Sports is a universal language. The only universal language in the hall of life, intelligibly spoken and understood by all.
It’s by this token therefore,
a unifying factor, a common leveller, defying differences in race, tribe, religion, sex and sectarian differences of all hues.
Jesse Owens, the legendary Black American wizard on the track, must have been spiritedly temulent with the equalitarian unifier, undergirded in this utilitarian, tall order idealism encompassing the world of sports.
In all probabilities,this man must have dreamed and dreamed of the limitless world of fame and popular acclaim,awaiting him in life,on account of his unusual endowment as an athletic star of uncommon genius and prodigy.
The grim moment of awareness dramatically came on in 1936, riding on the crest-wave of the Berlin Olympics. The legendary Black American track star pulled quite an unusual one from the sleeves, with a staggering four gold medals that inspired a fourrire of wild excitement across the global space
It was by every standard, a locus classicus,an all-time epic, unprecedented in the annals of that exotic fiesta of antiquity, dating back from its originative epoch in the ancient Rome.
Owens inspired by this iconic tall order feat, would sure must have been building his castle on the air,in terms of the projected superfetation of honorifics,from elevated quarters of presidential leaders. He was however to be confounded on this score, as Hitler the maverick Nazi leader and notorious racist purveyor of Aryan superiority cleverly avoided a ceremonial parley of handshake with him.
If he could countenance this,knowing the eccentric Hitler and its deviant Nazi Germany for what they were, he must have been convincingly consoled, assuaged and expiated in advance,that his disappointment in this respect, would be more than compensated for,by the royal treatment awaiting him at home.
Disappointingly, Owen arrived his home country, only to run into a rage of hostile discrimination, as President Delano Roosevelt did not even congratulate him, let alone deem it apt and proper,to invite him for any treat,no matter how casual and tritely – into his presidential haven in the White House. Such was racial cruelty in sports in its grotesquely
most ugly face.
Years later,this racial slur on the sporting escutcheon was again to replicate itself.
Dateline was July 31st, 1954 at the Commonwealth Games, in far away Vancouver;in the West Coast of Canada.
As Emmanuel Ifeajuna the Onitsha-born ex-student of the famous Dennis Memorial Grammar School, also in Onitsha, took a leap on this memorable day,it turned out contrary to expectations,a leap above other leaps, an epic all-time leap, a confounding ground breaker; a sensational ultimate of 6ft 8in pulled in the high jump.
It was hitherto unprecedented in the annals of the highly celebrated global fiesta. It was momentous, memorable, historic.
He spawned an upset,generating beyond a ripple to a tide,becoming the first African to ever win a gold medal in any global sporting fiesta.
The world stood still for Ifeajuna,his face adorning elite newspapers across the world,just as he became an exciting subject of their editorials, with torrents of eulogium effusively pouring forth on him.He became an instantly celebrated hero, paraded across the streets of Lagos, wining and dining with the high and mighty and for over half a decade,his cherubic face garnished the covers of literally all the exercise books, in use, in all the educational institutions throughout the nation.
However,thirteen years later, September 15,1967, was to unfold a tragic irony of human fate,as this global hero of yesterday, stripped half- naked,far away in Enugu,was locked in directly frontal stare,not only with the grim-looking firing squad of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the Biafran war-lord, but also the mammoth crowd of spectators, who thronged the execution field; jeering at them; hooting out all sorts of imprecations.
“Kill them. Traitors” they yelled in an overzealous fit of umbrage as they goaded the executioners into action.At exactly 1.30p.m.the deed was already done.
Ifeajuna and three others,namely Phillip Alale,Sam Agbam and Victor Banjo,had been summarily executed in cold blood on the allegation of an on-going plan of a coup de tat aimed to unseat and assassinate Ojukwu.
Twenty years after, exactly on 24th April 1987,Ifeajuna’s ghost again seemed to come back to life when at the National Sports Award ceremony held on that day, his name was conspicuously missing, amongst the distinguished personages listed in the sports hall of fame, not by any accidental happenstance, but rather for the fact that he wasn’t recognized.
And when one considers the circumstance, in which relatively lesser performers like K.A.B.Olowu who had a silver,among several others in the same competition,were regaled with “epaulettes” of honor,you sure would begin to wonder,what could be happening.
Of course, we need not belabour the issue with unnecessarily painstaking much ado.It was simply the ugly scepter of the January 15th 1966 coup,in which he took an active part – having subsequently enrolled in the army after bagging a degree in Zoology, at the University of Ibadan,into which he had gained admission, shortly after his exploit in Vancouver.
It was this specter which had continued to stare at the man, insisting before the panel of awardees that on no account must Ifeajuna be made to have even the slightest smell of honour, let alone accord him one.
But that familiar narrative which demands no argument,as of course commonly known was that whereas,Major Chukwuma Nzeogwu personally shot and killed the then Premier of Northern Region, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello;Killed his most senior wife and also killed his chief security man, who tried to resist with a dagger – however despite these ; Nzeogwu’s corpse was flown,all the way from Nsukka his last spot of action,which marked his fall – to Kaduna, where he was given a full military burial and a statue erected in his honour – Surprisingly, however, in the case of Ifeajuna,a diametrically different canon of Justice was just what they deemed to be apposite.
The inscrutable irony latent in this may not fully be grasped until we brace to a full awakening that the Sardauna,a grandson of Sultan Bello, and by extension a great grandson of Shehu Usman Dan Fodio,was literally held by the average northerner not only as second to Allah,but a deity literally worshipped with indomitable zeal and fervor – yet, that will not dissuade his fellow northerners who at that point in time, constituted the very powers that be,to go ahead and accord his killer, Nzeogwu,who equally was killer of his wife and body guard,a regal burial with full military honors.
Compared with Nzeogwu, Ifeajuna was of course a conspicuously lesser sinner, because though he bore the onus of responsibility to arrest the Prime-minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, however,one might well feel safe enough to believe that he didn’t kill the Bauchi-born Prime-minister,if the words of Segun Osoba,the then Daily Times roving reporter,and later Governor of Ogun State,were anything to go by.If one might recount for emphasis,Osoba who indeed had the privileged opportunity to discover Tafawa Balewa’s corpse, along the way to Otta in Idiroko,did remark and had ever since,kept insisting that he never discerned any trace of bullet wound on Balewa,giving credence to the theory that he might have died of heart- related issues, resulting from fear and shock.
So,apart from Balewa,no other northern civilian of note,at least,of the class and stature, talkless of the regal eminence and majesty of the like of the Sardauna,died in the hands of Ifeajuna.
On a similar note of selected justice,as conspicuously all too glaring, was the fact that Ojukwu whose declaration of the Republic of Biafra readily availed as the cassus belli immediately automating the Nigeria-Biafra Civil war – however,by a curious quirk of illogic,the same Ojukwu would be deemed fit enough for the prerogative of a presidential pardon, with full restoration of his official rank, dues and pension, while the likes of Emmanuel Ifeajuna and their families languish in limbo,and worse still, Ojukwu was never made to answer for the heinous crime he committed in ordering the summary execution of the man,Ifeajuna, along with Philip Alale,Sam Agbam and Lt. Col Victor Adebunkola Banjo,for no ostensible cause than using them as a diversionary toy-game of excitement to defuse the prevailing tension and a sacrificial canon fodder to satiate his own inner frustration,and conceal his gross shortcomings in the execution of the war.
It’s interesting to note that a previous judicial panel earlier constituted by the same Ojukwu to try the accused coup plotters, actually did.
But after a thorough interrogation,it had no choice than to dismiss the case for want of evidence.
However, because the Biafran warlord had already made up his mind,to use their blood to appease the gods, he jettisoned the panel, only to constitute a new panel with expressly strong directive to convict the accused as guilty.The moronic panel did exactly that,leaving the Ojukwu’s killer squad to complete the rest.
One conspicuously gross indicator of Ojukwu’s pathologically brutish self-centred-ness, could not have been more poignantly availing coming as it were,from very unlikely quarters, like Joe Achuzie,a pro-Ojukwu stalwart,who couldn’t but express the well-informed reservation and disgust that Ojukwu could in all conscience accept such pardon and all the associated benefits, but reciprocally failing to agitate for rightful justice that would have essentially extended the same right to the teeming mass of Biafran combatants who actually bore and braved the irreparable ravages of the war, even as Ojukwu their supposed leader would peevishly cheek out in hurried exilic abdication to Cote D’ivoire;in the face of the apocalyptic tell-tale fore-boding of a stuporously humiliating defeat;imminently writ large.
To worsen it all,while Ojukwu the chief villain,in his official capacity as the declarant of Biafra was accorded a State burial with full honors, families of the four executed soldiers are yet to be officially notified of the death of their fathers and bread winners,let alone see their corpse,ignobly huddled together and buried like chickens,in a hurriedly dug space,fifty eight years later for that matter!
Could one ever imagine the sardonic horror and nightmares ever staring in their chilling perpetuity – for the children and family of the deceased,that they couldn’t release the corpse of their fathers, husbands and bread winners;for them to be accorded a befitting burial to heal and assuage their traumatised psyche.
This same Ojukwu it was ,who once exclaimed as I once read in an interview he granted a newspaper in joyful excitement many years ago,that Bianca his beautiful wife,was able to bear him four beautiful boys.This was a man who savored and cherished the inherent joy of family life,and yet went ahead to render other innocent children fatherless,with all the attendant pains and anguish! Yet we claim we have a virile media! But that is however by the way.
The painful and indeed vexatious development demanding an urgent reference,is that a rehash of this abominable syndrome of racial hatred,might again seem to be brewing in the face of the bottle neck emanating against the motion by Senator Abaribe,to the effect that the Senate should pass a resolution,to immortalise former INEC Chairman,Professor Humphrey Nwosu,for the patriotic zeal and excellence he brought to bear in his electoral umpireship of the historic,but tragically annulled presidential contest of the 1993 general election.
It is crystally beyond doubt that this unique man who presided over the historic election, unfortunately annulled via the authoritarian tyranny of the Babangida Kakistocracy but ultimately later
de-annulled for implicit reversal to validated integrity;during the Buhari era, in obvious democratic response to progressive influences of the likes of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu – undoubtedly stands out as the most effective functionary ever to have presided over the umpireship of political elections in the country,dating back from independence and even immediately before.
Therefore,the question as to whether or not to immortalise him as presently going on in the Senate,does essentially not admit of any debate in the first instance, as it should be very clear to all,that he undoubtedly deserves it,if the cardinal rule of merit is anything to go by.Anything contrary would surely go a long way in lending credence to the popularly orchestrated mantra that Igbos are a hated specie
On this,we need not remind ourselves of the fact that Nwosu conducted the freest and fairest election in the political anals of this nation,dating back from independence, including even the 1959 election immediately pre-dating the sovereign era of determinism
We equally need not belabour ourselves with the fact that previous elections held in this country had been outrightly rigged right from the attainment of independence
Even the 1959 election, as of course, authoritatively documented by Harold Wilson,former British Prime Minister,in his memoir,revealed in remarkably elaborate details – the high-wire conspiracy with which the British colonial suzerain under James Robertson,the last British colonial governor, rigged the election with unconscionable brigandage and brazen fit of perfidy,in favor of the Hausa-Fulani NPC,which ultimately constituted the government of the First Republic with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa mounting for the first time,the most coveted seat of Prime Minister.
Others of course, included the 1964 Federal election in the West. Ditto the 1965 Regional election, also in the West, which elicited the terrimotive quake of blood-bath that ultimately fired the Five Army Majors to master-mind a coup de tat in January 15,1966 as the auguries in the then “Wild Wild West” – a denotative epithet for the horrendous political climate as precariously extant – were patently inauspicious,and portend no end to the lingering debacle.
And of course,the 1979 election was no exception,ditto the 1983 variant coming in immediate consecution – which because of the attendant massive rigging, inspired the premature termination of the Third Republic,for a new spell of martial inter-regnum.
In a nutshell, it was this Igbo-born Professor who at 22 years of age,had bagged a First Class Honours in Political Science,who for the first time made history,by conducting an election rated to be the freest and fairest in Nigeria.
Therefore any question as to whether or not to immortalise him as presently trending in the Senate, would demand no debate in the first instance,let alone an undue procedural bottle-neck or trivial quirk of technicalities being laced to oppiliate its path,because it need be pretty clear to all, without doubt,that he deserves it,if the cardinal rule of merit is anything to go by. Anything contrary would surely go a long way in lending credence to the popularly orchestrated mantra that Igbos are a hated specie.We need not remind ourselves of the fact that Nwosu conducted the freest and fairest election in the political anals of the nation dating back from independence, including even the 1959 election.
To be sure, this wasn’t coming as the first time the majority of the progressive-minded Nigerians would be casting their unanimous ballot endorsement for a cherished candidate of their progressive cause.
Indeed, from the very onset of political elections in the nation, Nigerians had persistently yearned and voted for a progressive patriot with the sterling propensity to actualise their yearnings and aspirations for an egalitarian polity,but unfortunately their aspiration in this regard were often rudely botched and aborted with brazen impunity,by the reactionary agents of anti-progress.
It is against this uncheering electoral trajectory that one essentially do contend that this remarkable feat of electoral umpireship by Humphrey Nwosu becomes vividly manifest, and this is why this history-making INEC Chairman deserves every epaulette of honour as we might choose to shower on him.
Needless to re-iterate, as earlier indicated, that failure to accord this brilliant Professor of Political Science his much deserved honour, for his patriotic response at the crucial moment of call to national service,coupled with his exemplary stewardship at that critical phase in the political annals of the nation,would surely go a long way in corroborating the popularly orchestrated
mantra of anti-Igbo hatred, vindictive persecution, victimisation and
marginalization.
This point is inevitably made,as it becomes equally apposite, just and imperative,because were it not for the excellent electoral marksmanship of this great achiever – accomplished by dint of his immensely pragmatic acumen as a prime-mover of an uncommon class and possibilitarian of the most optimistic order – a remarkable feat which remains ever unassailable in its accuracy,and which no power on earth, could ever be able to obfuscate;by clever shenanigans or falsidical revisionism of any hue – maybe we wouldn’t have known – at least as officially being furnished from the roof-top with loud sounding cymbals, from no less a person,than Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida,at this particularly last moment – that Chief MKO Abiola,the immortal pillar of philanthropy; outstanding patriot and distinguished statesman of blessed memory;
indeed won the 1993 election, annulled in a fit of savage sadism by the powers that be, to truncate the sacred will of the people.
It is on account of this grand official revelation by Ibrahim Babangida,the fascist military czar who presided at the helm of governance at that particular point in time,that the Egba-born fore-most martyr of the libertarian struggle for democracy can now smile in his grave that he is eventually vindicated at last.
This grand revelation might appear though as emanating from a sublime free volition and propensity for the truth, but it was at best,a farcical artifice contrived in the compelling duress,to save face,in the wake of a gripping awareness that Nwosu had rendered every available space unsafe for naked tissues of lies to squat and fester.
In all, the cogent lesson to be learnt from this,is best narrated in the popular Yoruba proverb,illustrating the evidentially empirical fact of life,that falsehood,if travelled ahead for twenty years – truth shall surely catch up with it, just within a day.It is against this background that Humphrey Nwosu could be said and rightly too; to deserve every honorific symbol of popular approbation as could be brought to bear in immortalising him,in the face of the cogent fact, just as indubitable – that
it took his valiant stand for the truth, that we in turn are collectively awakened to the truth, as it eventually dawns,this particularly auspicious moment,untainted in its puritan beauty and integrity.
*Kola Johnson Is A Writer And Journalist.
