In the early 1990s I watched an interview that Chief MKO Abiola gave. It was shown on Lagos Television. In that interview he explained why he disbanded Abiola Babes. Abiola Babes was one of the two millionaire teams in Nigerian club football in the 1980s.
I have often used that interview to explain to Nairalanders who often complain that wealthy Nigerians like Dangote do not own/run football clubs that it is not easy to own a Nigerian football club. People like Chief Abiola, John Mastourodes (Leventis United), Chief Iwuanyanwu (Iwuanyanwu Nationale), Chief Oscar Udoji (Udoji United), Chief Adewale Teluwo (VIP, Obanta), etc. have tried it and gotten bad experiences.
I still can’t find a video of the interview I watched, but Chief Abiola relayed the same story when he was interviewed by former Nigerian captain, Chief Segun Odegbami (MON). Here is a video of the interview.
Chief Abiola mentioned some people and places in the interview and some might not know what he was referring to, so I’ve explained what they are.
Minister P.C. Achebe = Chief Philip Onuora Chikaodili (P.O.C.) Achebe, a two-time secretary general of the NFA and I think he also served as minister of sports.
Havelange = Joao Havelange who was the president of FIFA at the time.
Dakar = The Confederation of African Football (CAF) awarded Chief Abiola its gold merit award in recognition of his contributions to African football. The award was presented at the CAF General Assembly in Dakar in 1992 (during the 1992 African Nations Cup).
Challenge Cup = The Nigerian FA cup was previously known as the Challenge Cup.
Group Captain Obakpolor = Group Captain John Obakpolor was the NFA chairman in 1987/1988.
It is important that one should be very serious with what one wants to do. Nobody can clap with one hand. To clap you need two hands. I can provide the money. I provide even the time. You remember, I followed the team to play their match against Nchanga Rangers.
We got to Lusaka. We were told by the NFA that the match would be played in Lusaka. We travelled there on the eve of the match to be told that we would be playing in Nchanga. I had to beg for a flight, to charter an F27 to fly us to Ndola at 10:30 at night, hired a bus from Ndola to take us through Kitwe to Nchanga, only to find that the driver was drunk! So I drove the bus myself for three and a half hours. We were stopped by armed robbers three times on the road. I had to bribe our way through into Kitwe.
We got to Kitwe at 2:30 in the morning on the day of the match, to find that the officials had left for Kitwe. So I dropped the bus, made sure they rested quickly, drove the sane bus back to Kitwe to look for the officials to bring them back at 7 in the morning to officiate. I was prepared to do that.
You see, it’s not just the money. You need to know what problems these boys faced. The boys on their way back had problems connecting in Addis. They were delayed in Addis for four days. I had to wire money for them to eat and so on. Only to find out that they were being scratched by Group Captain Obakpolor, who said that the boys did not show up for their quarter final match against. . . against. . . er. . . the Maiduguri side
(Segun Odegbami says, “El-Kanemi)
El-Kanrmi at their quarter final match in Bauchi. I had to fight to get them to be allowed to play that match. They eventually qualified.
With all that, when you look at it, it just occurred to me, what happens if these armed robbers (they opened fire on us near Kitwe) if I had been killed? What will I tell my children? You see, one must. . . There has to be moderation in everything that one does. But if I hadn’t been in that bus that day, the bus wouldn’t have gone through. They probably would have been waylaid, people would have been severely injured, if not killed. What for?
Some of these things that we are trying to do, we must try and dose it with some element of realism.
Maybe we need to zone some of these things, as I was suggesting to CAF.
You see, the cost of transportation too. How much it costs me in foreign exchange.
We played Esperance in Tunisia. We had evidence that some of my boys took bribe to concede that match. Only to find. . .we got to the airport, Alitalia flight was cancelled because of strike. I had to pay in foreign exchange. In those days, the whole team and the supporters to London to connect back to Lagos in hard currency.
Minister P.C. Achebe was there. He was the one who said that I should disband the whole team! Only to find that I could hardly find a good team to play in the final of the Challenge Cup. It was a miracle that we won that Challenge Cup. I dismissed 12 of my players.
You see, these things were too much for me and I’m not getting younger. By the time of Abiola Babes I was in my early 40s. I’m 54½ now.
See, these are the things that one must bear in mind. It’s not just enough to put money. . . and my name connected with something, I want to see that it is very well done. If they are Abiola Babes, then Abiola has to be there.
You see, I had to leave Nchanga that afternoon. . . they played the match at 2 o’clock because they didn’t want our boys to rest. 2 o’clock in the sun! Our boys managed to draw. I drove straight to Lusaka to take the Zambian Airline 11 hour flight into London for an important meeting. So I couldn’t see to the boys being evacuated. They were stranded in Addis.
You see, there’s so much hassles in all these things and one is only one man!
My father told me, when a cousin was made a foreman. He didn’t know that it was F-O-R-E. He thought it was F-O-U-R. He said, “How can a man call himself four-man. Every man is one man”. “Asiere eniyan lo’n pe eniyan four-man. Enikan ni enikan je”. I am only one man.
Abiola Babes has virtually returned in Concord Football Club, a Professional League Division 2 club. They will carry on. Abiola name will not be there.
I think the name is already well known, thank God. You were in Dakar. What other thing could anybody have wanted in his life. Only Nigeria refused to honour me and I’m sure they will do that one day, but the whole of Africa has done so. What else do I want?
I think that Chief MKO Abiola was referring to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona in this part of the interview.
We spend our money in ferrying people across. We don’t spend money to train people for the game! It’s like a fun game. It’s like going on a picnic. But you see, those games are not a picnic.
But you see again, it goes back to what Havelange said about seriousness. You know those who are not going to win and you keep them at home. We know that most of those people who are there are not going to win.
What game will those officials play? 134 officials went, remember? What game can they play except to clap? If they even get round to the stadium at all.
I think we should. . . the Kenyans went with only 4 officials! They went with a team of 25 with 4 officials!
Chief Abiola’s story included some underhand practices by host teams against visiting teams (changing the venue or kick-off times, etc.) This unfortunately was a regular occurrence in African football, as you can see from the post below.
naptu2: There's a reason that Enyimba have reported Raja to CAF.
My dad led many Nigerian teams to North Africa in the 1970s and '80s and he told me about the antics of the north Africans.
He said that he usually called the Nigerian ambassador in the host country days before any match. He would tell the ambassador to book a hotel and hire a bus for the team.
This is because (1) fans of the north African team would usually camp outside the visiting teams hotel and they would make a lot of noise with loud speakers and drums, to ensure that players of the visiting team do not sleep at night.
2) They would usually book hotels in the red light district for the visiting team so that their players would be distracted by prostitutes.
3) Matches are usually held at night and in towns that are close to the Mediterranean, rather than their home town, so that the visiting players would be bothered by the cold.
4) Bags of urine are sometimes thrown at the reserve bench
I guess that Enyimba believe that Raja is trying to create animosity in the minds of its supporters so that they will give Enyimba a terrible time when Enyimba goes to Casablanca.
Henry Amike was Nigeria’s champion in the 400 metres hurdles in the 1980s and early 1990s. He was based in the United States, but he came back to Lagos in 1989 to take part in the African Athletics Championships which was hosted by Nigeria. The 1989 African Athletics Championships was used to select the team that would represent Africa at the 1989 IAAF World Cup in Barcelona.
Henry Amike won the 400 metres hurdles at the African championships, but he contracted malaria while he was in Lagos. He lost a lot of weight because of the illness and it was decided that he should be dropped from the African team to the World Cup in Barcelona.
So he caught a flight to London on his way back to the United States. Coincidentally, Chief MKO Abiola was on the same flight. Chief Abiola asked Henry Amike why he was not in Barcelona. Amike told MKO that he had been ill. MKO said, “It is better for you to compete and come last, than for you not to compete at all”. Chief Abiola called Lamine Diack (the president of the African Athletics Confederation) as soon as they got to London and said, “I have an athlete here that was the champion at the African Championships, yet he is not in Barcelona. Why?” and that’s how Henry Amike made it back into the team.
Henry Amike said that Chief Abiola’s words really touched him and he trained very hard for the World Cup.
The IAAF World Cup was a team tournament that was contested by continents (Africa, Asia, Oceania, The Americas and Europe), the United States and the winner of the previous year’s European Championships.
Henry Amike ran in the 400 metres hurdles at Barcelona ’89 and came second. He was actually in the lead, but he “ran out of gas” just before the tape and the United States athlete, David Patrick, overtook him and won gold.
Chief MKO Abiola flew to Barcelona to watch the race. Henry Amike said that he told Chief Abiola that his words had an effect on him and he thanked him profusely, but Chief Abiola said, “No, thank God” and gave him some money.
John Fashanu
Many Nigerians have accused John Fashanu of abandoning Nigeria and playing for England instead, but they are wrong. John Fashanu did not “abandon” Nigeria.
John Fashanu was born in London to a Nigerian father and a Guyanese mother. He and his brother, Justin, were adopted by a British family after his parents split up. His brother was also a famous footballer.
John Fashanu scored a lot of goals in the English League in the 1980s and he said that Chief MKO Abiola appeared at his house one day and said, “You, what are you still doing here? This is not your home. You need to come back to Nigeria and play for the Eagles”, and that was the incident that made him come to Nigeria to play for the Green Eagles (now the Super Eagles).
Despite what a lot of people often say, John Fashanu actually came to Nigeria to play for the Eagles. I have seen a picture of him on the Eagles’ substitute bench.
He came to Nigeria to play for the Eagles on three occasions. He was an unused substitute in a friendly match against China. However, Otto Gloria (the Green Eagles coach) told him that his English style of playing did not suit the Nigerian style of play and that’s why he did not put him in the first team. Fashanu eventually played for England in 1989.
John Fashanu said that he is also eternally grateful to Chief Abiola for bailing him out when he was broke in London in the 1980s.
You might have noticed a pattern here. Quite a few of my previous examples have revolved around sports. Chief Abiola was like a parallel government in sports. Nigerian sports teams usually went to visit Chief Abiola before travelling to major competitions and victorious teams usually went to visit him when they returned from major tournaments (this was quite similar to the way they usually visited the president after tournaments) and Chief Abiola usually gave them some money.
For example, the Golden Eaglets won the World Cup in 1993 (this was the team that had Kanu, Babayaro, Oruma, Oparaku, etc. in its ranks) and Chief Abiola received the team at his house in Ikeja. He said , “You see, all of us cannot be possessed by the Holy Spirit at the same time. Some will be possessed; others will be chorusing Hallelujah. We are here today to sing Hallelujah on your behalf”
Chief Abiola donated huge sums of money to the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa (the body that organised the All Africa Games), the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the African Sports Journalists Union and these three bodies gave him the title of “Pillar of Sports in Africa”.
Chief Abiola owned the Abiola Babes football club (one of the two exciting millionaire teams of the 1980s), Concord Football Club of Abeokuta and Simbiat Abiola owned Kakanfo Queens (a female football club). He sponsored many developmental sports competitions across the country, while Simbiat sponsored the first female football cup competition in Nigeria (in Kano in 1988).
At an event organized by SWAN in Lagos in 1993, he expressed his views on the way forward for Nigerian football.
He was saddened that organisation of football in Nigeria was and is still not devoted to long term development planning, even when it is known as the only secret for success. According to him, even the best armies in the world cannot win battles without proper organisation.
He was also worried about the lack of continuity in football administration and he advised that we should discontinue with the shameful practice of pointing accusing fingers every time we lose a game.
MKO recalled that our painful defeats at hands of African countries especially North Africans and Cameroon was due to what he called lack of ‘football Intelligence’. He explained that ‘football intelligence’ had to do with information gathering about opponents, playing pitch, mental attitude, crowd behaviour, diet and weather conditions. He regretted that all these were not taken into account when Nigeria played Cameroon in the last 1990 World Cup qualifier and that led to Nigeria’s shocking loss.
Chief Abiola alleged that two days before the game against Cameroon, the field was watered, being in the dry season, to give the hosts added advantage of playing with hard studs on a wet pitch, while the Eagles unaware of this, wore short studs. He said Cameroon had structures that ensured continuity and transition of players, coupled with the fact that the football authorities in Cameroon funded scouts to go in search of players including those who had dual nationality, just to ensure they assembled their best at all times.
The pillar of sports in Africa advised that Nigeria should make a choice of which formation suits the crop of players we have at any given time; is it the Brazilian 4-2-4 which won them the World Cup in 1970 or total football which made the Dutch dominant from the early ‘70s. He observed that Cameroon at every given time, adopts a system that frustrates their opponents’ strengths and advised that to beat them to their own game is to analyse their strengths and weaknesses. He warned against giving out too much information about the team’s preparation, strengths and weaknesses.
He disagreed that any coach would deliberately undermine his team for the simple reason that it must be assumed that every coach would like to have a good CV, which means good results to enhance his career and bargaining power. He frowned at constant change of invited players to the national team, noting that from Senegal ‘92 qualifiers to 1993, about 60 new faces had been invited to the national team. He said this should only be done when the technical crew is building a new team and not at the time of preparing for a crucial international engagement.
Etim Esin I consider Etim Esin, Jay Jay Okocha and Tarila Okorowanta to be the three most skilful Nigerian players ever. Etim Esin is short and stocky and he has a low centre of gravity that enables him to maintain his balance while performing his crazy tricks on the football field.
However, unfortunately, Etim Esin was also one of the most undisciplined players in the Nigerian national team.
Esin played for Flash Flamingos of Benin and he was their highest goal scorer. He put up a good performance when Flash Flamingos played against Iwuanyanwu Nationale (he scored two goals) and lots of teams wanted to sign him. The two millionaire clubs, Abiola Babes and Leventis United approached him and made lots of promises, but Iwuanyanwu Nationale gave him a Peugeot 505 Evolution and he joined Iwuanyanwu. He had a 505 Evolution at the age of 18! (He later bought a BMW 3 Series).
The Belgian club Genk came to Nigeria on a playing tour and they played against the Flying Eagles. Etim Esin scored three goals for the Flying Eagles in that game and Genk were so impressed by his performance that they signed him up. Etim Esin had become one of the “professionals”. The Nigerian media also nicknamed him the “Nigerian Maradonna”.
All this attention got to Etim’s head. He escaped from camp the night before Nigeria was to play a major game and went to a nightclub. Armed robbers attacked him in Surulere on his way back to camp, shot him in the thigh and stole his BMW.
Etim Esin played for Nigerian in several Nations Cup and World Cup qualifiers, but he never played for the Super Eagles in any major competition partly because he didn’t get on well with the coaches. He played for the Flying Eagles at the 1987 World Youth Championship in Chile, but the team crashed out of the competition at the group stage (despite the fact that we had one of our best teams ever) because the players did not get along with each other. Etim Esin has admitted that his teammates at Chile ’87 did not like him. He said that he feels that his presence was a distraction and that it affected the team.
He did very well at Lokeren in Belgium and scored a lot of goals for them, but his time in Belgium came to an abrupt end when he was accused of raping a girl. Many Nigerians immediately believed the accusation because of Esin’s past behavioural problems, but Esin insisted that he was innocent.
Etim Esin said that the girl that he was accused of raping was his girlfriend. He said that he didn’t have any problems with her, but problems arose when her father found out that they were dating. He said that her father did not want her to date a black man and he did everything possible to separate them. He also said that he thought that his girlfriend’s father was sleeping with her. He said that he did not know that the girl was 16 because she looked like she was 20 years old.
Anyway, Etim Esin was accused of raping the girl and he was detained by the police. The Nigerian authorities were concerned about Etim Esin’s situation. Admiral Aikhomu asked Clemens Wseterhof to assist in the matter (Westerhof is from the Netherlands and the Netherlands and Belgium are members of the BeNeLux group). Aikhomu gave Westerhof $10,000 to take care of the issue. Chief MKO Abiola spent $50,000 to ensure that Etim Esin had a lawyer and he was eventually cleared of all charges and released. He said that he saw Chief Abiola as his mentor and that he was very grateful to Chief Abiola for what he did for him.
Etim Esin is now a motivational speaker and he goes to schools and football academies to advise the kids so that they don’t make the kind of mistakes that he made.
I watched the whole video. Man was passionate in making things excellent. Nigeria missed a great president. Someone capable of turning around the country. My heart bleeds!
mctfopt: I watched the whole video. Man was passionate in making things excellent. Nigeria missed a great president. Someone capable of turning around the country. My heart bleeds!
like we almost missed a great president in buhari abi? Abiola was a divisive figure bro 4get the hype
Thank you so much neptu2 for this historic info with video evidence. Abiola really did a lot for this continent especially Nigeria. Lazy things will find it difficult to read it because it’s not Busola and her stupid stories about COZA.
technicallyrich: Mko abiola is inconsequential. He is only a hero to yoruba muslims. How did he even die.is he the one that actually drank the rat posion or awolowo. Sometimes the both confuse me. I dont know which one is awolowo or abiola. Dont blame me for that since i am from the ss/se region and we dont care or no them here. Anyway nce hype.but it still wont make me respect him.
Lolz. Shove ur useless respect ur ass, as if ur respect is significant. 5%
naptu2: Chief Abiola’s story included some underhand practices by host teams against visiting teams (changing the venue or kick-off times, etc.) This unfortunately was a regular occurrence in African football, as you can see from the post below.
this is true, my big uncle usually tell me something similar
It reminds me of what Dangote said when the government nominated him to the board of the NFA. Journalists asked him what role he would play and he said that it would be a non-executive role.
He said that there was no way that he would have time for the NFA if, for example, there was a problem at his cement plant. The cement plant must come first.
technicallyrich: Mko abiola is inconsequential. He is only a hero to yoruba muslims. How did he even die.is he the one that actually drank the rat posion or awolowo. Sometimes the both confuse me. I dont know which one is awolowo or abiola. Dont blame me for that since i am from the ss/se region and we dont care or no them here. Anyway nce hype.but it still wont make me respect him.
what's always wrong with you 2000 kids lot eh, you lot annoy me
