‘Oh Okwaraji, oh Okwaraji, iwo nikan lowo baba, iwo nikan lowo mama; ti won ba n gba boolu l’orun ki o ge won l’ege ara; oh Okwaraji great loss to the father and great loss to the mother; if they play football in heaven, ensure that you dribble them masterfully’. That was the dirge that Fuji legend, Kollington Ayinla did in honor of late Nigerian footballer, Samuel Okwaraji who died on the football pitch of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos on this day, August 12 of 1989.
The circumstance was a home game of the World Cup 1990 (Italia ’90) qualifying series. The match was against Angola, remember them, Nigeria lost the World Cup 2006 opportunity to them. Sadly, in this 1989 case, neither Nigeria nor Angola made it to the mundial in Italy.
The National Stadium Surulere being the then soccer temple of Nigeria was jam-packed with fans. The match was in the second half at 1-1 scoreline when about the 77th minute, tragedy struck as the Barrister-footballer slumped. Joy turned to tears, happiness into sadness, I don’t know how the players managed to play the rest of the game. That was the end of Samuel Sochukwuma Okwaraji.
Samuel Sochukwuma Okwaraji is a Nigerian patriot by all standards. He saw it as a great honor to don the green and white jersey of Nigeria and personally paid his flight tickets anytime he came home to represent the country. He had only 8 caps for the Super Eagles but those, I consider, were memorable enough deserving of national honors and tribute. The National Sports Commission led by Mallam Shehu Dikko and Hon. Bukola Olopade should see to the due recognition of this patriot who breathed his last for the nation.
I am going to again call out NTA on this. Not a blame game, though, because the organization also represents a product of the systemic anyhowness that has happened to Nigeria. That TV station ought to be Nigeria’s repository of hindsight and gatekeeper of history being perhaps the only station that covered most national events in that period.
If this is the only role that NTA currently plays, it would have remained relevant despite the multiplicity of TV channels today. Alas, there are no video records from this fateful match and like this particular event, tons of records have been lost by NTA.
Archival materials, once lost, are irretrievable and leaves people to guesswork and speculations. If people don’t know their past, how do you expect them to do better?
36 years on, May the Lord God Almighty continue to rest the soul of the great Samuel Sochukwuma Okwaraji. May Nigeria’s thought leaders and policy makers finally come through to celebrating the patriot.
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