Is our Captain 25?

I did not read Adokiye Amiesimaka’s allegation that the captain of our “Golden Eaglets” (the euphemism for our “Under-17” national football team) Mister Fortune Chukwudi is at least 25 years old in the newspaper in which the claim was made. I heard it instead on a Rhythm 93.7fm sports discussion programme, Xtratime. The programme anchor, a certain KBT Bankole (she can count me as one of her fans) raised the issue for her co-discussants to comment on. I was shocked at the angle from which one of the commentators named Tega approached the issue. In her opinion, Adokiye was the villain. Why did he leave the issue till now? What were his motives? She was certain that it was because he was not a member of the LOC etc etc. Tega concluded her remarks without any reference whatsoever to the substance of Adokiye’s point, and asserted passionately that “even when you want to say the truth, you apply wisdom!”
Then I knew where she was coming from. Her point of reference was her Church, where evidently they do not teach truth, honesty and integrity, but wisdom! I agonised over the damage some of our Churches are doing to the future of our country as young people are taught a new Nigerian theology of wisdom. In that doctrine, implicitly Jesus was unwise for castigating the Pharisees and speaking the truth; John the Baptist did not “apply wisdom”; Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, Moses, and indeed all the prophets would count as unwise by this interpretation of Christian conduct. Ultimately if these people had a chance they would be wiser than God himself, putting them squarely in Lucifer’s camp, since he is the father of those who believe they are wiser than God and Jesus! I was not surprised then when I saw the comments of the “accused person”-Fortune Chukwudi himself. He said, “I thank God we were able…..” attributing the team’s 5-0 victory over New Zealand’s teenagers to God! He also did not comment on the veracity of his former mentor’s claim except to assert like a Nigerian politician that he would not be distracted by the matter! Mr Chukwudi, if truly you are lying and cheating, then God has absolutely nothing to do with your team’s victory, except of course in his mercy!
The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) similarly focused on Amiesimaka’s motives. NFF spokesman, one Musa Amadu expressed shock at his “derogatory comments” and said “it is a shame that people can take personal hatred and vendetta to the level that Amiesimaka has taken his own.” He proceeded to accuse the ex-Eagles star of a “destroy-them-by-all-means” attitude querying why Amiesimaka is “obsessed with so much hatred for our successful players because he never played in the World Cup” Now for those who do not know him, Adokiye played for the Nigerian national team in the 1970s and 1980s and he is probably the most distinguished ex-footballer Nigeria has ever produced. While he was playing for the national team, he was a law student and proceeded to qualify as a lawyer rising to become Solicitor-General/Permanent Secretary and then Attorney-General of Rivers State. Mr Musa Amadu who was described as a “Barrister” is probably many years Amiesimaka’’s junior!
Not surprisingly another NFF big-wig and ex-international Taiwo Ogunjobi also weighed in on the subject of Adokiye’s motives. Mr Ogunjobi accused Adokiye of “plotting to take over the board of the NFF” and being a member of a “cabal” working round the clock to ensure the board failed. The real surprise for me was the comment by one Justin Akpovi-Esade in an op-ed piece in The Guardian on November 5, 2009. I do not know Akpovi-Esade, but I think his name is one I have seen in the dailies. I must have associated him with something positive because I was scandalised by his piece. Like the others, Mr Akpovi-Esade focused explicitly on Adokiye’s motives. He claimed, “Adokiye is pursuing an agenda, I smell a vendetta…why did he wait till now to reveal what he knew? Was the Chukwudi boy (?) just appointed the captain of the Eaglets” and concluded he was motivated by spite for not being invited into the Local Organising Committee of the on-going Under-17 World Cup. Worse still Mr Akpovi-Esade went further than all the others to implicitly justify cheating. In his own words, “there has never been a time that Nigeria fielded the right boys (age wise) in any of these cadet competitions, that was why we have been winning most of these events without breaking any sweat...it is common knowledge in the football industry that a player has real age and “football age”, and Adokiye who has played football all his adult life cannot feign ignorance of that fact”. Shame.
Now that everyone has wasted newspaper space and time faulting Adokiye Amiesimaka’s motives can the NFF and all its sympathisers as well as Mr Fortune Chukwudi comment on the substance of Adokiye’s claims? Was Fourtune Chukwudi a member of Adokiye’s feeder team at Sharks football club in 2002/2003? What was his age at that time? Was he 18 years old then as Adokiye claims? Is he at least 25 years old now? Did he take the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) test? How did he pass the test? Does age cheating help or destroy the development of our football?