The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) issued a press statement on Sunday, 15th May 2022, announcing it had contracted a 62-year-old Portuguese, Jose Peseiro, as the Head Coach of the Super Eagles.

The detail of the contract agreement between the NFF and the newly announced Super Eagles Coach is as follows:

It was gathered Peseiro would receive $70,000 monthly, over N29mn, from which he would pay his two incoming personal assistants.

It was also gathered that the NFF was signing for just a year’s deal with the new Coach with an option for another year depending on how things turn out in the initial 12 months.

Among other clauses in his contract included that, Peseiro was expected to watch 60 per cent of domestic league games as he had been mandated to discover home-grown talents for the national team.

While a handful of other coaches were equally shortlisted for the Super Eagles job, Peseiro in the end reportedly turned out to be the cheapest option.

Sources familiar with the NFF’s recruitment process disclosed that other coaches that could have been hired for the national team were either not affordable or not available for the job.

“A number of other coaches were also contacted but it is either the salary they were asking for was too high or they were not even favourably disposed to a national team job at the moment.

“Peseiro turned out to be the cheapest option for the NFF and that was why they settled for him.”

It’s noteworthy that this was the second time the NFF is announcing Peseiro as the Head Coach for Nigeria, having hurriedly done the same on the eve of the commencement of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Cameroon.

Then, it was announced that the Portuguese would be an observer while Austin Eguavoen would be solely in charge of the Eagles at the continental tournament.

The ‘appointment’ of Peseiro by the NFF was, then, contained in a communique issued after the NFF’s executive council meeting held on December 29, 2021.

However, a few weeks after the announcement, Peseiro revealed that talks to handle the three-time African champions collapsed due to financial queries and clauses in the proposed contract.

It’s worthy of note that Peseiro would be the first Portuguese sportsman to manage the national team.

José Vitor dos Santos Peseiro, 62, is a Portuguese who played as a striker in his days. He has to his credit wide and varied experience in coaching clubs and national teams across four different continents, including Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America.

An educationist with a degree in physical education/sports sciences, Peseiro has top-level coaching qualifications and training, and has coached at Sporting Lisbon, FC Porto, Panathinaikos, and Rapid Bucharest.

He also had stints at Sporting Braga, Victoria Guimaraes, Al-Hilal, Al-Wahda, Al-Ahly Cairo, Sharjah FC, and Real Madrid, as well as serving as Head Coach of the Saudi Arabia and Venezuela national teams, respectively.

Though well-travelled and with vast experience, Peseiro appears to have more sack letters than trophies, but it would be out of place to outrightly conclude he would not succeed with the Super Eagles.

From Panathinaikos to FC Porto, and to Braga and even Saudi Arabia, it is on record that there has hardly ever been any happy ending wherever he had found himself as regards his coaching business.

Meanwhile, the Portuguese tactician has some notable moments winning silverware, with the last being the league title with Al-Ahly.

He is saddled with rebuilding the Nigeria team to a formidable status and his first outing would be leading the Super Eagles for the upcoming tour to the United States of America (USA).

Over there, the three-time African champions slugged it out with Mexico and Ecuador, in prestige friendlies.

Any rational Nigerian that thinks good of Nigeria, or means well for the country, wouldn’t hesitate to wonder why the NFF decided to settle for a foreign coach at a time when everyone is concerned about the needed actions to promote our domestic products.

Aside from this, for the fact that the country’s economy is currently dwindling, is enough reason to worry over the attraction of the NFF towards a foreign coach. It’s really worrisome that we have apparently lost interest and hope on our own, and this is the bane of Nigeria’s economic plight.

The Leader of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Boniface Aniebonam, has described as divine intervention, the current gale of defections into the party from other political parties domiciled in the country.

Mr Aniebonam disclosed to newsmen on Sunday, 15th May 2022 in Lagos State that an erstwhile Governor of Kano State, Rabiu Kwankwaso had ushered in ‘high ranking and huge membership’ into the party in less than three months.

According to the party leader, it was NNPP’s divine time to provide leadership that’s poised to create a new Nigeria.

It could be recalled that, in recent times, ahead of the 2023 general elections in Nigeria, there has been a gale of defections into the NNPP in various states across the country, particularly in Kano, Jigawa, and Kaduna.

Ten PDP lawmakers and three APC lawmakers in Kano had recently defected to the NNPP while the Deputy Speaker of Kano State House of Assembly, Zubairu Massu also on Friday, 13th May 2022 defected from the APC to the NNPP, alongside some other former lawmakers.

In a related development, in Osun State, a chieftain of the APC in the person of Muslihudeen Adekilekun, on Saturday, 14th May 2022 stated that he had defected to the NNPP.

As if that wasn’t enough, the current Chief of Staff of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, Ali Makoda, led other notable politicians in the Kano North Senatorial District, to the NNPP on Saturday, 14th May 2022.

Mr Aniebonam, who is reportedly the Founder of the NNPP, further boasted before newsmen that in 21 years of its existence, the party now had offices in all parts across the federation.

He said, “the party is gradually becoming a movement”, hence urging Nigerians to join the winning team. “We are the beautiful bride in the North as it is and we hope to expand to all parts of Nigeria as the best option for Nigerians.”

He assured that, “as a party with a divine mandate”, the NNPP would ensure that its primaries were fair to all, including the new entrants.

Mr Aniebonam went ahead to state that the party planned to translate Nigeria from being a “consumption nation to a producing state” to address the present economic challenges facing the country.

According to the statesman, the basis of some of the challenges facing the nation was because the country was no longer producing all it consumed, among other related issues.

The NNPP founder mentioned that the panacea to youth engagement was to move Nigeria from being a consumption nation to a producing nation, saying the NNPP was committed to engaging the Nigerian youth by reviving all moribund industries in the country to gainfully engage them.

Mr Aniebonam said that the NNPP would invest in education and encourage both the learners and educators, saying the party would provide the right leadership to address most of the current challenges facing the nation.

On women’s inclusion in politics, Mr Aniebonam replied that women were more prudent because of the ‘fear of God’ in them, hence the commitment of the party to provide them good representation in governance.

Mr Aniebonam, however, observed that not many women were coming out to contest elective positions, saying “power is never served but taken”. He therefore disclosed that the NNPP platform was available for women who wanted to join in the movement for creating a new Nigeria, adding that the cost of nomination and expression of interest forms had been reduced for the womenfolk.

The party leader further disclosed that a woman would be contesting the governorship election in Ogun State come 2023 on the platform of the NNPP, and there could be more of them in the nearest future.

“What we need to do more now is to empower these women through appointments. With that, they will grow and be able to move in for elections.” he opined.

With what is trending presently in Nigeria’s political space, the NNPP might be a party to contend with in the impending elections. No doubt, if the pace of the ongoing defections continues in the coming days, then the NNPC is a party to watch, or could be a ‘beautiful bride’ as rightly opined by the leader.

There are strong speculations that the party is making a move to merge with the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) towards producing a formidable presidential candidate ahead of the polls.

As the odyssey becomes more interesting and scintillating, the electorate are advised to observe wisely toward making good meaning from the scene.