It’s a unhappy day and a sadder interval for sports activities in Nigeria.
A couple of days in the past, Jeremiah Okorodudu, a well-known Nigerian boxer, in all probability probably the most flamboyant and talkative boxer within the nation's boxing historical past, died at a non-public hospital within the outskirts of Lagos, Nigeria.
He was solely 64 years previous.
His loss of life attracts particular consideration. It adopted a largely silent two-year battle with in poor health well being, described by some media experiences because the product of stroke and diabetes. Over the previous two weeks, the general public was alerted to Jerry's plight by way of social media. Photos of him mendacity on a mattress at a neighborhood hospital in Ikorodu, Lagos, with headlines crying for assist for the celebrated former athlete, have been deeply pitiable, a tragic commentary on the overall post-sport lifetime of many nationwide sporting heroes.
There was additionally a video of Jeremiah gasping for breath, struggling to talk as a consequence of apparent ache, and mumbling inaudibly as a consequence of labored respiration. He was proven crying and interesting to the federal government and Nigerians to not let him die like that.
All he wanted at that time was concerning the equal of $2,000 to pay for an important life-saving operation: amputation of his foot. This paltry quantity was “change,” even for these within the sports activities world at numerous ranges of presidency. It’s clear that the period of sports activities directors spending their private cash to help sports activities and athletes goes manner again into the dungeons of historical past.
These days, sport is a sector that’s disadvantaged of any candy harvest. Due to this fact, the battle for management positions in sports activities is fought to the tip by these least concerned within the sport.
Jeremiah Okorodudu wanted that paltry quantity to save lots of his life. His household was unable to boost it till he died, regardless of appeals to the general public. His painful loss of life jogs my memory that there’s a complete legion in Jerry's footwear languishing throughout the nation, ready for assist that will not come anytime quickly.
There are: Ngozika Ekwelum, African boxing champion, in his lonely mattress in Anambra, who has suffered from urinary incontinence and different depression-related issues for over a decade which have made his life depressing; Kenneth Abana, a mercurial aim scorer for Rangers Worldwide and the Inexperienced Eagles, with one foot already amputated, is critically in poor health in a hospital in Enugu; Christopher Friday, former Capturing Stars and Tremendous Eagles, utterly blind in each eyes and dwelling in everlasting darkness; Dahiru Sadi, former nationwide workforce soccer captain, introduced down by Stroke and now confined to the 4 corners of his room; Siji Lagunju, former Capturing Stars assistant coach and Nationwide Soccer Affiliation participant, was defeated by a stroke up to now two years; Christian Chukwu, Emmanuel Okala and Charles Bassey, who will be unable to work or stroll with out help for the remainder of their lives; a numerous variety of different athletes throughout us in 40 different sports activities, uncared for, forgotten, dwelling poorly and in ache, with nothing throughout the Nigerian sports activities structure to take care of their well-being when their sporting careers finish.
This final side struck me after I rechecked Jeremiah's age at loss of life: 64. He belongs to a typical tribe within the sport. One which deserves scientific interrogation and research – Do Nigerian Athletes Die Younger?
I’m compiling an inventory of Nigerian athletes who represented the nation on the 1976 Olympics some 47 years in the past. The NIIA and Airpeace Airline are planning an uncommon reunion and celebration for athletes outdoors the game. I used to be a younger member of that contingent, simply out of faculty on the time.
Even wanting again on it now, it looks as if yesterday. Most surviving athletes at the moment are of their late 60s and early 70s.
I take a look at the checklist of the 45 athletes whose actions (or inactions) created a diplomatic tsunami that modified the course of the world's historical past, and I ask: the place are they now?
There have been three registered boxers in that contingent. All three are lifeless.
They have to all have died earlier than they turned sixty. All of them died in Nigeria.
There have been 20 footballers in that contingent. 9 of them are lifeless. All of them died of their thirties, forties and fifties. One died in his 60s. Most died in Nigeria.
There have been 20 observe and discipline athletes. 5 of them died between the ages of forty and fifty.
Three out of 5 died in Nigeria. Now for the observations and questions.
A lot of the surviving athletes in athletics have lived within the US.
Do prime athletes die so younger? Is that actually the case? In that case, why? Is it america' basic (or sports activities) welfare system that has saved Nigerian athletes alive? These needs to be a topic for mental questioning.
Of these left in Nigeria, their tales are pitiful, gory tales of neglect, poverty and early loss of life, a far cry from the promise within the anthem that soars their spirits earlier than and after matches: “The labors of our heroes previous, won’t ever be in useless – a promise that’s virtually by no means fulfilled.
It's arduous to grasp why organising a easy athlete wellness program ought to turn into rocket science.
There are a number of welfare packages across the planet that would function fashions, they usually have additionally been created in Nigeria up to now. They have been misused, abused or unused for this function. One or two of the welfare schemes nonetheless exist, however as personal estates of these on the unique committees set as much as administer them.
They might nonetheless maintain the massive monetary contributions of Nigerians of their vaults, by no means answering to anybody, ceaselessly remaining of their 'workplace', their silence like that of the graveyard, their 'reward' or 'punishment reserved earlier than the gates of the land'. heaven or hell relying on the place they use the funds contributed by Nigerians to ameliorate the painful situations of struggling athletes in want of assist.
Over the many years, the superficiality of the devices they created has not protected their sustainability and oversight. So that they went into straightforward hibernation, coming again to life solely often to serve private, restricted pursuits and functions.
Jeremiah has fought many battles of neglect and injustice in opposition to the sports activities institution up to now; all the time attracts consideration to his struggling. He was punished a number of instances for his insolence by forming his personal one-man military to struggle in opposition to his causes.
Those that run the business, a lot of them from the political class, with all their good intentions to do effectively within the sport, don’t perceive sufficient what must be completed to cease this ugly plague.
In any other case, there is no such thing as a purpose why a Jeremiah Okorodudu ought to need to spend two complete years in ache, struggling and neglect, and now die needlessly. His corpse, it has been reported, continues to be in a morgue and won’t be launched to his household as a result of they may not pay excellent hospital payments of lower than $1000.
The loss of life of Jeremiah Okorodudu may have been prevented with slightly extra care and concern. The sports activities sector failed him. His colleagues deserted him. The federal government has failed him. Those that may have helped, however didn't, deserted him.
So he died, in ache and remorse, deserted on the time of his biggest well being problem, his labor for the fatherland, in useless.
That is actually unhealthy commentary and unhealthy commercial for Nigerian sports activities.
As Jeremiah takes his place among the many saints, among the many resting heroes of Nigerian sports activities, I pray that the nice boxer who received a bronze medal for Nigeria on the Commonwealth Video games, who narrowly didn’t win a medal for Nigeria on the 1984 Olympic Video games, who adorned a number of rings in Nigeria throughout his prime, who skilled and took a number of Nigerian boxers to worldwide competitions, who boxed passionately all his life, who died in distress, ache and poverty, the divine peace of the Creator from all of us, to forgive Nigeria.
