The Chairman House Committee on Sports, Hon. Ekene Adams has joined the call for an indigenous coach to lead the Nigeria senior national team, Super Eagles.
Hon. Ekene who cited lack of time ahead of the African Nations Cup qualifier games, explained that an indigenous coach is capable of leading the Super Eagles to glory having previously won the AFCON in 2013 with the Late Stephen Keshi in the saddle.
He called on the NFF to give the local coaches the chance to show what they can offer by selecting the most experienced and qualified from the pool of indigenous applicants to lead the Super Eagles.
“Following letter received from Concerned Nigerians on Sports Development, supporting emergence of indigenous coach to become next Super Eagles Coach, I have also thought about it and come to a conclusion and urge the Nigeria Football Federation to name an experienced, qualified home based coach to lead Nigeria senior men national team in the African Nations Cup and World Cup qualifiers.
He continued, “The last coach that won the AFCON for Nigeria was an indigenous coach, also, the 2023 AFCON was won by Ivorian (indigenous coach). The last title before the just concluded edition in Cote D’Ivoire was won by a Senegalese (indigenous coach) for the country.
“The NFF should look into the list of home based coaches that have submitted applications for the job and consider the most qualified one to lead Nigeria victory once again.”
“My concern for calling for the choice of home grown coach is that we have garnered just two points from possible six, this means we have no time to waste in recovering the lost four points a we have must-win matches coming up soon. If we must qualify, we have to hit the ground running as there’s no time for any coach to start understudying the team.
Qualified, experienced home based coach would know what to do on time and get work done with the little time ahead of the matches.
As a technical person, it will be much easier for someone who knows the team and the players inside out to lead the team to winning subsequent matches which will help Nigeria bounce back and lead the table.
Also, financial implications of employing a foreign coach should be considered. He concluded
