Adegboye Onigbinde, who is widely regarded as the most respected indigenous coach in Nigeria, has given two reasons to explain why the time is not short for Austin Eguavoen and his backroom staff to get the job done at the 2021 African Cup of Nations, which kick offs in Cameroon in less than four weeks.

The Nigerian Federation confirmed the sacking of Franco-German manager Gernot Rohr on Sunday and many people have argued that the former Nigeria skipper does not have time on his hands to deal with the problems in the team and explain his coaching philosophy to the players.

Using himself as a case study, Onigbinde highlighted that he was appointed to coach and build a new Super Eagles squad few months before the start of the 2002 World Cup and led the team to the final of the 1984 Africa Cup of Nations a year after he was brought in.

"In 1983 I had barely one year to prepare the team for the African Cup and we came out second. I'm not complaining but I knew how we eventually  came second instead of bringing the Cup to Nigeria," Onigbinde said.

"Again in 2002 I had barely three months to prepare a new team because the national team was disbanded in Mali in January, February. I was brought in in March to prepare the team for the World Cup finals in June, barely three months.

"Not only that the players that were disbanded in Mali took the decision that they will not come if invited. It was only after they saw the new boys started performing well that they now started appealing, I made the mistake of calling some of them back.

"There are some of them who came back and did very well but I had one or two who deliberately came to sabotage and that was how we didn't go far in the World Cup.

"The young boys I brought together within three months played seven matches, won five which included beating Ireland and Scotland on their ground."

Despite the short time, the 83-year-old thinks Eguavoen can succeed as interim manager as there is already a team on ground and he knows the inner workings of the Super Eagles as he was Technical Director of the Nigerian Federation before his appointment as interim boss.

"I'm saying this to show that there are a lot of things we can do to get a team together and the generation coming in fortunately some of them are not new to the team so let's give them necessary public and administrative support to succeed.

"The situation that was created before I came in in 2002 is not there now, we already have a team on the ground. By the time I came in in 2002 there was no team on ground, the team was disbanded in Mali.

"Number two, most of the people who have now been selected to handle the team have been with the team for some time so all they need is sound support," Onigbinde concluded.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel