Former Nigeria coach Adegboye Onigbinde has sensationally claimed that the Nigeria Football Federation are merely using the appointment of Sunday Oliseh as Super Eagles coach as smokescreen in their bid to hire a foreign coach for the national team.
The NFF are poised to announce the appointment of Oliseh next week as Stephen Keshi’s successor, but Onigbinde has said that he believes the governing body are surreptitiously planning to get their white man and it is irrelevant whether Oliseh is adequately qualified for the job or not.
“There are basic things here to note. The NFF are in charge of the administration of football in Nigeria so we have to accept the decisions they make,” Onigbinde, who led Nigeria to a runner-up finish in the 1984 Africa Cup of Nations, told Complete Sports. “We have to accept their standards.”
“However I feel the idea of appointing Oliseh is a decoy, a ploy to eventually hire a foreign coach.
“They are bringing a foreign coach under the guise that they want him to assist Oliseh. Eventually they will find excuses to ease Oliseh out and have his assistant take over.
“I read in the papers where it was written that Oliseh is a member of the FIFA Study Group and that he has obtained some coaching certificates, what does that have to do with coaching.
“It does not matter whether Oliseh is experienced or not. The NFF do not want Nigerians to make noise about this by saying they don’t have confidence in Nigerian coaches.”