“To a hammer, everything looks like a nail”

A lot of people wondered about Sunday Oliseh’s suitability for the role of Super Eagles coach, and while it is still too early to decide if he will make a good coach or not, he has probably made his first big mistake.

The sequence of events leading to the Vincent Enyeama being stripped of the captaincy, leading to his retirement from the international football, was entirely unnecessary and should have been handled much better.

The story goes that Enyeama arrived the camp late after burying his mother, and at the team dinner, he was not allowed to give his own side of the story. He was then stripped of the captaincy (which is now with Ahmed Musa of CSKA Moscow), and kicked out of camp. This forced NFF officials to intervene and try to rectify the situation, but expectedly it was broken beyond repair.

Those who support Oliseh will inevitably use the term ‘discipline’, but to a hammer, everything looks like a nail. News of Enyeama’s bereavement was well known to the coach, and the issue of his late arrival could have been handled with a simple fine, after letting the captain have his say. It is a right Enyeama has earned.

Instead, an unnecessary escalation has now deprived the Super Eagles of a loyal servant, and bags of experience.

Oliseh’s justification for stripping Enyeama of the captaincy come across as a face saving measure made after the fact. If he wanted a younger player as captain, he could have simply informed Enyeama beforehand, and previously, Enyeama’s discipline has never come under scrutiny until now, seeing as he has played under several other national coaches.

If I were being uncharitable, I would say Oliseh displayed his inexperience by acting impulsively, thus failing his first test of man management, in a way that doesn’t bode well for the future.

A more benign viewpoint would be to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he clearly understood the ramifications of his decision.

Enyeama is a popular figure and has often bailed out the Super Eagles. Ostracising him when the goalkeeper was not clearly in the wrong is a divisive move, and it is up to Oliseh to manage the fallout.

For the sake of the Super Eagles, I hope he got it right, but I doubt it.

For the sake of the Super Eagles, I hope he got it right, but I doubt it.