‘The sports and diplomacy Wall Of Fame’

Members of Nigeria’s Montreal 1976 Olympic Games team and 1980 African Cup of Nations’ squad in front of the NIIA Diplomacy Wall of Fame, which was unveiled… recently.

It is the morning of July 29, 2023. I am at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) in Lagos, Nigeria. It is a wet, cool and calm morning, and as I drive into the premises, it is empty of the huge human traffic of the previous day.

I am here to confirm that all of this has not been a dream, that it is real; that yesterday was a truly memorable day in the lives of several forgotten athletes in Nigeria’s history.

I am standing alone and staring at the environment before me, breathtaking its beauty and atmosphere this morning.

The background to the scenery before me is mostly green, the lush green of artificial grass and the smell of fresh dew. There is a big, black, glittering, marbled wall like a giant cinema screen with inscriptions like the end-credits of a movie. Names, famous and not so famous, of Nigerian athletes are inscribed in two groups and several columns on the wall. Preceding each list of names are two short narratives that paraphrase the significance of the events before the list of names – the Olympic Games of 1976, and the 1980 African Cup of Nations.

I am staring at the names and running through all of them, one by one, picturing them the way I knew some of them some 43, or 47 years ago when we were youngsters, and letting the feeling of fulfillment seep through me as a result of what transpired yesterday. I recognize most of them, but not all. We all met again, about 30 of us that are still alive, all of them in different degrees of physical wear and tear, many with walking sticks as aids and permanent companions.

Age and arthritis