Category: Sunday magazine

RECENTLY, Ifeoma Anieze-Corona turned 50. To mark the milestone, she drew friends, family and well wishers to a night of fun at The Civic Centre, Lagos to celebrate. Guests included former Governor of Oyo State, Otunba Christopher Adebayo Alao-Akala, Ras Kimono, DJ Jimmy Jatt, Dayo Adeneye, Ms Ibiba Don-Pedro, members of the Italian community, among others.

IT was a royal gathering on October 26, 2014, when the Eselu of Iselu, Yewa North Local Government Area of Ogun State, HRM Oba Ebenezer Akintunde Akinyemi, married a daughter of the late Oba of Lagos, Adeyinka Oyekan 11, Princess Adewunmi Adeola.

The ceremony kicked off with a traditional engagement at Ayajo Events Centre, Ishashi, Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos State, following which the royal couple exchanged vows during a brief ceremony conducted by Islamic clerics.

Guests, including notable traditional rulers from Lagos and Ogun states, were later hosted to a lavish reception at the same venue. KUNLE AKINRINADE was there.

The dream of every human being  is to serve his country and be honoured and appreciated for life in return. The story is painfully the opposite with many Nigerian ex-soccer stars. Taiwo Alimi explores their world.

SYLVESTER Egbogie sits by the window of his room. There, he dawdles daily-for the greater part of the day, with a bland expression on his face. Reflected in that look is a complex mixture of emotions of depression, despair, fear, anticipation and hopefulness.

His sitting corner is also a vantage spot to breathe fresh air and watch the world around him pass by. He no longer partakes in the hustle and bustle going on outside, even though, he lives in one of the busiest parts of Warri, Delta State along the Warri-Sapele Road. Egbogie’s permanent companion is his three-wheeler, the wheel chair he acquired after losing both of his legs to hard time-induced diabetes.

“I don’t leave this house unless I’m going to the hospital, which is just across the road. I am here all the time,” he says without drama.

Egbogie lost both legs to the surgeon’s knife.  During the most recent operation, the right leg was amputated two months ago, he said “in order to keep me alive” after battling diabetes for 20 years.

His faithful companion-apart from his wife and children- is daily sight of the life outside and he does not mind that it brings back nostalgic feelings of great times he has had as an ex-footballer, watched and loved by many.

“I still see myself in those days when my legs did the talking on the field for Bendel Insurance (The then famous Edo Sate football club) and Green Eagles (Nigeria’s national team). Those were great moments. I was born on this street and in this house. I have lived here all my life and I used to be a pride of this community. They used to look at me with envy and respect.”

The home Egboge is talking about is an uncompleted four-room apartment that had seen better days. It bears symbols of neglect: washed-out wall, broken pipes, torn curtains and beaten- up furnishings.

Egbogie lives in squalor, yet this 67-year old man had dined with kings. He showed me a framed photograph taken in 1973 after the All Africa Games hosted by Nigeria. Squatting on the front row alongside other great ex-players including Emmanuel Okala, Victor Odua and Sammy Ikeddy is Egbogie, looking ravishingly handsome and robust. A gold medal, the symbol of triumph loosely hangs on his neck. The Nigeria football team had won the All Africa Games gold and Egbogie was a part of it. Conspicuously standing right in the middle of the team, is the then youngish Head of State of the country, Major General Yakubu Gowon.

With a ring in his voice, he captured the unforgettable experience 41 years ago. “After that feat, President Gowon treated us well. He told us that the whole country was proud of us and he would gladly approve whatever those at the helms of sports administration recommend. Nothing came out of it but we were happy to play for our country. We played because of the passion we had for football not for money.”

Egbogie’s predicament began 14 years ago when he started feeling pains in his left leg. “I was in Benin then and I quickly moved to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (U BTH) for check up. The Medical Director did the examination and said they had to amputate the leg. At that point, he did not even say I was diabetic. However, because it was a matter of life and death, I had to accept my fate. At about 3A.M., I was taken to the theater and my left leg was amputated,” he recounts.

Due to his poor health and his inability to work he is unable to manage his diabetes crisis well. “In a month I need close to N20, 000 to get my fix. I used to rely on my children, my wife, family members and people who just come to give me money to ensure I get my fix on time,” Egbogie notes.

Before long, the well of resources dried up. Egbogie went on without his periodical fix for days and 14 years after, the pains shifted to the surviving leg. “This year (2014), I started feeling pains in my right leg because I stopped taking my drugs a long time ago. Then sores started coming out and that was when I realised I am in problem again. Worms were coming out of my leg.”

He was told to choose between his leg and his life, a devils’ alternative. He decided to live and battle the personal war. “That was how I lost both legs. I believe that when there is life there is hope,” reasons the Delta State ex-player.

The Amupe FC player is also losing his sight. “I visited a clinic three months ago to complain about my poor sight and I was told to bring N12, 000. I am still looking for the money and when I get it I will go for treatment,” he states.

Sadly, Egbogie’s tale is common among numerous ex-footballers, who, in the good old days, were household names. They inspired cult-like followership who pasted their pin-up posters on their walls. They used to live in luxury and fame, attracting the fair sex as carcass attracts fleas. They played football to enviable height, lapping up the attention, gift, money, patronage, and encomium thrust upon them. All these have changed. Today, they are united in ill health, depravation, and depression.

Aside Egbogie, ex-footballers such as Haruna Ilerika, Peter Fregene, Peter Anieke, Teslim Balogun, Willy Bazuaye, Anthony Igwe, Augustine Ofuokwu, Samuel Okoye, Segun Olumodeji, Samuel Opone, Oshode Muyiwa, and Paul Hamilton also made good impact for their country and respective clubs.

Same for Kenneth Olayombo, Mohammed Lawal, Durojaiye Adigun, Willy Andrews, Sebastian Broderick-Imasuen, Clement Obojemene, Ganiyu Salami, Fred Aryee,  Joseph Aghoghovbia, Yakubu Ibrahim, Yakubu Mambo, Alfred Kossi, Bunmi Adigun, Emmanuel Okala, Stanley Okoronkwo, and Christian Madu.

Today, none of them is basking in the joy of retirement. Advanced in age, they are living in bad health and extremely poor economic state. Some have died in penury and unsung while the ones that are alive either live in obscurity and forgotten or in ill health and abject poverty. Yet in their heyday, these were shining stars, blessed with special talents.

DOWN BUT NOT OUT

Peter Fregene was in goal for Nigeria at the Mexico Olympics in 1968 where the team held Brazil to a two-two draw. Peter also played across three decades from the 1960s up until the 1980s. Nicknamed ‘Flying Cat,’ Fregene, according to the  Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, was the ‘safest hands’ he ever encountered as teenagers.

Four years ago, Fregene suffered an excruciating stroke that left him paralyzed from waist down to his legs. He can barely walk now but supports himself with walking props.

He was bedridden for months under severe condition of lack before Governor Fashola, who had watched him as a lad, rehabilitated him and made him walk again. Fregene is still breathing largely because of the support he gets from friends and large-hearted Nigerians. “My condition is only slightly better. God knows what would have happened to me if Governor Fashola had not helped me. I’m grateful to him but I am incapacitated. I can’t do anything meaningful to support myself due to this condition. I only rely on well-meaning people to eat and get around,” Fregene tells this reporter.

Sixty-Seven year old Fregene shuttles between Lagos and Benin in difficult condition with nothing in the bank or investments to support himself for his years of service to fatherland. “I don’t have anything. No house, no car, or money in bank,” he says.

Like Fregene, Peter Anieke also made the Olympic team in 1968. A player with grace, he was deadly with his left foot and his head. He was nicknamed ‘Eusebio’ after the Portuguese football icon because of his scoring instincts. Hon. Tajudeen Ajide, an ex-footballer (ACB FC) and Chairman, Surulere Local Government, says, “He (Anieke) was the most brilliant scorer on air and on land in Nigeria. Anieke is our hero, our mentor.”

Now, Anieke’s twin companions are swollen and painful legs. The former free-scoring Stationery Stores and Green Eagles’ sensation started feeling an unusual swell and pain in his legs three years ago when he turned 65. The mild bloat has degenerated to a bigger pain in his life. Anieke is bedridden and slumps all day long in his room in Lagos. He ascribed the unbearable pain to a result of neglect and poor health care system. “If  I had got people who watched me play that had come out earlier than this time, to see my condition, maybe I would have been okay. My children have spent a lot on money to no avail. I am all alone now but for my wife and friends who come to visit me and cheer me up. I need help from all quarters, from people I have inspired through my game, politicians, friends, and those in government. My health matters a lot.”

Anieke hints that he made little money in his ‘donkey’ years in the national team. “If I made a lot of money, I would not be in this condition. I do not have a car. I don’t have a house of my own and feeding is even a problem.”

Similarly, Willy Bazuaye, ex-player and assisting coach to Nigeria Olympic gold winning football team to Atlanta ’96 has been through hell.

He lives daily like a walking corpse, waiting for death to crawl in. “I prayed for death to come at a point but thank God for my son, Baldwin, who sold his property and investments to take care of me and well-meaning people like Governor Fashola, who came to my aid.”

In 2003, the health condition of the ex-soccer star and coach of the Golden Eaglets, worsened after a fatal fall in the bathroom. He came down with stroke and was bedridden. His matter became worse when the hospital, where he was been treated in Benin, threatened to eject him due to unpaid bills, which prompted his son to cry out.

Baldwin had sold his landed property and investments to pay the huge bills to keep his father alive yet it was not enough. When immediate help came, it was in the shapes of well meaning Nigerians and Lagos State government. The National Sports Commission waited 10 years before handing Bazuaye a cheque of N500, 000.00. Sadly, the octogenarian has nothing to show for years as star player and coach.

Paul Hamilton was not called ‘wonder boy’ for nothing. His acceleration, speed, and dribbling skills down the right flank projected uncommon weapons of that era. He was the first winger to add goal scoring to his responsibilities. Hamilton not only served his country and compatriots as a player, he also offered his services as coach of the male and female national teams at different times.

In 2007, the aged Hamilton was critically ill and it took the intervention of well-meaning Nigerians to get him back to his feet. He says he “practically came back from the land of the dead” with no help from the federation and the country he served so well. Today, Hamilton is in sound health.

Christian Madu was so good he had to change his surname from ‘Madumere’ to be able to play for the Ghanaian national team, after becoming a star player for Accra Hearts of Oak. He played there for 12 years from 1965.

He later moved back home to Nigeria to star for Rangers International of Enugu and won the 1977 Africa Cup Winners Cup with them. So successful was Madu that Nigeria under Father Tiko invited him to the Green Eagles and in 1978 and he upgraded his club level silverware chest with the Africa Cup of Nations’ bronze. He is perhaps the first Nigerian to play for two national teams: Ghana and Nigeria.

These days, Madu is in between hospitals for one ailment or the other.

Tony Igwe was the first full back in Nigeria’s history to introduce and master the overlapping system from the right-full back position. Tony was a beauty to watch as he tackled attackers, dispossessed them of the ball and glided down the right flank in quick counter, got to the goal line and floated lovely crosses into the box for his attackers. Tony came to the limelight as a schoolboy player from Academy College in Jos, got to the finals of the 1965 and 1966 FA Cup finals with Plateau Highlanders, and joined Stationary Stores from where he was invited to the national team. He totally monopolised the right side of the Nigerian defence for the next eight years. As at present, Igwe is somewhere in the Eastern Nigeria, a broken, lonely old man.

Emmanuel Okala is the first and only Nigerian goalkeeper to be named African footballer of the year by the Africa Sports Journalists Union (ASJU). In the 1970s, he was the most- recognised and most-dreaded goalkeeper in Africa. He was so good that myths were created around him all over the continent. Okala, who now works for Rangers International as goalkeeper trainer, is battling with his eyesight and other ailments. Okala had to travel outside the country for help and some of the players that had passed through him were kind enough to donate money and materials to take care of his failing health.

Though he has denied this claim, one of our sources, who prefer to remain anonymous, confirmed Okala’s ill health and trip abroad. “Yes. He was in the U.S during one of our get-together this year and we felt we have to support him. We were able to set some money aside for him and many people were happy to donate to his cause because we all passed through him at one time or the other.”

Only last week, Stationery Stores legend, Yomi Peter, was diagnosed of prostate cancer. He had to undergo emergency operation under the watchful eyes of Hon. Ajide and other players, people who had watched and admired his talents as kids.

Peters played in the 1974 Challenge Cup (FA Cup) for the defunct Stationery Stores and won the shield in 1990 with the same club as Team Manager. According to Ajide, “We were told that Peters was seriously ill and he could not afford to go to hospital because of medical bill. We arranged for him to go to the hospital and his case was so pathetic that an emergency surgery had to be carried out to keep him alive. He’s getting better now but need money for treatment and feeding.”

ENDLESS LIST

The list is endless. Austin Popo, Secretary General of Players Union, confirmed that more ex-players are on the endangered list. “We don’t know the current state of Christian Madu. He has great challenges and we don’t even know whether he is alive or dead. Stanley Okoronkwo too was having a serious challenge some time ago. It is also on good authority that ex-international Bunmi Adigun is having health challenges and need help. The list I tell you is endless,” he says.

DOWN AND OUT

Unlike Peters, Anieke, Fregene and others, who are alive to tell their sorry stories, some of their colleagues can only, share the tales of their unremitting struggle on earth with cankerworms six-feet under.

Austin Ofuokwu, Anieke’s teammate in the Green Eagles and the 1968 Olympics died before help could come. He became very sick but help never came. Anieke says of his late friend: “I remember Austin Ofuokwu when he had his problem. He was down with stroke. He was broke and called for assistance but nothing came.”

Popo was by his graveside when he was buried without comets: “I remember Austin Ofuokwu. When he had his problem we were with him until he went to be with the Lord. We were the ones that bought his burial casket, the only ex-players that were at his burial. The NFF were nowhere in sight.”

Super Eagles workaholic defensive midfielder, Thompson Oliha died a broken man in 2013. Baldwin (Bazuaye), who was with him during his last days in Benin, said the Clemens Westerhof’s ‘strongman’ died a sad man. “He was not a poor man when he died. However, he was sick and we were always with him but he was not happy that he was alone in death. He felt that he was dying in vain if the institution and country he served all his days were not by his side during his troubled time.”

It was after his death that NFF rolled out the red carpet to honour him. He died of malaria at 45 on June 30, at the prime of his life.

Ali Jeje, the captain of  the Flying Eagles class of 1983, the first Nigerian side to qualify for a global FIFA tournament, died in similar circumstances. According to his vice then, Paul Okoku, “Jeje died in his prime because he could not take care of himself. His wife and children now live in poor conditions, unable to cater for themselves. Perhaps if government had redeemed its over 30 year-old scholarships pledge to us, Ali would not have died in misery.”

ABJECT POVERTY

For many of them who are not on the endangered list, the challenge is how to make ends meet in this challenging world and time. Many are coaches without job. And for those who are not out of jobs, it is either the remuneration is insubstantial or not paid. That list has Idowu Otunbusin, Friday Ekpo, Taiwo Oloyede, Peter Nieketien, Emmanuel Iyoriobhe, Michael E. Etim Snr, Tajudeen Disu, Bremner Alada, Adewale Omotayo, Alfred Kossi and Danladi Musa.

Available data from the Players Union suggests that Nigerian coaches and players are being owed a staggering N500million from salaries, sign-on fees and match bonuses by their clubs and FAs.

Said Popo:  “In the past four years, Nigerian coaches and players are owed about N500 million. If you don’t pay them their salary and sign- on fees, what do you expect them to fall back on when they retire? Some of these things will not happen if they have the money to do the necessary check up on time.”

MEDICAL FACT

It is common for sport and social commentators to point fingers at the uncontrollable and indulgent lifestyle of ex-players as causes of their ill health and money problem in retirement. However, experts and medical reports suggest that ex-players tend to face inherent health challenges in retirement after years of vigorous training and playing.

A study published in the April 2007 issue of the medical journal, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, lends credence to this fact that the glamour of playing professional football can fade fast and hard once an athlete’s career is over.

The study conducted by some University of Michigan, U.S researchers report  that: ‘Chronic pain from injuries sustained during a career, plus levels of depression comparable to the general population that can be aggravated by that injury-related pain, can make the transition to retirement difficult for many players.”

According to the lead researcher, Dr. Thomas L. Schwenk, “Many retired players have a rate of moderate to severe depressive symptoms similar to the general population. Nevertheless, they also have a huge burden of chronic pain, from injuries and the stress of a professional sports career. The two interact to cause significant sleep disturbance and other miseries.”

The study emphasised that this state of depression and chronic pain can lead to financial difficulties, lack of social support or friendships, and abuse of prescribed medication, alcohol or other drugs.

For the study, the Schwenk’s group surveyed 3,377 retired members of the NFL Players Association. Of the 1,594 who responded, almost 15 percent reported moderate to severe depression, a figure comparable to the public, Schwenk said. However, half of those respondents also said they suffered from chronic pain. And “this puts them at significant additional risk for depression,” Schwenk said,

Moreover, more than 50 percent of the ex-players had high scores for pain, depression or both. The consequences of depression were seen in sleep problems, difficulty in getting help for depression and feeling isolated. Ex-players who reported moderate to severe depression were 11 times more likely to have trouble sleeping than those who weren’t depressed or only mildly depressed. In addition, ex-players with moderate-to-severe depression were almost eight times more likely to report a loss of fitness and lack of exercise, and seven times more likely to report financial difficulties. Those who were said to moderately to severely depressed were more likely to have problems getting social support or maintaining friendships. In addition, they had problems with the use of medication, alcohol or other drugs, and trouble with the transition to life after football, the study found.

When the renown ex-international, Segun Odegbami was contacted on this issue, he was quick to make available a copy of a lecture he delivered in November 2012 during the 3rd Best Ogedegbe Memorial Lecture. Late Best Ogedegbe was his friend and teammate at the IICC and Green Eagles.

Odegbami in his six-page paper painted a gloomy picture of life a player lives after retirement from competitive action. His paper reads in part: “When footballers complete their assignment as players and retired from the game, they enter another phase of their journey completely different from the first. There is little or no provision in the system to adequately accommodate them. Therefore, they end up in jail of neglect, sickness, joblessness, depression, and premature death.”

“Many of us, heroes of our various generations in the chronology of football, are still alive but barely living through a journey that has turned from good to bad and now to the ugly. Let me tell you about the physical damages you cannot see under these fine clothes. My thigh muscles, once taut and toned like that of a racing horse, is now thin and drooping with wrinkles like the withered breast of an old woman. The muscle cannot even now support my body weight properly anymore.

“Therefore, I walk wracking with pains and I limp. For over 10 years, I have been having palpitations, my cholesterol level was high, I have been on a daily dose of pills I must take for the rest of my life in order not to go blind. There is pain in my waistline. I suffer from more. Yet I count myself as one of the lucky among our generation. Have you seen Adokie Amaisimaka lately? Or Emmanuel Okala, Kadiri Ikhana, Joe Erico, George Omokaro, Mike Okotie, Peter Fregene or Demola Adesina. All these great football heroes are alive, but every single of them has become physically challenged.”

Hon. Ajide points out that the present health challenge faced by Anieke is as a manifestation of years of rigorous action. “It is all about joints. That is the reflection of what you have done many years ago. It is like boxing, you find many ex-boxers having Parkinson disease, eye, brain, shoulder and back problems. It is because of what they have gone through. Football is the fastest sport on earth and it requires the whole body to function. It is the joints that suffer when old age crawls in.”

Popo adds: “These challenges must happen because of the nature of the game. As we get older the problems in the joint will begin to rear its head and if adequate check up is not done, we would have serious health issue like Anieke is having now.”

WAY OUT

Hon Ajide and Popo canvassed for a supportive system in Nigeria’s sports policy, which would support ex-players and give them a sense of belonging even after they might have stopped playing. “The problem we have is that we have not done what is needful. There is no social welfare programme where the aged and those who have served their country in this capacity are taken care. I know the problem pensioners are going through. We build infrastructure but not people. We forget that people will use the infrastructure. The National Stadium is a ghost town now because you ask people who cannot feed themselves well to manage it. We need to take care of people for them to take good care of our infrastructure.”

Odegbami is of the opinion that those in authority must treat ex-players like endangered species: “Ex-players have gone through difficult process and it is when they are settling down to enjoy themselves that the danger sets in, so they must be supported in every sense of the word. Special homes, welfare packages, and hospitals to cater for their needs must be institutionalized if we want them to live and die well.”

For Popo, it is also imperative for ex-players to take their destiny in their hands. “In 2012 Players Union launched an N500million fund raising drive in support of a Nigerian footballer’s welfare fund but it did not work out. We envisaged things like this will happen and the essence of the fund-raising is to have a fund in handy where we can begin to address some of these issues. Unfortunately, the system did not see it the way we are seeing it.”

Ex-Flying and Super Eagles defender, Taju Disu, believes that ex-players are their own enemies. “I think we are the problem of ourselves. We have refused to love ourselves, we have refused to come together as one by having a players’ union that would cater for us. It is because of greed and selfish interest. There is no way we can help ourselves if we don’t speak with one voice. Therefore, we must come together. Elsewhere, players union is very strong and we know what we can do when we are together.

“We don’t need two or three players unions but one strong union. If we are together, we must support ourselves. We even clamour for the downfall of our members in positions so we can take their places. We dug pits for ourselves to fall. It is sad but that is the reality on ground. We must get into the politics of football. Ex-internationals should aspire to be FA chairman in their states so that we can position ourselves for the national FA. It would be my joy to see ex-players at the helms of affair as NFF president and to be on the board. We must begin to act now. We have qualified ex-players who are capable of running our football.”

DENIAL

Curiously, a pattern of denial was also established in the attitude of the ex-players in the course of gathering materials for this write-up. Many have been keeping the ailments to themselves because of public perception until, sometimes, a fatal end is apparent.

For instance, after close observation and findings from close friends and colleagues, establishing health challenges and tough economic standing, Okala vehemently denied any challenge, when he was interviewed by this reporter.

Dr Schwenk explains: “There is also a stigma in seeking help for depression. Many ex-players said they would feel weak or embarrassed if they sought help.”

Therefore, whenever you meet an ex-footballer, you can be rest assured that underneath that glint on his face and glamour around him, he might just be nursing a pain, depression, or financial stress, yet to surface.