Sports Minister, Senator John Owan Enoh, has revealed that the Federal Government has no intention of sacking Super Eagles’ Coach, Jose Peseiro, before the forthcoming Cote d’Ivoire 2024 Africa Cup of Nations.
Peseiro will lead the Super Eagles to the Cup of Nations, which will hold from January 13 to February 11, 2024, in Cote d’Ivoire.
The Portuguese has been severely criticized by football-loving Nigerians, who are not happy with the Super Eagles’ performances in recent friendly games and two matches of the 2026 World Cup qualifying series.
In the race to the 2026 World Cup, the Super Eagles came from behind to hold Lesotho and Zimbabwe to 1-1 draws in Uyo and Rwanda, respectively.
Such results have elicited calls for the coach’s sack from a people who do not believe that Peseiro can lead the country to victory at the Africa Cup of Nations and qualification for the World Cup.
Speaking with journalists recently, Enoh said sacking Peseiro would not serve the country well, especially with the Nations Cup around the corner.
The minister said the coach’s situation would be reviewed after the competition in Cote d’Ivoire, adding that any decision taken then would be in the best interest of Nigeria.
“Football enjoys the biggest followership among the sports in Nigeria; it elicits so much emotions and passions from our people.
“I am trying not to be rushed into hasty decisions. I mean, I have tried to be calm because I find out that this sector has passions and emotions and a minister should not be driven by emotions and passions.
“I am happy to say that two days ago, I had a meeting with the NFF and we decided that the coach be summoned and I think by sometime next week (this week) we will have an engagement with the coach.
“We have to be careful because the Cup of Nations will start on January 13 and we should ask ourselves, ‘are we where we can sack our coach? Are we where we should now begin to engage to find out what went wrong?”
The minister said he met a situation where the coach’s contract had expired and that in a space of 12 months, the coach had only been paid for two months.
“So, we owe that coach 10 or nine months times $70,000. What we did was to now renegotiate that contract and get him to accept $50,000 monthly until after the tournament.
“As a minister, I am concerned that the national team is not meeting our expectations, but the Cup of Nations is near so we have to be careful with what we do now.”
On his expectations at the Africa Cup of Nations, Enoh said, like every Nigerian, he expects the Super Eagles to win the title.
“For a football nation like Nigeria it goes beyond qualification for the competition. We last won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013 and the minimum anybody should expect is that after 10 years, we should be able to win it; but can we win it?”
The minister recalled that he was in Lagos recently to drum support for the Super Eagles’ bid to reclaim the Africa Cup of Nations title and also to show that the ministry is in support of the NFF’s ‘Let’s Do It Again’ campaign.
He added, however, that the results of the recent World Cup qualifiers were enough to dampen Super Eagles’ fans morale.
“In the first game against Lesotho in Uyo we expected a resounding victory and even if we went to draw with Zimbabwe, the public outcry would not have been that loud. The next qualification round is in June and before that we will have the time to decide what is right for the nation.”
