President Jonathan was wrong to recall Keshi — Gara-Gombe

Former head of the Gombe State Football Association, Shauib Gara Gombe has taken a swipe at embattled Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi for plotting to remain in charge after failing to qualify the defending champions for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea.

Ahmed Shuaibu Gara Gombe

What is your view on our Nations Cup failure?
Like I said to some of my friends, this Nations Cup failure is really disturbing and disappointing. And I wish to put it on record that our Nations Cup failure did not happen by accident.

Our failure is a combination of many factors. First, any serious FA in Africa, whose team participated at the last World Cup in Brazil, which ended in July,, knew that the qualifying matches for the 2015 Nations Cup were to start in September, which was enough time to start serious planning for the AFCON qualifiers.

Our FA, then led by Aminu Maigari, should have started planning for the qualifiers and the issue of renewal or non-renewal of the contract of our coach should have been done even before the World Cup ended. But instead of addressing these issues, having failed in Brazil, we came back with bags and baggages of problems, which were fuelled by political crisis. All these crises were about interest and rather than allow the secretariat to run smoothly, things were turned on their head.

It was during this time that Maigari’s impeachment added to the problem. It was clear that Maigari was not ready to renew Keshi’s contract. But when Umeh came on board, he wanted to give Keshi a contract but found himself in a tight corner after Keshi made some heavy demands.. One expected that the Minister of Sports, who was behind the crisis would have told Umeh how to go about the matter but he bungled the opportunity.

It was at that time that the Minister now gave Keshi a two-match assignment, which we knew was not enough because we had more than two matches still to play at that time of the qualifying campaign. That decision, for me, made no sense because it made Keshi not to be serious as there was no job security for him to put in 100 per cent.

Its really unfair that Keshi’s head was being called for at that time because he was not the only guilty party in our Nations Cup failure.

It was just after that time that Amaju Pinnick was now elected and the moment he took over, his body language showed that Keshi’s days were numbered. After our 3-1 defeat of Sudan, Pinnick still went ahead to relieve Keshi of his duties, before the Presidency later intervened, by recalling Keshi.

Upon bis recall, Keshi knew that he was working with an enemy and NFF knew that they were working with an eyesore.

There was no cooperation between them even though it seemed that both parties were on the same page.

Another factor that caused our non-qualification was the way players were being called to camp. When you are using too many players, it reduces your chances of winning. Then we had the fans who were rooting for the recall of certain players like Ike Uche. Keshi did not want to recall Uche but fans demand made him to change his stand.

So for me, Keshi was a victim of the circumstances he found himself in.

As at that time of the crisis, our women still won the AWC in Namibia and our Falconets did well at the Women’s World Cup in Canada?

You cannot equate women football with the men’s game because when it comes to the Super Eagles, any negative interest can spoil the progress of the team. Eagles are the centre of attraction and once the centre cannot hold, things fall apart. And it must be noted that our house was on fire that South Africa and Congo, who didn’t go the World Cup, were busy preparing for the Nations Cup qualifying matches. So which magic did we expect to perform against better prepared teams?

Can the new NFF board led by Pinnick take us to the great heights that we dream of reaching?
They can and they cannot. When you look at the board, it is only 30 per cent of of them who have something to offer in terms of football administration. The quality of that board is suspect.
Pinnick is a victim of circumstances. Nobody should blame him for whatever he is facing now

Back to our Nations Cup failure, how did you feel then and still feel now?
I was dejected when we crashed out. It was so painful and I am still hurting like other Nigerians. I think the real hurt will be in January when the competition kicks off and our Eagles will not be amongst the teams on parade. It is so demoralising and there is serious anger in the land. It will take us some time to recover from this failure.

And talking about the recovery process, who will help rebuild our team for better and sustainable results?
We have to change our way of doing things. We must first change the technical department and technical committee and assemble a new crop of Super Eagles players, who must be committed and talented. We have to to start now.

And what about the technical crew?
Of course, we need a new technical crew to be led by a foreign adviser.
So you are one of those in favour of the engagement of a foreigner to coach the Super Eagles?
Of course because as it is today, we have tried all our local coaches and they have all failed us. In fact, it was when it mattered most that they failed us. Keshi has no business remaining there because he had his chances but did not make use of them. if I were him, I would simply walk away and keep the little honour I have left intact. I urge him to completely resign as Super Eagles coach. We have tried all the Nigerian coaches, it is time to go foreign. Our local coaches have run out of ideas or are confused. Some of them, sometimes, bring sentiments into their work. But when you have a sound and acclaimed foreign adviser, you can be sure that such things would be eliminated.

But Keshi seems keen to continue as Eagles coach
He has done his best, which sadly, was not good enough for our team. I do not see why he wants to remain in charge, after all, he left Mali when he failed and also left Togo when he had problems with the players. So why can’t he leave our team after failing? He allowed the Nations Cup success in South Africa last year, to get into his head.

Our political elite contributed to the problem as they started flirting around with the coach after he won the Nations Cup and gave him rewards, which ordinarily should have been passed through the NFF, who were Keshi’s employers and who midwifed the successs. Imagine when we won the Nations Cup, the President started talking directly to the coach. It was wrong and it made Keshi to look down on the NFF and that was the start of his end because he saw himself bigger than others.

But the Presidency wants Keshi to remain in charge?
That won’t happen. The President should allow the NFF to decide who they want or else Keshi should relocate to the Villa and start working from there. We would not allow any such thing to be done to our football. Due process must be followed because football is more than what they think it is. It is the only thing that gives joy to the masses and nobody can toy with our joy.

The problems in Nigeria are too many for the Presidency. President Jonathan can be concerned about football but should allow those who have been elected to manage the game to do their job without negative interference.

Our Minister of Sports should have told the President what to do, instead of allowing the President to meddle in such matters.

- Vanguard

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