The President of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF seems to have taken another unilateral decision without due process as he has directed the secretariat to announce the appointments of Jolomi Atune , Abubakar Tyabo Umir and Salolome Ernest as the Nigerian National U-15 team coaches.
The executive committee of the NFF had last month agreed to throw open the national team coaching position by requesting for fresh applications from interested candidates for the national U-15, U-17, U-20 and U-23 teams.
It also promised to publish adverts in various national newspapers to detail the vacancies in the national team, while the NFF are yet to publish any advert, the NFF board members have secretly told their friends and relatives to submit applications for the positions at the NFF secretariat in Abuja.
While the secret application submission is still on, NFF president Amaju Pinnick we understand has directed the NFF secretariat headed by Dr. Mohammed Sanusi to announce Jolomi Atune as the head coach of the National U-15 team while Abubakar Tyabo Umir and Salolome Ernest will be his assistant.
If the standard recently set by the NFF’s technical committee is anything to go by (that all national team coaches must have at least CAF B licence) Jolomi Atune who has only a Basic coaching Certificate is not qualified to be in the national team.
Pinnick handpicked Jolomi Atune from Delta state as the head coach, NFF board member Ahmed Yusuf Fresh handpicked Tyabo Umir (CAF C license) from his state Niger state while another board member Christopher Green picked Salolome Ernest from River state to be the second assistant coach.
Jolomi Atune and Salolome Ernest were part of the Nigerian U-17 which failed to qualify for the 2017 CAF U-17 championship, they were so poor to the extent that former national U-17 team coach Nduka Ugbade had to be drafted in two weeks to the qualifiers to come and assist the then chief coach Manu Garba but the team lost to lowly Niger Republic.
The Amaju Pinnick led board having failed to qualify for the U-17, U-20 as well as the Africa Cup of Nations back-to-back had promised to turn a new leave by appointing only qualified coaches for the national teams, this prompted several coaches to go the extra mile (paid exorbitant school fees) to obtain the CAF coaching certificates through CAF organized coaching courses.
But it seems Pinnick and his cronies are yet to learn their lesson hence they have returned to their old ways.
The national U-17, U-20 and U-23 coach positions have already been shared between Amaju Pinnick and his cronies.
Jolomi Atune has already announced his appointment to his friends.
