Cross River State and Nigeria on March 15 lost an illustrious son, John Okon Ene. Ene, who was from Ikot Ndarake, was a highly decorated footballer.
He played for Acada United of the University of Calabar, the BCC Lions of Gboko, Akwa United of Uyo, Rovers of Calabar, the Flying Eagles and the Super Eagles.
Ene died at 47 at the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) from an undisclosed ailment.
Until his death, he was the chief coach of the Unicem Rovers Football Club of Calabar jointly owned by the Lafarge Cement and the Cross River government.
In a bid to honour the late Ene, the Eastside Sports Club organised a football match and Tribute Night in Calabar.
Vice Chairman, Eastside SC and chairman of the Planning Committee, Mr Charles Itu, lamented that the late midfield maestro had not gotten what he deserved given the contribution he made to the country.
His words: “We are here to celebrate and honour a great a man. This man’s contribution to football was legendary. We were so close to him because he was our coach. A lot of us in Eastside are not professional footballers. We learnt football and used it for recreation. John Okon Ene was there for us. The minutest thing we can do for him is this. This is the novelty football match by veterans. The veterans include Unified Breed, Sokkow Worldwide, Tinapa FC, All Stars, Crown FC and Victory FC.
“There will also be a night of tribute of tribute where we would invite people to join us and honour and preserve the legacy of a great man. I hope that this message gets to Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) and all other football authorities. I hope they can do more to immortalise his legacy. This was a great man. He was a hero that walked among us as a normal man. He deserves more. We can do more to honour him.”
Provost of Eastside SC, Franklyn Odere, also speaking about Ene said: “We scored just two goals in Chile 87 and he scored the first goal, which was a bullet of a shot according to the commentator then. He was not recognised that much so this our way of letting people know that there was somebody from Cross River State, who played for Nigeria and Super Eagles and won a lot of laurels.
“This is the little we can do. We are not the government. We know the government will do something to immortalise his name in this place. I think it has become a cultural thing that we don’t recognise those that have contributed to the development of the country. This is our way of trying to awaken people’s feelings about what we should do for them while they are alive.
“The society should contribute to people who have contributed to the growth of the country. It is bad that you give your all to Nigeria. You know people that play for Nigeria in those days don’t have the players have today. That is why when you see some players, when they play for their clubside, but when they play for Nigeria it is not like that. You hear them say, after all if I get injured nothing would happen. So we need to change that culture. We need to celebrate our heroes so those coming afterwards would want to give their all to the country. It is not just sports. It is in every sphere of Nigerian life.”
Chairman of the State Sports Commission, Mr Orok Duke, Chairman Cross River Sports Commission, was also irked that more should have been done to honour the late Ene.
He said the state government would foot the bill of the funeral.
“It is unfortunate that the NFF has acted rather irresponsibly towards us. There was no one armed band for and no one minute silence for him. It is so saddening.
“Okon Ene played for the country and never benefitted in any way. He had to fall back to the state. We hope upcoming athletes don’t have to go through what Okon Ene passed through. It is a sad thing,” he said.