By Mumini Alao in Cuiaba:
STEPHEN Keshi has retracted the statement he made about striker Osaze Odemwingie at the post-match conference of the Nigeria-Iran game in Curitiba which ended goalless.
The Super Eagles coach was asked by journalists to comment on Odemwingie’s performance as a substitute. The Stoke striker had impressed lots of observers, but Keshi had responded dismissively that the player “did not play to my instructions.”
The coach’s bristle response fueled speculations that the rift between the duo which had led to the player’s exclusion form the national team for nearly two years had not not been fully resolved.
But when given an opportunity to clarify his statement at another press conference at which Complete Sports was present a day before the Nigeria- Bosnia game in Cuiaba, Keshi seized it to clear the air.
“I mentioned Osaze by name, but I did not mean to single him out (for criticism),” Keshi said.
“I was referring to the whole team not playing to my instruction. I think there was a misunderstanding (of my statement) but the important thing is that all my players including Osaze understood what I was saying.”
Keshi went on to pick Osaze in his starting line-up for the Bosnia- Herzegovina game and the “prodigal son” responded with the only goal of the match.
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COMMENTS
I said it before now and I will repeat it again: there must be some responsibility in the way and manner some of our reporters are reporting events in the Nigerian camp in Brazil. It was Peter Enahoro, the one time editor of defunct Daily Times that once said, “every editor learns to edit himself first”. I haven’t been too sure lately how much our editors have been doing that whether in the way events in the Nigerian Camp in the ongoing FIFA World cup or in the plans and movements of our troops against the Boko Haram lunatics, I have my reservations on how much discretion our reporters are exercising. Right now, I’m at a loss in understanding the motive for some of the divisive reports that we are being fed with. Unfortunately, like Hitler and Josef Goebbel knew too well, manipulators of public opinion know how to “use emotion for the many”!
Why would we prefer to see a divided house? Why is Keshi never good enough in the eyes of many of us? Why are our players so bad in our eyes but players of other countries are ever such flawless football genie? Why is that a defending champion can lose 5-1 and we believe that they can somehow turn things around in their remaining matches and still qualify but when we drew our first match, the general chorus of our ever morbidly negative compatriots that never see anything good in their own, was that “Nigeria was out”. When would we learn to respect and value what we have? My appeal again to journalists, officials and fans alike, is this: rather than disparaging all the time, let’s encourage these warrior taking on the rest of the world on our behalf.
And please let us do less to drive wedges between players and coach on one hand and between coach and officials on the other.
Until We nigerians learn to believe in ourselves and stop copying other over rated and hyped individuals, we will continue to lag behind. Imagine feeding us positive infos of other teams as dished out by their PR. and trying to destabilise your own house by reporting negatives