Sunday Oliseh’s Self-delusions and Uncouth Talk-back at Nigerians -By Ahmed Oluwasanjo

Sunday Oliseh, Chief coach of the Super Eagle.

From the days of Moses in the Bible, those who take responsibility – as public servants – have always had to manage and cope with their fans and critics. And of course, criticisms – be it constructive or destructive – could come from traducers or fans who desire to see one fail or excel.

Truth be told, tolerating criticism is very hard but it remains a good feedback for one to know how he/she is performing or not, and more importantly to keeps one focused on self-improvement and getting better in whatever one has signed up for.

Of course, we all murmur about critics who are always finding faults in our very best efforts but not in the public, most especially when the critics are our employers. Always, the best response to give critics – be they haters or lovers – is good performance and nothing more.

All of these brings me to the outrageous outburst of Super Eagles coach, Sunday Oliseh, who said his critics are “insane”. At first, after the team he led to the 2016 African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Rwanda crashed out, he politely apologised. That was okay. However, his follow up outburst in which he said his critics are “insane”, came to many Nigerians as a surprise.

Does Oliseh mean Nigerians – ardent footballer lovers – who kept supporting a non-performing Super Eagles unanimously, irrespective of their obvious differences of opinion, are all mad? Does Oliseh mean that those whose taxes pay his salaries have no right to vent their displeasure on his performance as a coach? If the later is the case, then he should pitch his tent with those in the National Assembly who are on the move to gag Nigerian social media users. But, as long as he remains the Eagles coach, it is the right of his critics – lovers or haters – to objectively or otherwise have their say on his performance, while it’s incumbent on him to deliver.

In another way round, Oliseh’s outburst and false apologies simply mirror how irresponsible politicians and public servants who earn a living from the taxes of poor Nigerians treat the same tax payers with contempt and abject disrespect. And the manner they cunningly come back like the biblical prodigal son, putting up all sorts of explanations forward to seek the public’s face and make up for their obvious malfeasance whenever their actions attracts public outcry. The story of Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomole and the street-hawking widow he verbally abused; the case of the governor of Nasarawa State, “Hell-Makura” and Ms. Iorvihi; and that of Abdulraham Dambazau and his shoe shining state security aide are examples to support my point.

Anyway, we cannot blame Oliseh for taking a swipe at his critics, after all his appointment was due to cronyism and was not based on his track record as a soccer coach. This is brings me to his statement that “I didn’t want this job. I rejected it twice and I took the job after intense persuasion by an influential friend in government”, which reveals why he felt so arrogant and thought that exchanging words with his critics would be a good line of defence, when the best thing he could have done was to go back to the drawing board, get his team together and deliver in subsequent marches. I’m sure Nigerians must be seeing the bad side of cronyism from Oliseh’s arrogance; but that’s a topic for another time.

Let’s face it. If the better proven likes of Clemens Westerhof, Jo Bonfrere, Chief Adegboye Onigbinde, Amodu Shaibu, Austin Eguavoen, Lars Largerback, Samson Siasia and even Stephen Keshi – who Oliseh criticised serially, and nastily – never had the guts to say their critics were “insane”, who is Oliseh to have said so?! As at the last time I checked, Oliseh is definitely in no way better than any of these coaches, but the way he’s kept harping on his record of having led the national team into 14 games, most of which they won, as if that could pass for a trophy – particularly, CHAN – baffles me.

Well, since he wants to be commended, I clap for him for his much cherished record. However, he needs to be reminded that yesterday’s record in football does not guarantee a coach’s job tomorrow – only today’s success does. Let me drive home my point with two examples: Keshi won the 2013 African Cup of Nations (AFCON), qualified and took the Eagles to the World Cup in 2014, but was fired for not qualifying for the 2015 African Nations Cup. Similarly, Jose Mourinho who led Chelsea FC to win the 2014/2015 English Premier League (EPL) was sacked the very season after he won the EPL.

Sunday Oliseh must be full of self-delusion and feelings that he is the “Special One”. He appears to be highly skilled in putting up flimsy excuses and blaming his failures on those he could simply put to silence by subsequent outstanding outings. His outrageous reaction to his so-called critics reminds many Nigerians of his extremely short fused temper – even though he was indisputably a fantastic defensive midfielder in his playing career. But, it’s too bad that his short temper is really disappointing at this stage in his career.

Oliseh should not live in self-deception that some of his “ex-colleagues” are scheming hard to occupy his seat because he also rode on the criticism of his predecessor to his present position. So, if it was right the, for Oliseh to criticise Keshi, how is it wrong today for another person to criticise him? Besides, are his critics not part of the 170 million Nigerians he came back to pretentiously apologise to or how does he separate his critics from other football-loving Nigerians who have also censured him on the same issue?

In the second part of the explosive YouTube video of his rant, he said, “a contract was made out, I signed a contract with the NFF; if you’re not happy about it, Ok we come out and shake hands”(sic). By this, Oliseh might be feeling he would probably be invited by Arsenal FC or Barcelona FC should he resign or get fired as the Eagles’ coach. But just before then, I would advise him to seek counsel from Jose Mourinho or better still, ask Keshi, how far?

And if by chance Oliseh loses this big opportunity to garner practical experience in coaching beyond cheap studio talk and prove his critics wrong by delivering, he should not be surprised if calls to coach teams like Agege Bombers or Felele United do not come his way subsequently.

Of course, this piece might make me one of the “insane” critics of Oliseh, but then he would have to prove his own sanity first. If he takes my humble advice to heart, and works on his temper, puts his team on a better pedestal and starts delivering, he would be in a better position to truly earn his pay and position as the Eagles coach, while also winning the respect of Nigerians.

I wish him well.