By Austin Okeke
Rather, it was the Nigerian team players that lost out of a tournament that was theirs to lose. The FIFA ranking of Nigeria dropped as a result, the beautiful soccer players lost out of the monetary rewards that went with the tournament, the Nigerian community in the region lost their bragging rights, the potential profits expected from the sales of soccer memorabilia and merchandise were lost, and all the resources and efforts we had invested and put in throughout the preparation stages were flushed down the drain just because of one selfish man’s whim and bloated ego. The beautiful game almost lost its lustre.
At the end, we dusted our buttocks, counted our losses, and, in fact, moved on gallantly. By the way, the late General Sani Abacha didn’t gain any political mileage from his irrational and rash decision. We the people did. A few years later, the Nigerian female soccer team, the Super Falcons, were to enjoy all the above goodies when they came and trashed Banyana Banyaya, their South African counterpart, 7-1 in a tournament qualifier. We spoilt them rotten. In 2001, the Super Falcons would return to South Africa for the female version of the African Cup of Nations as the defending champion; and they successfully defended the title.
Having qualified from the group stages, they faced and defeated Zimbabwe in the quarter-final match. And they were to face Banyana Banyana, a team they always and easily assail over. But wait a minute, during the quarter final match against Zimbabwe, the majority of Super Falcons had running stomach and kept going to the sideline for medical attention. Some went to the ladies several times to stool during the match, but they held on strong till they won the match. During the debriefing session at their hotel, food poisoning was confirmed. We immediately suspected foul play by the host because their next opponent was Banyana Banyana. May be, just maybe they were afraid that the Super Falcons would trash them as usual, therefore, to get rid of them in the quarter final stage by any means possible was an option.
Alas, the Nigerian community in South Africa rallied once again in their support. We called a meeting of our leaders, and together the Nigerian Consulate and the High Commission. We made a decision that henceforth our girls would not be fed by the hotel; neither would they drink water from the hotel taps. We covered all possible ways the alleged food poisoning might have arisen. We there and then started a fund raising for food stuff and for bottled water
Femi Adeleke coordinated Pretoria and up north into Limpopo; Sam Iweka, and Aunty Bose in Johannesburg, and I took charge of calling everyone on the list of possible donors. These donors were spread across the entire country. Everyone came to the party, and we supplied food stuff and water nonstop until the end of the tournament.
We had Mrs Onwuagbu to make her residence available for cooking the food for the girls. Mrs Onwuagbu was the wife of the late Ambassador Charles Onwuagbu, who was then the Consul General of Nigeria in Johannesburg, South Africa. May his soul rest in peace. He was a great patriot and diplomat. He never failed to respond to mission-critical assignments anytime he was called upon. The late Dominic Oneya was the chairman of the Nigerian Football Federation at the time. We alerted the media of what was going on and got Dominic Oneya busy on radio and TV interviews.
Then came the dreaded semi-final match between Super Falcons and Banyana Banyana. It was like a war in the stadium. Chats and songs of war echoed around the venue and outside of it. As the saying goes, it was Warsaw that saw war, and there was no more war. Our Super Falcons trumped their opponent at the end but not without casualties. The South African fans had breached the fence, rushed inside the pitch as soccer hooligans would do; they threw stones and all sorts of items at us, and rained mayhem on us. We made a tactical withdrawal from the stadium, guided, and protected our girls to safety. It was chaos.
By the way, the Super Falcons were leading by the time violence was unleashed on us, which necessitated CAF to award us the match with ease. The Super Falcons proceeded to defeat Cameroon 5-0 in the final. The Nigerian community in South Africa lost lives and properties to unprovoked attacks in the hands of our hosts. We had sent home over 100 dead Nigerians whose deaths were a result of criminality and xenophobia. I shall capture this aspect in other chapters of my memoirs.
The government of Nigeria refused to seek redress in recompense for these losses. In 2008, just after the widely viewed xenophobic attacks in South Africa, the late President Yar’Adua visited; instead of supporting our move for compensation, he forgave them. Again, in 2018, another xenophobic attack on our people happened; Buhari repeated the same thing, thereby sacrificing the interests of Nigerians for reasons best known to him. I await the reaction of our government in the horrific experience in Libya. Should they fail to take decisive action against Libya, I shall bring a class action suit against the government of Nigeria for both the past and present loss of lives and properties in South Africa. Now that the preparation for the African Cup of Nations is upon us. Let us wait to see how this Libyan saga will play out as regards the 3 points at stake. Good luck to the Super Eagles.
Addendum! Austin Okeke was first President, Nigerian community in South Africa for 10 years from 1994 – 2004; de facto Ambassador of Nigeria to South Africa between 1995 and 1999 during the late Abacha military regime and member, South Africa Nigeria Democratic Support Group that worked alongside Nelson Mandela that successfully brought international sanctions against the Abacha regime, after which he was recognised as the de facto Ambassador based on international law. Bishop Desmond Tutu was a member as well. He was in awe because he found himself in the midst of four Nobel Laureates: Dr Nelson Mandela, President F W De Klerk, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Professor Wole Soyinka. What a rare privilege it was for him at the time and at his young age. Abacha didn’t like that he had essentially rendered useless his regime and his diplomatic missions all over the world. He twice sent mercenaries after him. He survived. He unsuccessfully attacked him a few days after their meeting with Prof Wole Soyinka, who had visited South Africa as the NADECO Ambassador at large. He was essentially the NADECO South Africa. President Olusegun Obasanjo was still in detention at the time.
He was pretty young at 27; he didn’t know what it meant to be a de facto Ambassador at the time. He delivered and performed his duties without pay. Instead, he used his own resources as a young law student and his friends’ resources to fund his activities. He remains the youngest Ambassador in the history of the United Nations to date. He was naive, fresh from the seminary, and the sole occupation of his mind was “Freedom” for his people back home.
Concluded