It was almost inevitable that the curse of the African Nations Cup came back to haunt Nigeria coach Shaibu Amodu.

He must have sensed it from around half time of the Super Eagles' opening match at the tournament in Angola and has had the strained look of a man under indeterminable pressure ever since.

Amodu fired again

Over the weekend came confirmation of his firing, just over 100 days away from the World Cup. Nigeria have again robbed this amiable man of a chance to coach at world football's greatest sporting showpiece because of a combination of political intrigue and unrealistic expectations.

Admittedly Nigeria did not look convincing in the qualifying, not at the Nations Cup in Angola, yet in both Amodu achieved what he had set out to do.

The Super Eagles squeaked into the World Cup finals on a dramatic last day of qualifying in November, progressing as much on the back of their come-from-behind win in Kenya as they did from Tunisia's abject failure in Mozambique.

At the Nations Cup in Angola, the limitations of the current Nigeria squad were again starkly in focus. Amodu's side has little of the creative playing talent of past teams and, as such, he did well to get them as far as they did.

They took the lead against Egypt in their first match but by the interval it was apparent they were no match for the defending champions and lost 3-1.

Progress to the quarter-finals came more from the poor quality of their next two opponents - Benin and Mozambique - than any recovery by the misfiring Nigeria attack.

But advance they did, all the way to a bronze medal in Angola, won last Saturday in Benguela against Algeria.

Amodu's contract said he had to at least get to the semifinals in Angola and this he did. But suddenly it was deemed not enough and less than week later the coach is out.

The same happened to him in 2002. He had qualified Nigeria to participate in the 2002 World Cup finals in Asia, taking over in the middle of the preliminaries from Dutchman Jo Bonfrere and winning the last three key qualifying matches (nine goals scored with none conceded) to ensure top place in the group.

Also let go in 2002

But months later the Nations Cup stymied him, even though Nigeria reached the semifinals and ended up as bronze medallists. That was deemed not good enough and Amodu replaced within days.

He must have knew it would happen again because as national coach he was always going to be a pawn in a power struggle at the top of the Nigerian game. Only winning in the tournament in Angola would likely have saved his job.

The Nigerian Football Federation's autonomy has been hard won in recent years but upset powerful government figures in the process.

They can no longer dictate to, or even deposed, football leaders at whim, because FIFA now takes a stand against government interference.

But a special presidential task force was appointed nevertheless ahead of World Cup participation and has access to resources the federation struggles to command. The power play between the two bodies had Amodu sandwiched right in the middle.

Nigeria is also a country not short on self belief. Given their enormous population and array of players at top clubs around Europe, there is a widely held view they should dominate the African game. The reality is vastly different but Nigerian supporters have neither patience nor tolerance for anything but overwhelming success. Failure is followed by the quick fix of change.

Amodu has gone against this backdrop, leaving Nigeria again in a crisis and muddle just months from the World Cup.