Nigeria have a complicated relationship with the Africa Cup of Nations. Since USA ‘94, they account for three of the seven appearances by African nations in the knockout stages of the World Cup, the most consistent standard bearers of a continent’s grand ambition. But Nigeria have reached only two continental finals over the same period.
In 1996, seven months before they won Olympic gold, Nigeria were not present at Afcon after withdrawing at the behest of the country’s military leader Sani Abacha, who was protesting against criticism from South Africa president Nelson Mandela over the hanging of minority activists. That withdrawal caused Nigeria to be banned from the 1998 tournament.
Even success was only a prelude for further farce. Nigeria’s 2013 triumph under Stephen Keshi was followed by a last-16 appearance at the 2014 World Cup. They then failed to get out of their group in 2018, and in between those major tournaments, Nigeria failed to qualify for Afcon despite being top seeds on both occasions, eliminated by Congo and Egypt.
But even by usual standards, this has been a chaotic prelude to the tournament. On 13 December, halfway through his contract, the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) sacked coach Gernot Rohr. NFF Amaju Pinnick explained that they did not believe Nigeria would win the tournament with Rohr in charge, but then concluded that “the team will use the competition to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers”, a piece of glorious mixed-messaging.
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He has admitted to sleepless nights worrying about how he prepares a squad with a fortnight’s preparation and no pre-tournament friendlies, and you can’t blame him for the concern. Eguavoen’s appointment caused plenty of discontent from supporters and Poseiro will be watching on as an “observer”. The temporary manager insists he is the boss of his replacement, for now.
Worse news came with a striker situation that started off as an unhelpful distraction and has ended in a full-blown crisis. Victor Osimhen was recovering from injury when he tested positive for Covid-19, with the combination of the two causing his withdrawal from the squad. Likely replacement Paul Onuachu was then injured while playing for Genk, and pulled out.
No problem, because Emmanuel Dennis was in supreme form for Watford. But then it emerged that slack admin meant that the NFF were late to request Dennis’ participation from Watford, and the Premier League club dug their heels in. Claudio Ranieri insists that Watford did nothing wrong and that the player was happy to stay in England, but the NFF have made accusations of poor etiquette, if nothing else.
Which left Odion Ighalo, the old warhorse and the top scorer in this competition three years ago, eventually helping earn him a move to Manchester United. Cue his club Al Shabab making the same claim as Watford about late letters of request. Eguavoen admitted on Monday that all hope of Ighalo’s participation had now gone.
Nigeria do still have attacking talent. Kelechi Iheanacho and Ahmed Musa reflect Leicester City and Nigeria’s present and past, while Union Berlin forward Taiwo Awoniyi has been pushed so far up the list of strikers that he may well start against Egypt. But it is hard to envisage that Nigeria are in a perfect place on the eve of another major tournament. Rangers’ Leon Balogun and Omonia’s Abdullahi Shehu, two defenders in the original squad, have both withdrawn due to positive Covid tests.
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The format of this tournament – the group stage only cuts eight teams and there are far weaker sides than them – allows Eguavoen to re-learn on the job while avoiding the calamity of group-stage exit. But he is also acutely aware that an opening fixture against Egypt is emphatically unideal. Comprehensive defeat would add fuel to the opinion that this is a marriage of inconvenience and finishing second in Group D raises the distinct possibility of a meeting with holders Algeria in the last-16.
For now, Eguavoen is philosophical. In his interviews he has talked almost exclusively in well-trodden cliches, speaking of pressure, pride, attitude and professionalism, discussing his respect for Pep Guardiola as the best manager in the world. The players were sent to bed at 2am one evening after a lengthy discussion of strategy and tactics.
But Eguavoen has a task that appears difficult now and may seem thankless in a fortnight’s time. Specifically, he is tasked with shutting out the noise, dampening the cries of a self-engineered crisis and taking Nigeria further than their semi-final three years ago. More generally, he can either embrace the chaos or ignore it and both come with pitfalls. For now, he need only focus on stopping Mohamed Salah on Tuesday. Nobody said this would be easy.
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