Senate President, David Mark, has attributed unnecessary interference in the job of the head coach of the Super Eagles as the reason why Stephen Keshi resigned from the post on Monday, 24 hours after leading Nigeria to win her third Africa Cup of Nations title.
Mark who spoke with Keshi on the telephone admitted that the Eagles coach told him that he was being compelled by the football authorities to accept the coming of a foreign technical adviser into the team’s management.
The senate president who made this disclosure during the plenary session of the Senate, said the coming of technical advisers would not be necessary since Nigerians were happy working with the ex-international.
While advising the Ministry of Sport and the Nigeria Football Federation to give Keshi a free hand to do his job, said that Keshi would retain his job provided no foreign technical adviser would be foisted on him.
“There was a lot of pressure on him that he must accept a foreign technical adviser but Keshi was opposed to the idea because he believes that there are Nigerians who can effectively work with him to get the desired results.
“He however said he was sorry that he had to put in his resignation but I think he is prepared to rescind it provided we don’t force foreign Technical Adviser on him and I think once we give him the team to manage, we should give him a free hand to do his job.
“Whatever way he goes to get the result should not be our problems because once we begin to meddle in the way he is going to run and manage the team, it will send a wrong signal. So, the Sport Ministry should allow him to bring results without interference,” Mark said.
The Senate President who led Nigeria’s delegation to the final game in Johannesburg on behalf of President Goodluck Jonathan who was unavoidably absent, said he was shocked to see that the disposition of many other countries to Nigeria during the match on Sunday was negative.