Allen Onyema: Honouring unsung heroes of Nigerian sports

Managing Director of Air Peace airlines, Allen Onyema. Photo; WEBFAVOURITES

Allen Onyema is a well-known name in business in Nigeria. He owns one of the best and biggest airline operations in the country. He was the Special Guest of Honour at ‘The FESTAC of Sports’ colloquium held at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), last Thursday that was beamed to the world through several media platforms.   On that day, and from that event, the world watched the seeds of an ambitious project start to sprout and to reveal the ‘morning’ of a bountiful harvest of flowers. Allen, a true Nigerian patriot, demonstrated his love for sport and interest in the welfare of athletes when he stirred up the ghost of FESTAC ‘77 and breathed new life into its dead bones. He took the occasion of recalling the epic global Art and Culture festival to breathe life into a new Pan-African mission using his love for Sports as the driver.    By the time he was done, many more people started to see the real possibilities that lie ahead of this simple project that may achieve what the Black Race, Africans and all peoples of African descent, have failed to achieve in almost five centuries of their history, using Africa’s rich human, mineral and cultural resources to gain respect and to be treated as an equal partner in the ‘game’ of civilisations and races in the world.   

Onyema dug up the ‘dry bones’ of these Nigerian athletes, and decided to honour them after 46 years in Limbo. The names of the Nigerian athletes involved in that huge 1976 historical incident shall be on this ‘Wall of Fame’.  He also dug up the historical achievement of the national football team, the Green Eagles. The squad that won the African Cup of Nations for the