Christian Chukwu: Keshi had the opportunity of leaving honourably

Stephen Keshi

Super Eagles’ former coach, Christian Chukwu, said yesterday that sacked coach Stephen Keshi had the opportunity of leaving the position honourably when it became obvious that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) no longer needed his services.
Chukwu was among the many football people who advised Keshi to walk away from his position when it became obvious that he was hanging on to the position because of the influence of some people in the former President Goodluck Jonathan government.

Keshi was sacked on Saturday by the NFF, who accused the coach of “lacking the required commitment to achieve the Federation’s objectives as set out in the Coach’s employment contract.”
According to Chukwu, who said the NFF was right in sacking Keshi, “from day one, it was obvious the federation didn’t really want to work with Keshi and one could read it easily from their body language.
“Coaching job is all about hiring and firing and I hope Keshi will take it in good faith.”
Also in support of the NFF action is former Director-General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Patrick Ekeji, who argued that the federation had no confidence in the coach and the right thing to do was to part ways in the interest of the nation.
“The NFF have done what they should have done before,” the former Green Eagles star said.
“They lost confidence in Keshi long time ago, and when you don’t have confidence in your employee, there is no way you can work together.”
“I said it before that they should take a decision on time and I am happy they have done that. They should start looking for a new coach immediately and if they already have one, he should resume without any delay.”
Also in support of Keshi’s sack is former FIFA/CAF technical committee member, Adegboye Onigbinde, who also backed the decision of the federation to appoint Shuaibu Amodu as Super Eagles’ interim coach.
However, Onigbinde advises the NFF to adhere to the contract terms they agreed with Keshi, adding, “the deed is done and there’s nothing anybody can do now about it.”
He said: “I saw it coming but it’s a good step that the NFF immediately directed Shaibu Amodu to take charge of the team in the interim. This was supposed to be a new dawn for the team and I feel they shouldn’t have made this whole thing a public affair.
“I am not privy to the terms of his contract with the NFF so I don’t know who is to blame for the way things happened.
“There must be a process in a contract called an Ouster Article/Clause that will state how a contract will be determined, otherwise if the NFF have not kept to the terms of that clause, Keshi can even take them to court. No matter how bad a person may seem to be, he will surely have sympathisers. I believe the NFF must have looked into the contract thoroughly.”
Onigbinde went don memory lane to justify the NFF’s appointment of Amodu Shaibu as interim Super Eagles’ coach.