When Sunday Oliseh stood down from his position as the Chief Coach of Nigerian Super Eagles, many Nigerians took to social media to call him “unpatriotic” “a rebel” and tagged him with other labels. Yet, they’re not focused on reasons he kissed the job goodbye.
According to Oliseh’s tweet he resigned from the job due to the following reasons: “contract violations, lack of support, unpaid wages, benefits to my players, Asst.Coaches & myself (sic), I resign as Super Eagles Chief Coach”.
It goes with out saying that his reasons are good enough for him to tender his resignation. When one works for an organization, one should get paid for their services. And if, in any event, you don’t get paid one has the right leave the job.
Researchers from Centre for Advanced Human Resource Studies argue that, “in order to win the “war for talent,” [employers] must first win the battle for employees’ hearts” and employers must never violate contracts. In this case the Nigerian Football Association failed on winning their employees’ heart.
Then again, this is not new. Samson Siasia, Stephen Keshi and other Nigerian coaches complained about the same thing—lack of pay. However, the foreign coaches have not faced this and, even if they did, they always got their money at the end.
Unpaid-wages is synonymous with working in any Nigerian government managed firm. Last year, Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, SERAP, in their report claimed “the Federal Government of Nigeria are failing and/or refusing to pay workers’ salaries and pensioners’ entitlements, amounting to billions of dollars in arrears.” That the chief coach resigned for lack of pay simply adds to the narrative.
Claiming that Oliseh isn’t patriotic is not only hypocritical but, also, illogical. How many Nigerians would love to work for free or work in the name of patriotism?
But it’s not surprising that, after eight months, the former Super Eagles’ Skipper dropped the ball. He had being openly critical about Nigeria. In Nigeria, you cannot work for the government and still criticize her. It’s criminal.
The reoccurrence of this sad drama where workers’ don’t get paid in Nigeria must be addressed.
I had the opportunity to discuss with Oliseh some years ago about Nigeria and he intoned jokingly that “if you want to die early, work for the Nigerian government.” At that time, he had not got his coaching job. Perhaps, to avoid that death, he made this wise decision.
There’s a lesson to be learnt here. Let’s focus on the continuous disrespect of workers in Nigeria. Nigerian employers should always attempt to “win the hearts” of their employees and not give them reasons to exit.
*I can be reached via [email protected] and I tweet at @moshoke.
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