The Nigeria Football Federation on Thursday sacked Stephen Keshi from his position and have installed a consortium of coaches led by former manager Shaibu Amodu to fill his shoes.
They don’t call him the ‘Big Boss’ for nothing.
Physically, he is has an intimidating presence—colossal in all ramifications. His demeanor as coach, even though many found it quite annoying, is reflective of his early days as a player and captain of Nigeria: strong-willed (or, maybe even stubborn).
His firmness on issues (maybe a tad stiff-headed) endeared him to some but whichever way Nigeria fans chose to think of the 52-year-old, the fact is that he has finally been sacked—plausibly the wish of the majority. And while this might bring a measure of joy to some, his achievements with the team, in the space of time he was in charge, will forever be remembered.
It won’t be surprising to learn that the same attitude that others found repulsive is the exact behavior that made him loved in some quarters; Ahmed Musa and co. played their hearts out in order to secure a much-needed win in Abuja against Sudan, all for him.
When he took over from Samson Siasia, who also went from grace to disgrace, the plan was to build for the future, with a very modest ambition of possibly challenging for the Africa Cup of Nations in three to four years' time, even though everyone was onboard in seeing how disjointed the team was at that time.
But the Big Boss had other ideas. He broke all protocols and landed Nigeria her first continental title in almost 20 years within two years in the job, becoming only the second person to win the AFCON title as both player and coach; the first being Mahmoud El-Gohary of Egypt.
The roof went flying and accolades began to pour in.
The back-biters were left to chew their own skin, while the rumormongers ran out of tales.
He led the team back to South Africa, where they won the AFCON title, and bagged the Mandela Cup in the same year…those were good times.
He not only rallied the foreign-based players but also opened the doors to local-based players such as Sunday Mba, who now plies his trade in the French third tier and will eternally be grateful to the Big Boss for the exposure and platform afforded him to further his career.
Keshi also delivered the World Cup ticket in stylish fashion, and then went on to match the long-standing exploits of erstwhile manager Clemens Westerhof to reach the last-16 in Brazil.
However, despite his impressive CV with Nigeria, his tenure was marred with ceaseless fracas and quite unnecessary public spats with his bosses (NFF officials) and some of the players.
It won’t be too far from the truth to say that perhaps Nigeria was expecting Keshi to do something he never has and never will: swallow his reservations.
How do you hire a man who was known to be the leader of a small group of players who wielded strong power over the team in his playing days and then expect him to be as meek as a lamb?
A lion is still a lion no matter how old it is.
In the end, the man who was seen as Nigeria’s ‘messiah’, a former captain, shot himself in the foot with his unwise insistence to shut the door on public opinion, which is a dangerous thing to do in an environment such as Nigeria’s, posing to be the sole carrier of wisdom and grace, and calling the bluff on his employees and important players.
It was evident that he had taken the plunge from hero to villain when the NFF president revealed that it took security officials to hold back an angry mob that laid in wait for the team in Abuja. However, the presence of the police couldn’t stop the partisan crowd from booing the former Mali coach from the stands.
“We did that (the sacking of Keshi) because we saw a lot of things that had happened in the past. There were issues bordering on security, from the beginning of the game (against Sudan), we saw that a hero in Keshi was booed from the beginning of the game,” Pinnick told Channels TV programme, Sunrise.
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