Just
as Nigerians begin to savour the joy of being African champions,
confusion has set into the camp of the Super Eagles with Coach Stephen
Keshi announcing his resignation on Monday.
Keshi who is billed to return with his
players to Nigeria Tuesday (today) was first quoted in South Africa as
having resigned his position as the manager of the Nigerian team despite
winning the African cup on Sunday with a 1-0 defeat of Burkina Faso in
the final match.
The Eagles Media Officer, Ben Alaiya, on Monday night confirmed that Keshi indeed resigned.
“It is true,” Alaiya wrote in a terse
response to a text from one of our correspondents. While speaking to a
South African radio show on Monday evening, Keshi said that he handed
in his resignation letter after the match on Sunday night.
“I gave them (Nigeria Football
Federation) my letter of resignation immediately after last night’s
game, but I haven’t heard from them yet,” Keshi told Metro FM on Monday night.
A communication line soon opened between
the Presidency and Keshi after the announcement and the former captain
of the national team confirmed he had resigned and was only awaiting the
response of the NFF officials.
A very highly placed official in the Presidency told The PUNCH
in an exclusive interview on Monday that the matter had been taken up
immediately. The source added that after the discussion with Keshi, he
agreed to withdraw his resignation and continue his job with the team.
The official said, “Yes, it is very true
that Keshi resigned his position as coach of the Eagles. That he
confirmed to us. It was quite alarming given the complaints he brought
up. There were a lot on things going on that the nation didn’t know.
“He informed us about backlog of
salaries, his official car that has only been on paper since he took
office. Even in South Africa, money was a lot of issue. It is appalling
but the key thing is that Keshi has calmed down and has agreed to
continue as the coach of Nigeria.”
Apart from his car and salary, we learnt
that the Eagles coach complained bitterly of not getting the cash due
him in South Africa during the Nations Cup. He also complained that his
players were being owed a lot of money as the promises were more on the
pages of the newspapers than being fulfilled.
Keshi could not be reached despite efforts by The PUNCH last night.
It was also quite tough getting a response from the NFF on the matter.
The NFF Chief Media Officer, Ademola Olajire, did not respond to our mail.
But a former goalkeeper with the
Nigerian team who is now based in South Africa, Peterside Idah,
confirmed Keshi’s resignation via his Twitter handle.
Idah tweeted, “Yes, he told me so, he
would resign on Saturday, spent some time with him. Will give you
reasons why he quit tomorrow.”
It was learnt that the members of the Federation went into an emergency meeting on Monday over the matter.
The triumph of the Eagles at the Nations
Cup indeed took many people by surprise as they were not amongst the
competition favourites.
The national team came into the
consciousness of the citizens after they defeated cup favourites, Ivory
Coast, in the quarter-finals. Before then the NFF officials had put a
lot of pressure on Eagles when it appeared that the team would not scale
through the group stages.
Before the last group match against
Ethiopia the NFF had issued an official press release stating that Keshi
had “no excuse for failure.”
But the Super Eagles then defeated Ethiopia to qualify for the next stage and that calmed a lot of nerves.
Keshi in one of his reactions afterwards said he was virtually on the sack list until the tide turned for him.
“Nobody believed in me. They were sure
that this team would not get anywhere and they wanted to sack me during
the competition,” he said.
Keshi is expected to fly back with the
team today for the Tuesday night reception holding at the Presidential
Villa, irrespective of the situation.
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