The saga that has dragged on in Nigerian football for almost a year is finally put to rest as Stephen Keshi has signed to two-year deal to continue as coach of the Super Eagles.

The former Mali and Togo coach was given a two-year contract by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), which he signed in Abuja on Tuesday.

The national team has been without an official coach since the end of the 2014 World Cup, in which the Nigerians reached the second round before being knocked out by France.

Keshi was asked by members of government to continue on a match by match basis during subsequent games, but this method destabilised the side, and they failed to qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) to defend their title.

The qualifying campaigns for the AFCON and next World Cup will go a long way to determining Keshi’s success, and the potential for him to remain as coach in a longer term, but former assistant and stand-in coach for recent matches Daniel Amokachi has been removed from his post, and replaced by Salisu Yusuf.

The NFF Technical Committee is expected to play a strong oversight role in Keshi’s work at the helm of the side going forward.

There seemed a time following the Nations Cup early this year where Keshi was poised to take over the Burkina Faso national team, but he did not receive the job and has instead been in back and forth negotiations with the NFF, which have finally produced a positive result for the former Super Eagles captain.

The Nigeria national team will be keen to move forward now that these coaching issues are sorted, as there are important qualification campaigns beginning in the near future, including matches for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and 2018 World Cup in June and September respectively.