Super Eagles failure to progress in the World Cup playoff briefly distracted the country from Enyimba’s 1–0 home loss to Wikki Tourists, but the reactions inside the club quickly dragged the People’s Elephant back into the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
Enyimba, once the gold standard of football excellence in Nigeria, has become the punchline of conversations and the subject of mockery. There was a time around 2005 when the chairman of a newly promoted NPFL club traveled to Aba to learn how success was built. Today, the four newly promoted clubs have shown that there is absolutely nothing left to learn from Enyimba. All four have taken points off us. Warri Wolves and Wikki Tourists beat us in our own fortress. Kun Khalifat defeated us in Owerri. Barau FC almost beat us too, and we escaped with a draw. These results are not anomalies. They are evidence of a giant losing its power.
The decline is even clearer in the numbers. After 13 matches, Enyimba sits around mid table with a poor home win rate of about 43 percent, and five goals conceded in Aba already. Compare that to 2013, when we went an entire season without letting in a single goal at home. Back then, defences feared us. Today, lesser sides smell opportunity.
This season, we have already dropped ten points at home from a possible twenty one. If this trend continues, we may even surpass the nineteen points we dropped at home last season, which cost us any real chance at the league title. A team in transition is allowed to grow steadily, but the fixture gaps of one week between games should be enough to build momentum. Instead, we have delivered struggle, inconsistency, and labor.
In the face of this collapse, the club management has lashed out at everyone and everything in the last few days. Coaches were fired. Salary cuts were announced. Media reports were rebutted. Yet the real housecleaning should have begun in the masters room, where the decisions to hire the wrong coaches and sign substandard players were made. Management cannot wash its hands of blame. Leadership is measured by responsibility, not excuses.
Leadership can lift an institution or sink it. Nigeria as a country is proof of this truth. The football federation has failed to lead and has now missed two World Cup finals. Enyimba mirrors that dysfunction, stumbling through a season while pretending everything is fine. Crisis management is a core test of leadership, and how this management navigates the next few weeks will define them.
The coming matches will be crucial for Enyimba’s campaign. I wish interim coach Lawrence Ukaegbu the best as he prepares the team for Katsina United in Jos. He can influence things tactically, but everyone knows the problem runs deeper than formations and substitutions.
Interesting times lie ahead. And unless leadership steps up decisively and honestly, this season may be long, painful, and unforgiving for every Enyimba faithful.
