Dr Kitaun:

the same one who is seeking cheap publicity in the midst of a FIFA competition decides it proper to bring up a photo of Fortune at Sharks . . .what does that mean ? does this same picture reveal what time it was taken ?

proudly9ja:

Have we not also thought that by lying about their ages, the team, the NFF and all those involved have also denied the real U17 boys who are somewhere around the Nation, the opportunity to develop in their careers? So if you keep insulting and cursing others for 'trying to bring down' Mr Fortune and co do you not think that you are only insulting and cursing yourselves for supporting Mr Fotune and co's deceit?

The Real U17 players are now somewhere in various academies round Nigeria and may never have the opportunity of moving forward in their careers again because some people have decided to be deceitful and some of us rather than condemn are hailing them as heroes. How would you think they will feel?

proudly9ja:

At that time he prolly must have been truly U18 and for him to have been in the Sharks feeder team means that he must have been a good player then.

Sagamite:

^^^

You must be havin a laff, mate. 

I can bet you even then it would have been a "sworn affidavit" age he would have been using as he would have had an eye for the U-17. I have no doubt he would have been in his early 20s by then, so think how old he would be now and tackling schoolboys. 

Ibime:

It is laughable that this is even a national issue.

Newsflash for Nigerians: No-one in the world cares about who won what in youth football!

It is only in Nigeria where the NFA have miseducated Nigerians into viewing youth tournament victories as a key progress indicator. You will often hear idiots like Sani Lulu boasting of their achievements of having won the "Under 17 world cup".

The only thing that counts in football is the senior team!

Chukwudi is simply a victim of fate. But his hopes and ambitions are not large enough from stopping the Nigerian nation from making progress.

The only reason we parade players like him is because NFF have foregone their principle duty of developing youth football.

He must be sacrificed to ensure that henceforth we only develop the right youngsters and rid ourselves of this cancer where we often have quadragenarians parading in the Super-Eagles, having graduated from the under-17 team at 27 years of age.

I pray Nigeria is banned from youth football for 10 years!!!

If you are sick, and you refuse to go see the doctor, you must be sectioned for your own good!

stanloski:

Una neva see anything!
I heard one of the "kids" has two children! And i just heard this evening that one of the "boys" graduated from sec sch in 1998! Let me see, where is my calculator, emmm 17 minus 11 equals,, 6! OMG we have a genius in our hands! he left secondary school at 6! My o My what a brainy kid, hissss! This age thing has convinced me that 9ja is finished! We grumble about corruption and bad governance but we condone age cheats.We r just a bunch of hypocrites! worse than the pharisees!

marutimon:

My first post and a few comments:

I think we can all agree that the timing of Adokiye was repulsive. This should have preferably been done before the tournament or in the worst case after. The timing leads me to believe that politics has also come into play.

However I have increasing certainty that Fortune Chukwudi and several other players (Kayode, Okoro) were taken on in spite of failing the MRI tests. Possibly because the coach thought it losing too many key players would destroy any chances the team has at the tournament. It is impossible for so many old guys to pass the loop without someone turning a blind eye.

I noticed also looking back in time a very weird peculiarity,  It seems that December is a very popular month for Nigerian youth footballers to be born in,  Other weird things: Look at the Wikipedia entries for Abdul Ajagun, Omoh Ojabu, Mohammed Aliyu,  according to those they are all 19-23 years old,

That said I must fill in on the MRI scan issue. Bringing them in was a great thing for the tournament. Apart from Nigeria it seems all other African teams screened their players very honestly and now presented a real u17 squad. And I can see them benefiting,  the u17 Gambia side may not have progressed, but actually played some great football and could have easily progressed in their group save for bad luck. Similarly the Malawians come with real schoolboys and they were quite impressive. I can also safely state that a lot of the Burkina Faso players will be searched after by scouts once this tournament is over (probably even more than in the case of the tainted Nigerian side). The 14-year old Bertrand Traoré will have great prospects in front of him and will be quickly optioned by a European team (apparently Manchester United have already taken him in to their youth squad). [/b]And these countries will benefit from real youths actually getting a chance to present themselves. And the lack of age cheating will really make the European clubs more open to a risk - they have one risk less to worry about, meaning no more need to worry if the players really are as young as they say they are,

MRI tests are 90% certain within a 6 month band and 99,9% within a 2 year band. Hence any player that passed the test is no older than 19 with a 100% certainty. So if a test is done honestly the oldest a player can be is 19.

POSITIVES because there are some in the whole situation:

1) [b]This is still the youngest u17 squad Nigeria has ever fielded. MRI scan or not just look at some of the players. I have no doubt that most of them are no older than 18-19. A lot of the players are still young enough to be great potential players and even if they are not 16-17 as they stated they are still teenagers (Okoro and Chukwudi apart) and have great development potential. Enough said that FIFA did random test 4 Nigerian players (can't wait to find out which ones - results will be presented after the tournament) and all of them passed - so lets not let the bad apples negate the impressive display of the younger players.

2) The random MRI test scans will force NFF to rethink what they are doing. I think Nigeria decided to test FIFA this time around (because they are hosts and FIFA doesn't like scandals), but the MRI tests will slowly phase out the cheats. They may get away with it this time around, but next time FIFA won't be so lenient.

3) Surprisingly the biggest stars of the tournament for Nigeria has been the supersub Sani Emmanuel and the goalkeeper Dani Paul. The latter looks like a teenager and I can state with 90% surety that his is a teenager. But even more importantly the surprise package that is Sani Emmanuel should console those furious at the Chukwudi scandal. As far as I'm concerned Sani IS AS OLD AS HE STATES HE IS! His background story fits and everything about him seems genuine. He is also a surprise addition to the squad picked up from a youth squad the u17 played. And he is the biggest talent I have seen in Nigerian youth football in 10 years or more.

For semiproof just look at this picture.

switch47:

By Emma Okocha Adokiye Amiesimaka… Man of the Year
FOR many years, the Nigerian National teams depended on their wingers to produce the goals or to disrupt the opposing defence in order for the rampaging strikers to find the net.


The exploits of these brilliant wingers will remain evergreen in our football memory. Dejo, Fayemi, Ibadan Lions; Okwudili, Lagos ECN; Peter Anieke, Stationary Stores; Kunle Awesu ICC Shooting Stars; Josiah Donbraye, Sharks of Port Harcourt; Emeka, Onyedika, Enugu Rangers International.

During Father Tico’s era, he noticed and imbibed in his wingers the natural advantage the African footballer has over the other football nations of the world — Speed.

The Nigerian wingers were trained to accelerate the attack and when a natural winger is discovered, he is trained to work on his speed. If he is intelligent and blessed with more skills, then that Nigerian formation was organised to let the offence loose from the wings. Those were the days of 4 -2-4.

In the 90 minutes of play, the Nigerian squad, built on a formidable defence, supported by a midfield of ‘’ball boys’’ and provided upfront with wingers that have the fire power of a Damien Ogunsuyi, the overlapping speed of Ogidi Ibeabuchi, and the on-the-run dribbling capabilities of Segun Odegbami, is a killer squad.

Adokiye Amiesimaka as Unilag law student, and playing in the mid-seventies, for perhaps the greatest Nigeria soccer assembly, belonged to that select pantheon of Eagles wingers who had everything. Speed, ball intelligence, dribbling sense, thirst and nose for the goals. And the critical winger advantage of locating his number 9 without looking up to find his striking direction.

Adokiye in his prime, could have played for any team in the world. But his time under the sun was not like our today. A great time for many of our average football players, who are celebrated all over the world for just possessing one or few of Adokiye’s talents.

Millions of naira, instant stardom and immediate transformation is accorded to an African son of a carpenter, once he can outrun his European opponents and score a goal. The whole football world is waken up to salute the goal and the new media hurry to announce it, mounting the footage all over the place. And who will tell the world that my poor CJ, Adokiye, who in his many unsung days did score better goals, meandered through tougher defences and had more grace of movement than those sons of carpenters.

Furthermore, most of these boys as noted by our own enfant terrible, Etim Essien, were supposed to be candidates for the streets, did not like going to school, never came near a Law School.

Whatever was the main issue with our former gifted winger, Adokiye, which led him to condemn publicly the Nigerian football authorities, for fielding overaged players at the ongoing U-17 tournament, at a time the junior team is fighting to restore the country’s soccer reputation, is beyond reason. For him, who has had it all, it is the ear-splitting thud of a fallen angel.

Adokiye Amiesimaka as a player was a gift from the gods. As an artist, he had an uncommon spiritual connection with the masses who made up over 80% of the Lagos Surulere stadium crowd. They worshiped him, and called him their CJ.

Because he is one of those few souls who are so blessed and constantly tormented and must suffer from tyranny of talents, he was offered a radio programme and in no good time, he graduated as a star broadcaster. He was invited to play for the legendary Rangers at his own terms.

On retirement, he was almost given the whole franchise of the Sharks of the Rivers State. To the best of our knowledge, he was the President, if he likes the Chairman and most of the time, doubled as the Coach and also the team Manager and even when he went off to other appointments, he is always coming back to the Sharks as if the Sharks FC was his family business.

As if the blessings were not enough, he became the Commissioner of Justice and Attorney-General for the Rivers State. Please, my dear CJ, were you on seat when the mother of all immorality was committed in Rivers State? When they hanged the environmentalist, and burnt the civil rights crusader with acid?

What were your reactions? You must be very lucky you were not brought before the Admiral KKK OmoregieCourtmarshal of the Vanguard Kikiriki Base Command. That military court would have have found you guilty and caned you over your recent inconsideration and innuendos against poor youngsters whose crime is nothing but to be allowed to just better their lives.

Come to think of it, how many Nigerian poor kids really know when they were born? We were horrified to learn in a recent seminar at George Washington that most African kids claim any age in order to play soccer, move up their age so as to qualify to eat food before they are registered to go to school!

The seminar brought the whole room to tears when a referenced study posited that, over 75% of the focused African kids go to school without food. So in those formative years, the European child and others who are well fed should be way ahead of his African counterpart. The Governor of Rivers last week came to Virginia and surprisingly confirmed our nightmare. That our poor kids are going to school without food!! And somebody is shouting about age advantage.

On balance, we will like to submit that the football organisation and our sports in general have not seen the best of leadership. But in this pen profession, we are trained to observe that, there are some news that are too hot to report, even if it is a true story.

CJ, in your bile disclosure, have you considered the impact of your bombshell on the poor boy Chukwudi Fortune, and Olanrewaju Kayode? Their poor families and of course the impact of your story on you and your stewardship as a man of everything in the Sharks FC? Your own Rivers state?

For a long time, your outburst will stay with those lads and they will never forget you. Have you worried about your story’s indelible mark on Nigeria, her soccer reputation? Your intemperate revelations must have wounded irretrievably her efforts to rebrand her image through the expected success from hosting the world.

On that final question, we would like to invite you to step into the arena. With the simple caveat that you must as you say in your professional register; ‘those who come to equity must come with clean hands.’ From your moral compass as a former Commissioner of Justice and Attorney-General, tell us the inside stories of the murder of Saro Wiwa.

In the final analysis, if the Nigerian team under Captain Chukwudi Fortune runs away with the U-17 world cup, or fails to make it, Nigeria and the world football will for ever remember the unexpected thunder from a fallen angel who like Caesar wanted everything for Rome.

But like all tragedies of our world, Caesar’s motivation and world view for Rome, obscured the daggers of his envious and corrupt fellow Senators of Rome.

The daggers that ripped his heart into pieces, invited and encouraged the vandals, the barbarians, the poor peoples of the slave kingdoms of the world to move and eventually overthrow the rotten Roman Empire. CJ Adokiye Amiesimaka as the Nigerian Dude of the Year.


God Bless U, Emma Okocha.

Your insightful analysis on the outburst on Adokiye about Captain Fortune gladdens my heart. Yours is the best comment and analysis I have read so far on this age controversy. People like Adokiye are simply desperados who are trying to find relevance at all cost and achieve some ulterior motives and all we have are reactions from some members of the public who are liars and confirmed age cheats themselves who will never declare their true age in documentations for employments, applications etc but who have the audacity to shout 'age cheats'. Where is the age advantage anyway, when our counterparts from Europe have every conceivable developmental apparatus available to them right from the cradle, the African child struggles for almost everything right from childhood through to his teenage years is made to compete with his counterpart from the West and yet excels largely due to extreme determination and hardwork. No matter how one looks at it, Adokiyes comment about Fortune during the competition is to say the least absurd. Where was he when the team was been put together? why did he not say anything? so many questions for this man to answer. Can this 'man' Adokiye come to equity with cleans hands, can he say before God and Man that during his time as the CJ of Rivers State, he honestly and truthfully exposed corruption in both high and low places without fear or favour? What was the justice situation like during his time as the CJ of Rivers State? Nigerians should not be carried away by the so called revelation coming from this man. In my opinion he does not have the best of this nation at heart except of course if he is charge or in control of the Nations football Affairs. Tell me, when Adokiye was part of those running the affairs of football in this nation, how many times did he cry out about age cheats, or where there no age cheats before now in our football? Anyway thank you for that wonderful piece.

Jonnic1:

Proudly9ja:

For your info, I was born and bred in Naija and didn't leave Naija till 2007! I schooled in Nigeria and fought injustice at my Uni in Nigeria and yes I was victimised with bad grades and was even threatened several times. Inspite of it all, I came out with good grades. I faced it and by the Grace of God, I beat it and that is why I can talk about it and get angry about it. When someone cheats, he/she is only stealing another person's opportunity and it is totally unfair. And we cannot justify it by saying it is being done in other sectors, that is total rubbish. Its the same way the NFF and Amodu were saying other sports were not faring too well so why should anyone expect better from football. Its all an easy way of shifting blames!


Welldone My Proudly9ja. Le me ask you a few question. Which University did you graduate from and when? You said you fought injustice at your Uni, what type of injustice did you fight and how many of such cases of injustice were you able to effectively address? you said you were victimized with bad grades, but yet you came out with good grades. Why are you speaking from both sides of the amount. In one breath you were victimised with bad grades and in another breath you came out with good grades. Can you expantiate. what are you saying. how can you be victimised with bad grades and yet come out with goods grades? Can you tell us how old you are, please. Mr Proudly9ja, why did you leave Naija in the first place, I thought you would have stayed back in Nigeria to help us fight injustice, corruption, lies, age cheats and the likes before jetting out, because the injustice and victimisation in our Universities and the likes is still on the rise. It is obvious that your fight against injustice in your Uni was not successful or if successful then did not stand the test of time. Your comments about age "cheats' in our footballl is quite interesting. but sometimes you seem to sound holier than thou and you fail to see anything good in our football. I will suggest you kindly come back from your abode to Naija to help us sanitise our football house as well as help to identify and raise a true under 17 team for Nigeria. Can you also tell what you are doing Abroad to help correct the many perceived problems at home?. I suppose that will be better than shouting over the rooftop from another man's country about Fortune Chukwudi or age cheats in our football.