Peter Rufai…And Taribo West Cried!

By Valentine Obienyem

The picture of Taribo West in tears at the burial of Mr Peter Rufai is still trending. In his lament, he decried how sportsmen are neglected after their active years and declared that he would never encourage his son to play for Nigeria. Many Nigerians agreed with him. Mine, however, is a minority view.

Sportsmen today are among the highest earners in the world. I struggle to see justification for such lamentation if, during their heydays, they had planned their lives wisely and made sound investments. Their clubs paid them handsomely; the country also rewarded them each time they wore the national colours. Did they play for free, that they should now expect an even higher degree of care in their old age?

Rather than tears and outbursts, I believe it would be more fruitful if Taribo devoted part of his life to educating sportsmen on the dangers of reckless living, the importance of investment, and the stark reality that their playing days will one day end. This, to me, is the more lasting legacy.

This position is not new. In fact, an article I published in 2004 reflects the same conviction – and my view has not changed.

Sports and Okocha’s Burden (June 27, 2004)

The world is filled with variety of amusements and diversions that man invents or frantically pursues to occupy himself when work is finished. Sports are one of those inventions. But over the years man has come to enjoy it to the point that some are even crazy about it, by worshipping their favourite sportsmen as earthly gods.

Times were when fond parents shielded their children from the game of football, a form of sports, on the reason that they are thereby exposed to the dangers of the fracture of the leg. A certain brutality was associated with sports. Even till date, we have seen sportsmen die while on the field of sports. At that time, people that took to sports were looked upon as a variety of ruffians.

But irrespective of the disdain, sports have advanced from mere pastime invented to ward off boredom to an instrument of fame and riches. We are now in an age in which parents now urge their children to take to sports as an open sesame to wealth and renown.

Not many people know that Aristocles was nicknamed Plato because of the broad shoulder which he developed as a result of training for wrestling. Like him, we have a contemporary example in Pele, whose real names are Edson Arantes do Nascimento – a heavy armament of names.

Because of the fame and fortune associated with sports, it has developed to become an occupation for people. The Okochas, the Kanus, the Obafemis, the Lawals, the Agalis, the Babayeros, etc. have no other occupation than football. More than those with doctoral degrees, professors and renowned statesmen, these guys with mobile dexterity in manoeuvring the round leather, or those who excel in other sports, are among the most popular tribe of men in this planet today.

As a consequence of fame, you see many of them being unable to manage success, reminiscent of those who got to positions or places they never anticipated and were rather unprepared for. It is not out of place to hear that this or that sportsman has been taken to a psychiatric hospital for being unable to manage success. Look at the life of Mike Tyson today – the news that comes out of his camp is not cheering at all. There is every indication that he may likely go bankrupt in spite of all the millions he was supposed to have made in his boxing career.

Among Nigerian footballers and sportsmen, Austin Okocha has been a shining example. Beside his unusual mastery of football, which he tosses around like a jolly juggler, he is in control of the dynamics of his own being. Evidence of maturity and deep reflection are always detectable in most things that he does. Even before he got married, we did not hear much, like other stars, of sexual escapades and swimming in vices.

Okocha is among the Nigerian footballers that can be regarded as role models, both in terms of personal discipline, his commitment to excellence and his ever-readiness to answer to the national call.

Look at his marriage and you will make some useful deductions. In an age in which some members of the Super Eagles went for foreign wives and private jets, Okocha quietly got married to a Nigerian. I am not here saying that anything is wrong with foreign wives, but such things give us insight into some people’s thinking. Up till now, I am still not convinced that those Nigerian footballers that went for private jets are richer than Okocha.

Though private jet appears not to his taste, I understand that he has good investments in the country that will guarantee his comfort even if he decides to stop playing for Nigeria today. Footballers are Nigerian citizens and should be catered for by government like other citizens. What I abhor is the idea of footballers crying now and then, especially those who have quit active football, that they are not catered for.

I am one of those that believe that the dexterity in kicking the round leather does not and must not confer higher wisdom on anybody. Usually, these boys are paid handsomely to play for the country. It baffles me when some of them turn around and cry of not being catered for. On close scrutiny you will discover the syndrome of those who were not able to actually manage success in their heydays.

This is where Okocha is a shining example. Nigerians’ love for him is not simply because of his scintillating dribbles, but also because of his wisdom in taking mature decisions and not moving with the tide of public opinion or being subjected to the influence of peers or subsumed in the anonymity of collectivism.