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 One bizarre explanation that was offered to Nige­rians after our crash and fortunate withdrawal from the 2026 World Cup tourna­ment was a post-match interview which Super Eagles Coach Eric Chelle offered. During the pen­alty shoot-out that eliminated Nigeria, an agitated Eric Chelle, now the ultimate dramatist, was to be seen lunging to the DRC side of the pitch. A curious journalist eventually asked him why he was that agitated and was apparently more focused on the antics of the DRC side of the pitch instead of a focus on his own players. Coach Chelle said that he was running to the other side to prevent the DRC from further using voodoo to control the outcome of the penalty shoot. I have referred to Mr. Chelle as ‘ultimate dra­matist’, for good reason. During AFCON 2023, as soon as it was clear that his side, Mali was los­ing to a superior side, he got one of his handlers to pour cold water on his head, in the full glare of television cameras, and which he later explained away as an at­tempt to rehydrate, and therefore projected water-pouring-on-head-during-matches as another medi­cal prescription for rehydration.

It is said that all the world is a stage, and that all men are basically actors, given the opportunity. And therefore, drama appears to be in Mr. Chelle’s DNA, and perhaps is the NFF strategy at endearing him to Nigerians. Mr. Chelle appears the ultimate drama king extraordinaire – in the game against Rwanda or so, he also engaged in another drama of the absurd – he abandoned the super­vision of his side and poked his nose in the affairs of the other team. If he was not restrained very quickly on that occasion, he would have won a CAF award for fighting coach of the African World Cup qualifiers.

Because of this proclivity to engage in fisticuffs, there is some suspicion that Mr. Chelle may actu­ally have taken some drama class­es prior to becoming a coach. Or maybe there are hidden clauses in his contract that require him to be boisterous, agitated and unnecessar­ily cantankerous in the prosecution of a match? It may be so, and that perhaps may be the reason why the NFF have consistently hidden the Chelle contract from Nigerians. Take for instance that in spite of a Federal High Court Order of May 8, 2025, granting a mandamus request, his employers, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, acting with the seeming support of CAF and FIFA have been hiding the contract.

But it is not in the absurdist the­atrics or the wild voodoo claims of a being beaten coach that this dis­cussion is about, even though those issues raise many red flags. After all football is a sport – sport to mean that even though you go there to domi­nate and justify your paycheck, you don’t become a sore loser if you don’t win. You don’t go there to blame juju or pour cold water on your head to ‘rehydrate’ or do dramatics and the­atrics. You accept the outcome of the encounter, take responsibility by resigning and pave the way for oth­ers to make a contribution as well. Blaming juju or voodoo for your loss is silly and naïve hysterics.

So the real issues are issues re­garding Nigeria’s overall football apparatchik, an apparatchik seem­ingly built on quicksand. Again, I will take the example of the contract of the Super Eagles Coach – to ask: if there are no underhand matters in that matter, why would it be that hard for a public document like the contract that Nigerians made with their coach be made public? Are there other clauses in that Chelle contract, apart from the likely dra­matist clause, that are likely to sug­gest that the Chelle contract may have had some con ramifications?

I read the so-called apology the NFF was said to have tendered to Ni­gerians over the fiasco of the World Cup qualifiers. At once, it brought back memories of that ‘apology’ that erstwhile sports minister of Nigeria also tendered after the fiasco of the 2024 Olympic games. Nigeria spent over N10billion – imagine N10billion – and came back with zero medal, only to offer an apology as expensive as N12billion. Did we have to spend N12billion in Paris when Nigerians were angry, and on the streets at high cost of food, only for us to be hand­ed an apology instead of medals at least? What makes the so-called apology from the NFF an insult to nearly 300 million Nigerians is the brazenness and awkwardness of it. Notice again that the same condi­tions that are there now that made it impossible to book a place at the USA World Cup next year are the same with which Nigeria will be looking to meet better-run African countries, and most which were minnows and in diapers when Nigeria ruled the football world in the early 90s. We will be carrying over this voodoo and apology mentality into the 2026 AFCON. Why are we often like this?