A tribute to the military in Nigerian sports

Last week, I had a very brief encounter with the 18th Chief of Defence Staff of the Nigerian Armed Forces, General Christopher Gwabin Musa, OFR. His words were, however, enough to evoke some recollection, reflection and nostalgia.

I am, therefore, retreating into history to pay some little, well-earned tribute to some special Nigerian soldiers in sports whose footprints are etched permanently in the sands of time.

This is not an academic excursion into the history of the military in Nigerian sports. It is my very humble experiences since I became a part of the Nigerian sports scene in the early 1970s. So, I apologise for its limitation.

To me, the military has always been an integral part of Nigerian sports. The story of a soldier as the first Nigerian to win a medal at any international sport (the Commonwealth Games) was common. Major Emmanuel Ifeajuna holds that distinction even though his role in the 1966 coup d’etat made him a pariah.

When I joined the national football team’s camp after participating in the 1st National Sports Festival in 1973 (the first and largest domestic sports event in Nigeria’s history) the military were in power. Their influence and presence were everywhere within sports.  They had the numbers in trained personnel, good facilities in their barracks, disciplined officers, an established tradition in physical training, and the power of government fiat to get things done with military precision and ‘alacrity’ (as my late father would say) without any bureaucratic bottlenecks to worry about.

The Military was well ahead of its time in vision. It had some absolutely brilliant, well-rounded and well-educated soldiers in sports administration. That’s how the military government after the Civil war in 1970