The pedigree of Adokiye Amiesimaka in the Nigerian story is quite unique and exemplary. He is both an accomplished legal practitioner as well as a sportsman. As a lawyer in the service of his native Rivers State, he rose to become the state attorney general. As a sportsman, he played football for the National team even as a Law student (he was fondly nicknamed Chief Justice) and was a terror to opposing defenders on the left wing. This combination of National service on both the legal and sporting fronts is quite rare and very commendable.
Another notable personality in that mould was the late Sam Okwaraji who was also a practicing lawyer while playing for the National soccer team. It was well known that Sam would often pay his own way to represent the Country, a habit that did not endear him to his team mates who were in the game mainly for money and considered playing for their Country as an opportunity to be served and not to serve. Indeed speculations were common at the time that his mysterious death on the field of play during an international match was as a result of the infamous Nigerian black magic or juju concocted against him by resentful teammates who saw him as a spoiler in their well developed system of blackmailing the Country with their mediocre soccer abilities, for money .
It is through the spectrum of this well worn dichotomy between those who see sports and football in particular solely as a cash cow and a matter of life and death and those others for whom it is still just the game that it is, as well as an opportunity to serve, that we must assess the recent exposure by Adokiye Amiesimaka of the age cheat, Fortune Chukwudi who is the captain of the Nigerian team in the ongoing FIFA under 17 world cup. For those who are not aware of the details, Amiesimaka had published an article in the Punch newspaper in which he asserts that “In the 2002/2003 season, I was chairman of Sharks Football Club of Port Harcourt. I decided to have a feeder team of fresh school leavers not older than 20 years.. One of my key players then is the current captain of our so-called Under 17 Golden Eaglets. By his own admission at that time, that is seven years ago, he was 18 years old…If we are not utterly irresponsible, how can he be eligible for this tournament when he is not less than 25 years old now?”
I must confess I was surprised by the revelation for three reasons.
The first reason is the fact that well before the event, FIFA had explicitly announced that they would detect and sanction age cheats by the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) test. Under that threat, the NFF was forced to flush out the majority of the initial team who had failed the test. I had assumed that with that test (which I am told was done twice), the new team would be comprised of genuine under 17 age players. My surprise then was that clearly the MRI age test technology is far from perfect if someone who is at least eight years older than the age limit can ‘pass’.
My second reason for surprise was more pleasant; the revelation itself. It is well known all over the Country since the very first Nigerian under 17 world cup ‘victory’ in 1985 that the Nigerian teams have always been full of age cheats. Regular anecdotes have been told by people who are themselves about 26 and who were juniors in school to some of those parading themselves as under 17! Or those who were already fathers of three kids and claiming to be under 17! etc. While such stories were legion, it is a sad testament to the moral cowardice and duplicity of the average Nigerian that nobody has ever publicly said so by naming and shaming them until now. The pleasant surprise for me then was in the rare courage as well as the appropriate indignation of Adokiye Amiesimaka in the face of this blatant disgrace and affront to our collective morality in front of the whole world.
The third and most unpleasant surprise to me has come after the revelations themselves. I say revelations, because Adokiye has subsequently fingered another player, Olanrewaju Kayode as also being well over seventeen. Like Fortune Chukwudi, Kayode had applied to play for the Sharks FC feeder team (a team meant for 18-20 year olds) in 2002!. Apparently unlike Fortune, Kayode had been unsuccessful in making that team then. So, according to their present claims, Fortune Chukwudi and Olanrewaju Kayode were ten year olds when they had finished secondary school in 2002 and applied for the Sharks FC feeder team!!
It is clear as the whole world knows.. that this is impossible. It is also clear that these two and certainly several others in that team are far above the age limit. One only has to look at their faces to know that MRI ‘pass’ or not, these are age cheats..
Amazingly, Nigerians seem to have accepted this monumental corruption as just one of those things. I have seen no outrage and condemnation especially from the critical high places in both sporting and Government circles. Even worse, many are faulting Adokiye for having bad blood against the 'boys' as well as the NFF. Information Minister and Professor "I will sink to any level to keep my job" Dora "Rebrand" Akunyili is congratulating this team of shameless men for beating 17 year old boys. People are saying the timing of the revelation is wrong as if telling the truth has a time limit. When superstar Diego Maradona was caught with cocaine in his system during the 1994 World cup, the Argentine Football Federation did not wait for FIFA before they kicked him off the team themselves right in the middle of the event.
And in all this, I ask what has happened to the soul of this Country? When did we sink this low that literally anything goes? How did Nigeria get to this point that there is no longer any shame in doing wrong? I have been one of those who have always believed somehow through all the abuse and trials over the years by corrupt Militricians, Politicians, fake Pastors and Imams, poverty, lack of basic amenities etc. that things will still work out in the end. Surprisingly, this age cheat revelation and more importantly, the reactions of so many Nigerians who seem to condone and even justify it, have made me for the first time to believe that there is really no longer any hope for this Country, at least as it is presently constituted. Trials and tribulations will come and go, but when the soul is lost, all is lost and I sincerely believe now that Nigeria has lost its soul.
The Nigerian team of twenty something year olds or more are one of the favourites to win the ongoing FIFA under 17 world cup. Fortune Chukwudi as the team captain might yet lift the cup after the final. My question to him is that in such a case, how does it feel to know in your heart that the whole world sees you as a shameless cheat? Have you no self respect nor shame?. Recently, we hear the coach of the team took the 'boys' to church for interim thanksgiving. Why mock God by dragging Him into a cheap scam? Fortune Chukwudi, Coach John Obuh, what shall it profit a man to gain the world and lose his own soul?.
I must also use this piece to request the Federal Government of Nigeria to stop unduly rewarding mediocre achievements like winning age-group FIFA world cups. The last Nigerian 'under 17' players who won the event in 2007 and who were also certainly cheats, were each given a house in Abuja. This inappropriate type of gesture is part of what gives an incentive for these shameless liars to cheat. In a society where people who have served their nation for decades are paid insulting pensions and where many pensioners do not own their own homes and some even die waiting in line for their small pensions, it sends a very bad signal to award obscene rewards to cheats. It encourages the youth to believe that hard work and the truth does not pay while lying does. The age group tournaments were not conceived by FIFA to be life and death affairs but as stepping stones to further development. Ghana, who recently won the even more valuable under 20 trophy did not declare any work free day in the Country for the team on their return home. There was minimal fanfare and the players were certainly not given houses in Accra. Why do we always get our priorities wrong in Nigeria?
The FG should take a cue from Ghana and award modest rewards for age-group soccer trophies which are only meant to encourage further growth and are not designed to be an end in themselves. The main aim is defeated when such modest achievements are rewarded beyond the limits of decorum and common sense. It becomes even worse when people of low morals cheat by lying about their age for such rewards.
In concluding, I must commend the moral courage of the peerless Adokiye Amiesimaka who is the first to publicly expose this National disgrace which has now grown into a cancer that requires urgent surgery. For those who may not know and who may wrongfully doubt his motives, a brief illustration of his profile may be useful. Adokiye was soccer captain of CMS grammar school Lagos, the dreaded Bariga bombers who won the prestigious Lagos State Principals cup ahead of the equally dreaded St. Finbarr's College squad and others in the mid seventies. He proceeded immediately to the University of Lagos (Unilag) to study law. When his secondary school days were over. he moved on. As a law student at Unilag and later in Law school, he was also a regular player for the National soccer team. He retired from the national team relatively early, partly to face his law career and youth sports development and also to give room for others to develop and showcase their talents; talents which are in any case abundant in Nigeria. Again he moved on and gracefully gave way for others to grow. In light of his example, it is very disgusting to see men in their twenties who refuse to move on in life and who sink so low as to play in under 17 events while denying the true under 17 the chance to showcase their talents and gain exposure.
Fortune Chukwudi, Olanrewaju Kayode and co. should immediately resign from the team or be flushed out. Shame on you, Coach John Obuh, Taiwo Ogunjobi and co. of the NFF who are accessories to cheating. Finally, shame on those Nigerians who know the truth and have kept quiet, forgetting that the age cheat who gets away with cheating today will grow to become the Amos Adamu, Bode George, James Ibori, Saminu Turaki and so many other corrupt frauds of the next generation. To keep quiet now is to condemn coming generations to the dirty tricks of these trainee fraudsters who are now in apprenticeship to be the looters of tomorrow. There should be zero tolerance for all types of corruption
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