Men without ears

By Chukwuma Nwokoh

To many Nigerians, corruption is seen largely in terms of stealing. But an invidious version has been eating us for some time now. It has to do with corruption of the mind. Few of us see anything wrong with Nigeria fielding over-aged players in age tournaments.

Our integrity threshold is too low as the end justifies the means given that the country often emerges tops in such tournaments.

Penultimate week, Nigeria withdrew from the Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (CECAFA) Under-17 competition due to ‘other commitments in Europe.’ While announcing Nigeria’s withdrawal, CECAFA scribe, Nicholas Musonye, explained that they understood our “reason to withdraw” but warned that “we are not going to entertain age cheating.

We have devised a mechanism to detect age cheating and whoever will be caught shall be chased away and face unspecified disciplinary measures.” Musonye is a sports diplomat for while he did not directly accuse Nigeria of cheating, he did so indirectly.

Which commitment?

Which commitment does the Nigerian team have in Europe? Which team will honour the commitment? As you are well aware, Nigeria presently cannot raise a team for the FIFA U-17 World Cup it is hosting in October. Earlier, our country had been unable to raise a team to play Gambia in a friendly and the euphemism for our inability as conveyed to the Gambians was internal problems.

How did we come to this pass?

Technology, stupid (if one is to adopt Bill Clinton’s famous political campaign refrain.) Science has unhinged us. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and the more sophisticated bone marrow test made the case against our players as the two tests revealed that 29 of the 36 players in camp are age cheats.

The Origin

Our cheating did not start today. It dates back to the 1980s when philanthropists like Alhaji Hamza of YSFON fame used to sponsor so-called youths to play in tournaments in Sweden and Brazil. And undoubtedly, we celebrated those cheats.

It has continued with the emergence of structured youth events like U-16, U-19, U-21 and U-23 tournaments organized by FIFA.

Age football has lost its followership because it is a scam in Nigeria. In such tournaments, we watch those who could not make it with their peers taking advantage of system loopholes to play with individuals in their children or their nephew’s age bracket.

Age cheating partly explains why Nigeria does not do well in senior tournaments as undue advantages obtained by such ‘haram’ are cancelled out.

Examples

Dimeji Lawal, a member of Nigeria’s U-16 team that participated in Canada 87, took his West Africa Examination Council exam in 1982 at Prospect High School, Aba-Nla and did his ‘A’ levels at Ibadan Grammar School, leaving in 1984.

Because of Nosa Osadolor and Lawal, the Oyo State football team was disqualified from the National Sports Festival in Ilorin in 1985. Yet, in 1987, he capped his career by playing for Nigeria in U-16 FiFA tournament in Canada.

Also, one of the players that took part in the 1987 tournament was alleged to have two wives at the age of ‘16.’

Tunde Charity, Lawal, Bawa Abdullahi, Mutiu Adepoju, and Portugal’s Luis Figo participated in Saudi '89. Until last May, Figo was still playing for Inter Milan. Where are those that played against him? Mutiu was the last man standing as he retired from the Super Eagles in 2002 and active football in 2004.

It is generally accepted that at 21 years, an individual has ten years to play at the highest level.

Inconsistent answers

My colleague in The Guardian and then sports editor, Kunle Solaja, used to regale us with the inconsistencies in the responses to the questionnaire he administered to the Challenge Cup finalists (Dolphin and El-Kanemi) in 2001.

None of the players claimed to be older than 21 years, yet in the question on previous clubs one had informed that he played for Shooting Stars between 1986 and 1988.Most of them claimed to have played professionally for up to seven years, yet they were either 18 or 19 years old.

Recall the controversy which involved Victor Ikpeba when he was accused by the wife’s family of reducing their daughter’s age (when Victor’s wife died) so that she would not be older than him. Indeed, when Ikpeba played as an U-16 in Scotland 1989, he was already a student of Yaba Tech.

Task of cleansing

The task of cleansing the Augean stable is huge given that age cheating is still not shameful. Or what do we make of the lamentation of Golden Eaglets coach, John Obuh: “If they wanted to do this, it should have been carried out long before now, not when I am rounding up preparations for the competition...If these boys are removed now, Nigerians should not expect us to do well at the World Cup.”

We fail to learn as Nigeria has become a country of ‘men without ears’ (apologies to novelist Ifeoma Okoye.)

Back

Dear Reader.
While we value your feedback we may block inappropriate comment. Please feel free to respond to new comments. Note also that 234NEXT bears no responsibility for what readers post and is not liable for any form of impersonation.

Reader Comments (5)

Posted by Tony Igili on Aug 26 2009

Thanks for such revealing fact! Age cheat in Nigeria has become a regular practice, not only in football but in all spheres of life. Nigerians reduce their ages every year just to be able to get job, most of which are aged-based. The society and the advertisers of jobs do not help matters either. How should one judge a situation where a company would advertise for a position, and required the suitable candidate, who should be a master degree holder to be between the ages of 23 and 25, with 3 years cognate experience. How many Nigerians graduates or master degree holders will fall under that age category? The tendency is to fashion out an acceptable but unreasonable age to fit in. Even the inclusion of age in secondary school certificate has not been able to solve the problem. It only teaches people to start early enough to 'cut' their ages. So the transfer of this abnormally into sport, especially football, should expected. It is an extension of the canker worm at home into the society. We should not forget the case of Philip Osondu, who was more than 28 years when he featured for the Nigeria's U 17 in 1987. What about Sam Elijah and his colleagues of U 21 of 1989, who immediately became veteran footballers, just few months after the tournament that should have launched them into greatness, if there were really members of the age category they claimed. Where is Opabunmi and co today. Is it Nduka Ugbade, who played for the U 17, five years after he left the secondary school? The list is endless! The recent confession by one of the key players of the U 17 to Canada 87, Tony Emuedufu (Poropo), that none of the members of that squad was less than 17 years old is a testimony to the age-cheat syndrome in Nigeria and other African countries, especially the black African; Ghana (Lamptey), and Gambia and so on. May God lead us out of this mess of age-cheat. But my fears with the introduction of MRI is that Nigeria can manipulate everything. What seems to be working to detect age today might be rendered useless tomorrow.

Posted by Mike on Aug 26 2009

Last night was the time when i had the chance to talk to an old friend. We talked about how things were in the United States: the good roads, relatively decent health care (although expensive), relatively good police force, and a nice educational system. Then i told him of my vision to go back to Nigeria where i would work for a government parastal in order to increase its efficiency and become an agency to reckon with. Well these were his words "oh boy forget that thing. If me sef reach there na chop i go chop. Abbi you dey tell me now sey you no go chop." Well, his retort wasn't so shocking after all, but it kept me thinking that if Nigerians abroad do not want to use their world class education to develop our country, but have it in mind to steal, we may just be a race of people who lack the capacity for to strive for a collective good. The white man in his pursuit for individualism (capitalism) strive for the collective good his people. All the atrocities committed by white folks were mostly for their people: Colonialism and Apartheid. We gats to step up mehn.

Posted by Fred Ohwahwa on Aug 27 2009

This 'age cheating' phenomenon is prevalent in virtually all aspects of our national life. That is why you see men, who are 70 claiming to be 55, and still working when they ought to be retired, and enjoying their old age. It is the same reason why many Nigerian women will not even let their husbands know their true age! Our integrity as a people leaves much to be desired. I want to thank Chukwuma for bringing historical perspective to the 'age cheating' in our football. We certainly can do better.

Posted by Faruq Bello on Sep 04 2009

Portugal’s Luis Figo never participated in Saudi '89.

Posted by Adewale Adebanjo on Oct 02 2009

Faruq Bello should go and do his research well cos figo was in portuga's squad of 1889