Oliseh's Book and his "attack" of JJ Okocha

[Toxicarrow]

My copy of Sunday Oliseh's book - "Audacity to Refuse" arrived at my doorstep four hours ago. In my curiosity for the "inside scoop" on what happened in Mali 2002, I went straight to the three chapters ( 16, 17 & 18) about the pre-Mali 2002 qualifying matches, Mali 2002, and 2002 WC. Oliseh tactically lambasted Jay Jay Okocha even without naming him. He called him "selfish" and "egoist" who destabilized the team for his own selfish goals. In sum, he partly blamed Okocha for the ugly episodes in Mali. Of course, Nigerian media, NFA and Sport Minister were not spared by Oliseh

However, what was quite shocking and revealing in these three chapters about Mali 2002 was Coach Amodu's poor medical condition. He wrote:

"The coaches were also unpaid and Coach Shuaibu called me up to this room for a private talk. He informed me that he had a bad feeling about the FA, and shocked me when he confided in me that he had serious health problems that no one knew about. I broke down completely and had to sit down. That explained why Coach Shuaibu was always confined to his room, only venturing out for training sessions, matches, and dinner. He implored me to keep it to myself, which I have till date" - p. 316

I got my book and just finished same chapters. I don’t think it’s Jay Jay only. He never directly mentioned the culprit (s). But he omitted Kanu Nwankwo and Jay Jay from the list of those he thanked for their support during the qualifier for 2002 AFCON and World Cup at page 316:

”The entire group agreed, thanks to support I received from level headed colleagues such as Tijani Babangida, Finidi George, Aghahowa, Yobo, Victor Agali and Yakubu Aiyegbeni”

As I said the identity of the guy is not revealed between the 2 senior leadership left out. It seems Keshi had warned Sunday not to give in allowing this guy having his own room as he had insisted when everyone was sharing room.
Per Sunday, the person later became the captain of the SE, after leading the mischief against him and the coaches. He also said the team led by the person, had worst appearance at 2002 World Cup, couldn’t qualify for subsequent World Cup in Germany (2006)and never did better at AFCON until Keshi was recalled as coach. And that the best the country could do was the same bronze they won at Mali.
I will put my money on Kanu as he was closest to Onigbinde during JapaKorea ‘02. In the chapter on Atlanta Olympic, he also took a swipe at Kanu for reporting late to camp. The betrayal by the 2 along with Patrick Ekeji set Nigeria back for a decade.
“Whether qualifying for the Workd cup qualifiers or not, the team lacked leadership, was undisciplined, and celebrated the same third place at the AFCON for a decade...”

Oga FF: Though he did not name the individual(s), but there were few giveaways in the books on the individual(s). In addition to the section that you noted above, here is another giveaway on page 313 and 314. Sunday Oliseh on those pages:

"We drove into Mali, and as we had barely reached the reception of our hotel, a huge dispute broke out between Coach Stephen Keshi and one of the senior Super Eagles' players from the 1994 group about room allocation and pairings. The refused to be paired with any other teammate and wanted to be alone....Eventually in the interest of peace and after my pleas, the player was given his single room but little did I know then that this player's actions were premeditated towards achieving a selfish goal that involved destabilizing and betraying the team by creating chaos using his egoistic goals. Keshi saw it coming and I unfortunately did not ! " - pp. 313-314