Stephen Keshi’s long wait for the Nigerian job has finally paid off when the board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Wednesday night appointed him the Super Eagles chief coach. The position became vacant after the federation eased out Samson Siasia last week for poor performance. Keshi, the first man to captain the Eagles to the World Cup has now been given the mandate to ensure Nigeria’s return to the 2013 Nations Cup in South Africa as well as the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in 2014. A member of the board of the NFF, Mike Umeh, who read the communiqué to the media at the end board marathon meeting, said that Keshi has been told to take the Eagles to at the semi final of the Nations Cup, and least, the quarter final of the World Cup in Brazil. His initial contract as we reported Tuesday is for six- month. He will also be paid far less than the N5million salary Siasia was getting. The board also said also conceded the freehand to Keshi to select his back up staff. Daniel Amokachi, Sunday Oliseh and Issa Ladan Bosso, are among the names that have all been touted as possible candidates for the assistant coach appointment. Keshi will resume duty ahead of next week when the Eagles meet Zambia and Botswana in international friendly matches in Kaduna and Benin. Though he has coached the national teams of Togo and Mali, the Nigerian job is always seen as the icing on the cake for Keshi by virtue of his illustrious service to the Eagles as a player. Until now he was linked with the job in Equatorial Guinea and Rwanda. On Tuesday, the Rwanda federation had appointed Micho Sredejovic as the Wasps’ handler, effectively shuttling out Keshi who was on the five-man shortlist of coaches drawn to replace Ghanaian Tetteh Sellas.