Nigerian Football
FROM BED REST, TAIWO OGUNJOBI TAKES ETERNAL REST THIS WEEK
BY KUNLE SOLAJA
The remains of former footballer and administrator, Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi, will be laid to rest this week in Ibadan. He died on February 11, which coincidentally was the 35th anniversary of his only international match for Nigeria.
In that 1984 Olympic Games qualifying match with Morocco, the score line was 0-0. But the late Ogunjobi had played at other levels for Nigeria. The most famous was the 5-1 defeat of Ghana Academicals in 1974.
Ogunjobi was the hero for the Nigeria Academicals as he scored three of Nigeria’s five goals. He came from a family noted for twins as he was just a member of two sets of twins.
An older Taiwo Ogunjobi, an athlete and soldier, was one of the victims of the 1992 plane crash in which a generation of army majors were killed. Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi played for the then IICC Shooting Stars which he captained to the final of the 1984 Africa Cup of Champions Club duel with Zamalek of Egypt.
Even though he was a non-playing captain at the return leg in Lagos, he was famously recorded as the IICC player that snatched a Nigerian flag from a Zamalek player during the pre-match ceremonies.
Ogunjobi later as General Manager, led the Shooting Stars to win the inaugural edition of the now rested CAF Cup which trophy was donated by Bashorun MKO Abiola.
He possibly used the his success as administrator as launch pad to higher terrain as he was appointed the General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Association in 2002.
He held on to the position till 2005 before becoming board member from 2006 to 2010.
He was the chairman of Osun State FA till he passed on last month. According to family sources, Ogunjobi was to take bed rest at the University College Hospital in Ibadan for an undisclosed illness.
The bed rest has turned an eternal rest. His burial ceremony is planned to span almost a week. It will feature a symposium and U-13 football match as well a club match featuring his former club, Shooting Stars and the later club he administered as the Osun State FA boss, the Osun United.
The Western Nigeria Football Forum being marshalled by the NFF senior vice president, Seyi Akinwunmi, puts these events slated for Wednesday, together.
On Thursday, another football match is on the card. It will feature a Whatsapp discussion group, “Family United by Sports” – FUBS and Ibadan All Stars – an assembly of retired footballers.
The body of Chief Ogunjobi will be committed to earth on Friday March 15.
The Nigeria U17 women’s team has been given incentives to make it to the Women’s World Cup for the eighth time.
The team, Flamingos, who arrived in Algiers in the early hours of Wednesday aboard a Turkish Airlines flight from Istanbul, are highly inspired by the imminence of another FIFA World Cup ticket as well as further financial windfall from the Nigeria Football Federation and billionaire business mogul Kunle Soname.
Soname gifted the young players and their officials the sum of N4 million (one million naira for every goal) following their commanding win over the North Africans at the Remo Stars Stadium on Saturday, while the NFF gave out the sum of N2 million (five hundred thousand naira for every goal).
President of NFF, Ibrahim Musa Gusau and Soname have both confirmed that the same financial incentives are in place for the second leg in Blida on Friday.
“Our objective is clear – to win the FIFA World Cup ticket. That is the big motivation.
“Yet, we have been further incentivised by the monetary rewards. My girls will go all out on Friday night,” Head Coach Bankole Olowookere said.
Olowookere, who led the Flamingos to their last two World Cup ventures, will most likely rely on first-leg two-goal heroine Queen Joseph, lone-goal scorer Zainab Raji and Kaosarat Olanrewaju to start at the fore, with Shakirat Moshood, Muinat Rotimi and Philomena Isaiah supplying the passes from the midfield.
Goalkeeper and captain Christiana Uzoma and defenders Azeezat Oduntan, Hannah Ibrahim, Christiana Sunday and Jumai Adebayo are also likely to start.
The Confederation of African Football has selected Cameroonian official Marie Noelle Etong to be the referee, with her compatriots Marcelle Teikeu and Innocentia Ntangti as assistant referee 1 and fourth official, respectively, while Chadian Ngarassoum Victorine will be assistant referee 2.
Oumou Souleymane Kane from Mauritania will be the commissioner, and Sabelo Maphosa-Sibindi from Zimbabwe will be in the role of referee assessor.
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Former president of the initially 15-member West African Football Union (WAFU), Chief Jonathan Boytie Ogufere, has expressed his heartfelt condolences over the recent death of former national team captain and coach, Christian ‘Chairman’ Chukwu.
He remarked that the erstwhile Enugu Rangers’ defence stalwart will ‘be dearly missed’. In a personally signed letter of condolence, Ogufere described Chukwu, who died on Saturday, April 12, in Enugu after a brief illness at 74, as a ‘hero of our time and a friend’.
The nonagenarian recalled with nostalgia how he nearly recruited the young Chukwu for his P & T Vasco da Gama Football Club of Enugu, adding he was impressed with how the ‘Field Marshal Christian Chukwuemeka ‘Chairman ‘ Chukwu (MFR), conducted himself throughout his career as he led both the national team, the then Green Eagles and his beloved Enugu Rangers to many conquests.
“I join numerous others to mourn the transition of the legendary Christian Chukwu, a hero of our time and friend,” the Ugbugba of Okpe Kingdom wrote.
“As one of the young academicals discovered after the end of the Civil War in 1970, I tried to enlist into my club, the P & T Vasco da Gama Football Club of Enugu but he was fair and frank in informing me that he had already joined Enugu Ranges Football Club, and I respected that attitude. From the rivalries between the two clubs, his exploits as a central defender were very visible.”
He continued: “Christian Chukwu emerged at the national level as a trustworthy and formidable captain of the national team who led by example.
“He was one of the heroes during the Golden age of Nigerian football when I was one of the Board Members of the Nigeria Football Association under the chairmanship of Chief Sunday Dankaro as Nigeria won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980 for the first time where Christian Chukwu as captain of the Green Eagles was declared the best player of the tournament. He led the national team in several battles, which endeared him to millions of football lovers.
“After his playing days, he showed his talents through coaching in Nigeria and abroad.
“I express my sincere condolences to the family he left behind, the football family and the country in general. He will be dearly missed.
“May the good Lord grant his noble soul eternal rest,” he noted.
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Remo Stars are coasting to what will be their greatest moment ever, a win of the Nigeria Premier Football League title, as they recorded a 1-0 win over Shooting Stars in Ibadan in a match played behind closed doors.
In doing so, they achieved their sixth double of the season, having earlier beaten Shooting Stars in the first stanza of the league.
They maintained the seven-point lead over second-placed Rivers United, who also beat Sunshine Stars 1-0 in Port Harcourt.
After a ding-dong affair, Alex Oyowah scored the vital goal for Remo Stars from a right-wing cross from Ismail Sodiq.
In another match, Ikorodu City continued to work tenaciously to obtain a continental ticket as they held El Kanemi to a 1-1 draw.
SUNDAY RESULTS
- El Kanemi 1-1 Ikorodu City
- Niger Tornados 1-1 Bayelsa United
- Heartland 0-0 Kwara United
- Plateau United 1-0 Akwa United
- Rivers United 1-0 Sunshine Stars
- Shooting Stars 0-1 Remo Stars
- Bendel United 1-1 Nasarawa United
SATURDAY
- Katsina United 0-0 Abia Warriors
- Enyimba 2-1 Kano Pillars
- Lobi Stars 2-4 Enugu Rangers
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