Obi and Ahmed Musa, Samson Siasia, has not unearthed another jewel for the national team in the areas where the team obviously needed improvement. Lars Lagerback may have scuttled our ambitions at the world cup but we had a team that showed defensive promise, something that has been obviously lacking since Siasia took over, Joesph Yobo has been paired with over five players while during his predecessors tenure, he had a constant partner in Daniel Shittu. Tactically i have not seen the Eagles play with gusto like we did during the days of Westerhof, the “Dutchgerian was spoilt with choices and he deployed players according to our opposition. He famously dropped Austin Okocha in the famous victory at Annaba, Algeria during our qualification for the World Cup, when he employed Mutiu Adepoju, Thompson Oliha and the mercurial Sunday Oliseh to shore up our rear guard.
In terms of discipline, Siasia himself was a major culprit, when Westerhof almost left him out of the world cup party after he refused to pass to Rashidi  Yekini, in the crunch match against Cote de Voire  which the Eagles lost by a goal to two. He was frozen out of the team to make way for other strikers who shone and handed Nigeria the ticket. It took the intervention of FA officials and the influence of Stephen Keshi before he made the cut to the World Cup. Westerhof attributed arrogance and pride as one of the reasons why he almost dropped the striker.
Today, he prides himself as a disciplinarian, something i find questionable. Players might be culpable when it comes to discipline but the ability of the coach to wield his influence at the right time and using the right medium means lot to the confidence of the team.
The loss of the Nations cup ticket to many of us is the beginning of the end for Nigeria football, many African nations need not fear Nigeria anymore after all, and they lack the will to excel. The 2014 world cup is a tall order for the Nigerian FA and some of us are sure if this current football association is still in charge, we can start kissing our dreams goodbye. We can start seeking alternative citizenship because being a Nigerian does not intimidate our neighbours anymore.
There is the need for us to learn from the morals of failure in other to correct our obvious anomalies.  England, learnt from their failure to make the mark at Euro 2008, they changed direction, Ghana has chosen the “Serbian Solution” now they are been  lobbied for friendly matches, Italy, Portugal and other football countries have all chosen the “right path to excellence” .
Like Sunny Okosun’s classic, “which way Nigeria”. What are the lessons evident from our successive failures?  One lesson i would recommend is that we need to unearth another Jose Mourinho or Andre Villa Boa of our country, we need to do away with the ex player syndrome.  Nigeria needs professionals who are committed to our national cause, just like power, the economy and other sectors need revival.