Popular sports journalist, Colin Udoh, is yet to get over his altercation with Super Eagles midfielder Mikel Obi after Nigeria’s embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Sudanese national team in Khartoum last Saturday during a 2015 AFCON qualifier.
The former Eagles media officer has written all that transpired between him and the Chelsea midfielder on his website after he dared to tweet that the team doesn’t deserve to be in Morocco for next year’s AFCON due to its woeful performance.
“Our allegiance as reporters is to the truth. Clear. Unvarnished. Ungarnished. Especially on a bad day. Like last Saturday in Khartoum. The Super Eagles performed poorly, and deservedly lost. So when I tweeted that they did not deserve to be in Morocco, it was the truth. A mere 1 point from 9 tells the story more eloquently than I ever could.
So I was a bit taken aback when Mikel Obi stopped me as I boarded the plane and made to take my seat to slate me for saying that. And for tweeting that the result was a disgrace” Udoh wrote.
Before going on to add that other players watched as the two exchanged hot words on the plane “Emmanuel Emenike and Austin Ejide were sitting close by, as was Vincent Enyeama, Nosa Igiebor and Ogenyi Onazi. I felt affronted. And I let rip, reminding him how much stick I take for defending the team, including but not limited to ignorant folk even suggesting I receive gratification” he said.
“ After our argument somewhat ended, Mikel would not go down easily and called Ben Alaiya, the team's Media Officer over, directing him to put out a statement blaming the condition of the pitch.
I warned him that excuses would not go down well with the public and he would be better served saying nothing than blaming the pitch.” The article concluded.
This revelation will no doubt cast Mikel as a hater of objective criticism and someone who sees the media officer a tool in the hands of influential members of the team ready to do their bidding instead of upholding the truth according to the ethics and principles of journalism.