Certain events during his final days on earth suggest that former Super Eagles midfielder, Thompson Oliha, may have had a premonition that death was near, reports 'TANA AIYEJINA

Nigerians were stunned on Sunday when news filtered in that former Flying Eagles and Super Eagles midfielder, Thompson Oliha, had died from complications arising from malaria fever in Ilorin, Kwara State.

Events leading to the 44-year-old's death, however suggest that the Kwara Football Academy, Ilorin, assistant coach had a premonition that his last days were near.

Our correspondent called Oliha, at exactly 4.57pm on Friday for an interview – which perhaps was his last – on the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup final between world champions Spain and hosts, Brazil.

As usual, the Benin-born 1994 Africa Cup of Nations winner gave his time. The interview lasted four minutes and 52 seconds. He spoke on the chances of both teams, giving Brazil 60 per cent chance of winning the game.

This was his full analysis of the game, which partly came to pass, "The Brazilians are likely to give out tickets free to their fans to watch the final match but that does not mean they are going to have the upper hand.

"Spain and Brazil are very good sides but the Brazilians are very deadly especially with a player like David Luiz. The game should be 50/50 but from what I am seeing, it will be 60/40 in favour of the Brazilians.

"Both sides play same pattern but Spain have sharper attackers. If Brazil want to win the cup, they should take care of somebody like (Fernando) Torres and the other two fantastic players, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez.

"Neymar is Brazil's arrowhead. He is a good player with good dribbling runs; he has been very forceful in the tournament. I believe he can do better than he has done because the World Cup is still ahead. The Spanish players will try to cage him. Of course, if you know your enemy, you won't give him a space to operate.

"Hulk is also a dangerous player for Brazil. It's dicey, so I will say its 50/50 or 60/40 for Brazil."

He never lived to watch the final game, which began 11pm Nigerian time. True to his prediction, Brazil won 3-0 to record their third consecutive Confederations Cup success.

As the interview drew to a conclusion, our  correspondent asked the KFA official lessons he felt Nigeria should learn from the Confederations Cup after their group stage elimination.

He sounded passionate and you could feel the anxiety of a man  – even though it was a telephone interview – who was desperate to pass across a message to Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi. He probably had inkling that he might not have the chance to air his wish again about a team he played 31 times for, scoring two goals.

He said, "Well, we've learnt our lessons (from the Confederations Cup). The basic thing is that we must keep a stable team. They should give the players equal  opportunities to play; not when a player does not perform today, you ignore him tomorrow.

"You have to invite such a player to keep the team in shape.  From time to time, we've heard news about (Joseph) Yobo out, another player out. We cannot have a good team like that, Keshi should know that.

"My advice to Keshi is to keep a stable team. If anybody wants to come into the Nigerian national team, he should fight for a place, not because he is playing for Chelsea, Barcelona or Real Madrid. He must come home and fight for a place. That is what the Brazilians do.

"At a time, David Luiz was not allowed to play for Brazil but today he is in their national team because he has been fighting. And now he can tell Brazilians, 'Yes, I am capable.' So for us, having an Infinity or Hummer jeep or 15 houses should not qualify you for the national team. The colour is green, white, green; it never changes."

Oliha was an influential member of the 1994 Super Eagles, regarded as the golden generation of Nigerian football. He helped the team qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 1994 and also played a major role as they won a second AFCON title in Tunisia same year.

The Federal Government promised the team officials and players houses but while some players received theirs, Oliha and some others did not.

Oliha's widow, Iris, said her husband had 'repeatedly' clamoured for government to fulfill its promise, saying the ex-Turkey based player didn't want to die without seeing the house.

"The only thing that my husband did not live to witness was the house that the Federal Government promised the winning 1994 class of the Super Eagles," Iris told the News Agency of Nigeria.

"He repeatedly asked questions on what was causing the delay in fulfilling the promise. He said his colleagues, Uche Okafor and Rashidi Yekini, died without the promise being  fulfilled.

"He did say that he didn't want to die before the Federal Government fulfilled the promise, but, has it not happened now? This is highly unfortunate,'' she added.

Iris said contrary to rumours, her husband was never sick for long and didn't complain of any ailment.

Iris told NAN, "He even went to work yesterday (Saturday) because they played a match. He came back to take his shower. On Wednesday, they also went to Ibadan to play a match with 3SC. So, if he was sick, how would he have gone to Ibadan?

Ajara Mohammed, who has an eight-year-old son, Clinton, for Oliha, told our correspondent in a telephone interview that few weeks to his death, the former Bendel Insurance player started having a change of attitude towards her and their son.

"I spoke last with him on Thursday on the phone and I asked him when he would start paying Clinton's school fees. He said I shouldn't worry; that once he received the money he was expecting, he would pay and I said, 'okay.' He was just laughing and cracking jokes with me. He said he would call me back but he never did," she said.