Ironies don’t come in bigger packets:
less than three years after he was banned from football for reporting
late to national camp, he was so vital to Nigeria’s aspirations that he
was twice flown down in a chartered jet to play for the country at the
Africa Cup of Nations — and he could only play two matches as a result
of club commitments.
Stephen Okechukwu Chinedu Keshi, who
died from a suspected cardiac arrest in the early hours of Wednesday,
was — is — the most influential figure in the history of Nigerian
football. He was not called “Big Boss” for nothing — he was a leader on
and off the pitch. He has to be duly credited with revolutionising
Nigerian football by paving the way for the players to showcase their
talents in Europe. It was the beginning of a whole chapter in history.
The revolution was an accident — if you
believe in accidents. In 1985, when he was playing for New Nigerian Bank
(NNB) of Benin, he fell foul of the law. Ahead of crucial international
matches, the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), headed by Group
Captain Tony Ikhazoboh, had given a deadline for invited players to
report to camp — but citing club commitments, four NNB players reported
late. They were Stephen Keshi, Sunday Eboigbe, Bright Omokaro and Henry
Nwosu. The NFA promptly banned them from playing for club and country
for six months.
But you cannot ban Keshi. He left the
country — the sanction had no global effect — and joined Stade
d’Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, where he was immediately appointed captain,
even though he was yet to speak a word of French. Language was never
going to be a barrier to the multi-linguist, who was already speaking
Igbo and Yoruba with finesse, and had a good command of Hausa. He was
born in Azare, Bauchi state, and spent his pre-teen and teen years in
Lagos, schooling at the famous St. Finbarr’s College, Akoka, Lagos. In
school with him was Nwosu, probably the most gifted Nigerian player who
never fully exploited his potential.
THE ‘ACCIDENTAL REVOLUTION’
Keshi spent only an overlapping season
at Stade, helping them to win Coupe Houphoet Boigny twice: 1985 and
1986. He moved to the bigger rivals Africa Sports, and won a league and
cup double before heading to Lokeren of Belgium. That was the beginning
of a new era for Nigerian football. Having displayed enormous talent and
commitment, Keshi soon became the poster boy of Nigerian football in
Europe, and scouts began to look lustfully in the direction of Nigeria.
The “Big Boss” started earning more
stripes: he was helping many Nigerian players, and African players, to
cross over to Europe. He would identify the talents, link them to
agents, help some of them with tickets, logistics and accommodation —
and the unexposed and shy talents were soon rubbing shoulders and
exchanging jerseys with players they thought they would only see on TV
all their lives. Keshi was not only selfless, he was an inspiration to a
whole generation.
He was so good it did not take time
before other clubs started coveting him. Anderlecht, then the leading
light in the Belgian league, came for his services in 1987. The
following year, he was so critical to the club that he was not released
to play for Nigeria at the Maroc ’88 African Cup of Nations. By a
special arrangement, he flew private jets to play just two matches, both
against Cameroon — the 1-1 draw at the group stage and the final, which
Nigeria lost narrowly after Nwosu’s spectacular header was
controversially ruled offside. Keshi even hit the crossbar with a rocket
of a free-kick. We all believed Nigeria did not deserve to lose that
match.
Following in his footsteps to Belgium
were the likes of Augustine Eguavoen, Osaro Obobaifo, Philip Osondu,
Victor Ikpeba, Samson Siasia, Chidi Nwanu, Dahiru Sadi, Sunday Oliseh,
Tajudeen Oyekanmi, Etim Esin, and a legion that cannot be listed here.
By being a good ambassador, by being a facilitator, by being an
inspiration, Keshi had changed the face of Nigerian football forever. He
was an accidental missionary, one who opened the floodgate for his
compatriots, one who preached the gospel of Nigerian football so well a
whole country — make that the European continent — was converted.
THE LEADER, THE BENEFACTOR
Not many Nigerians knew the real Stephen
Keshi. The Keshi on the pages of the newspapers was always
controversial, overbearing and rebellious. He was a Prima Donna. But he
was more than that to his teammates, coaches, fans and benefactors. The
story of how he got Ghanaian youngster, Odartey Lamptey, to ply his
skills in Europe is not fit for print: Keshi broke the law. He was so
desperate to get the budding player out of Ghana that he illegally got
him another passport after the Ghanaian authorities had seized Lamptey’s
travel document just to prevent him from travelling. Lamptey would
forever cherish Keshi as his adopted father.
When ex-international player and former
U-20 midfielder Obobaifo died in a road crash in Belgium in 1992, it was
Keshi who paid the fine to the local council to get his body released
for onward transportation to Nigeria for burial. Obobaifo had crashed
his car into a street light, apparently under the influence of alcohol,
and by law the culprit would have to pay for repairs if he survived — or
the family would have to pick the bill before the remains could be
released. Keshi bore the brunt. He also paid for the body to be sent to
Nigeria for burial.
In July 1991, the perennial shame of
Nigerian football was on display yet again when the NFA forgot to
transport the playing kits of the Super Eagles to the National Stadium
for their crucial Afcon qualifier against Burkina Faso. With the risk of
disqualification hanging on the country, a player suggested trimming
the pants of their track suits to knickers-size. This was done, the
match went on, the proper kits later arrived at half time, and Nigeria
qualified for the tournament by winning 7-1, with the irreplaceable
Rashidi Yekini scoring four goals.
But someone had actually gone missing:
the “Big Boss” was not around. He was either injured or not on good
terms with the authorities again. The gaping hole was all glaring.
“If Keshi was around, there was no way
the kits would have been forgotten,” a player confided to reporters
after the match. “He was always in charge, from the room to the training
pitch to the dining hall to the bus to the stadium. He always made sure
everything was in place, including our food, kits and allowances. He
always personally supervised the movement of kits and balls and all
that. He is a natural leader.”
Such were his organisational skills that
a national team coach once said off the record that anytime Keshi
arrived the Super Eagles’ camp, “he practically took over my job… he
would supervise training sessions, and all I had to worry about were the
tactical sessions”. Keshi was that good. Even during the time of
Clemens Weterhof (1989-1994), who remains Nigeria’s most accomplished
coach ever, Keshi was widely believed to be making significant input
into team selection and match tactics.
My friend and popular sports analyst,
Calvin Emeka Onwuka, told me during our days at the University of Lagos
that if we were ever going to produce a successful coach that would
handle the national team, it would be Keshi. “He has all the qualities
you can think of,” Emeka told me as far back as 25 years ago. Mind you,
don’t rely on Emeka if you admire flattery. He is the most stingy with
praise. I reminded Emeka of this prediction after Keshi coached Nigeria
to win the Nations Cup and he could not even remember saying that; he
was happy Keshi proved him right all the same.
But his influence as a player was a plus
on the one hand, and a minus on the other. Players such as Friday Ekpo
and Chidi Nwanu believed it was Keshi that kept them out of the team,
and they did not like him for it. Nwanu, in particular, was openly
scathing of Keshi, with whom he was competing for the central defender
position. He said he overheard Keshi “interrogating” Westerhof for
daring to invite him to camp in 1991. “The trouble with Keshi is that he
sees me as his rival… Later I realised he didn’t like me because
Manfred Hoener took me to Seoul ’88 instead of him. That was where his
hatred for me began,” Nwanu told Complete Football in 1993.
On the pitch, Keshi was the
commander-in-chief who readily shouldered responsibilities. Not once or
twice did he come in from behind, from his position as a central
defender (he was the “libero”), to score vital, match-winning goals. He
saved Nigeria at least twice in the 1990 World Cup Africa qualifying
series; his goal gave the Eagles victory in the tragic match against
Angola in Lagos, a game in which Sam Okwaraji collapsed and died, and 12
football fans were crushed to death on the stands. Okwaraji’s death was
a shadow that loomed large as the Super Eagles went down to Cameroon
thereafter and dropped out of the qualifiers.
THE REBEL, THE PRIMA DONNA
The football authorities never liked
Keshi, either as a player or as a coach. As a player, he did enough to
earn the cheers and the jeers. He, along with Siasia, refused to honour
Westerhof’s invitation to play at the 1990 Afcon in Algeria. Ademola
Adeshina and Andrew Uwe were the only Europe-based players who showed
up, and when Nigeria was hammered 5-1 in the opening match, public anger
was directed at Keshi for letting his country down. Keshi’s rebellion
was against the authorities, whom he believed were not doing things the
right way, in terms of preparations and welfare.
The fans would also turn against him in
the 1992 Afcon qualifier against Ghana in Lagos. In a match completely
dominated by Nigeria, Ekpo missed a first-half penalty, and as the team
retreated to the dressing room at half-time, fans hurled missiles in the
direction of captain Keshi — obviously a result of arrears of
resentment against the same man they adoringly called “eshin” (horse)
whenever he delivered the goods. The match ended goalless, and to make
matters worse, Keshi’s brand new Mercedes V-Boot was snatched by armed
robbers at Maryland, Lagos, hours after the match.
He promised to keep playing for Nigeria
despite the setback, and things were going to get worse at Afcon proper
when his mistake allowed Senegal to score in the opening match. Siasia
evened things with a goal, Keshi scored the winning goal in the dying
minutes, and he was back in the good books of the fans again. Although
his stock was high, he was already getting old and tired, and his place
in the national team was constantly under threat from younger players
such as Uche Okechukwu and Uche Okafor. Injuries did not also do him any
favours.
Keshi was appointed as assistant coach
to Shaibu Amodu in 2001. The struggle continued. Unpaid allowances, poor
welfare, poor logistics… Keshi just couldn’t stomach the rot. He was
soon on collision with the authorities, hand-in-glove with team captain
Oliseh, and as soon as the 2002 Nations Cup ended in Mail, Keshi and
Amodu were fired and Oliseh lost his place in the national team. Even as
coach of Togo, who took them to qualify for the World Cup for the first
time in 2006, Keshi fell out with the authorities and was sacked. He
was also sacked as coach of Mali after a poor run of results.
His return to the Nigerian national team
in 2011 was triumphant — he would lead the team to win the 2013 Nations
Cup in South Africa, becoming the first Nigerian coach to do so. The
icing that decorated the cake was that he became only the second person
to win the cup as a player and a coach, following in the footsteps of
Egypt’s Mahmoud El-Gohary. But Keshi had to be Keshi. The drums of
victory were still sounding loud when he rained on Nigeria’s parade,
announcing his resignation on a South Africa radio station. Keshi just
had to be Keshi.
Persuaded to stay on through the
intervention of President Goodluck Jonathan, Keshi would later take the
team to the 2014 World Cup, the second Nigerian coach to be saddled with
such a responsibility, and though he recorded only one victory in four
matches — a controversial 1-0 win over Bosnia and Herzegovina — he still
succeeded in getting Nigeria to the second round for the first time in
16 years. Trust Keshi, he was soon announcing his resignation in an
interview with TheCable, although it turned out his contract had
actually expired. Even the renewal of the contract ended in more
acrimonies with the authorities, and he was finally sacked after several
exchanges of insults, threats and brickbats.
KESHI THE MAN
As a player, Keshi made his
international debut for Nigeria at a very young age in July 1981 against
Upper Volta, now known as Burkina Faso, in a 1-0 win. He was 19. His
last appearance for the country was in June 1994 when Nigeria beat
Greece 2-0 at the World Cup in the US. He played 64 times and scored 10
goals for the Super Eagles. He continued with his playing career, but it
was more of a swansong. The world had seen the best of him on the pitch
in Belgium and France. There was nothing more to drool over.
On the bench, the world watched him
pilot national teams from victory to victory. But it was always with a
swagger, and a dig at the authorities. He won many of the burst-ups, and
lost a few. His sense of black pride was punished by the Confederation
of African Football (CAF) when he made a racist comment about white
coaches. He wanted to make the point that many of them working in Africa
were not better than Africans. He apologised after the backlash. That
was in 2013.
He was forced to eat the humble pie
again in April 2015 following another stand-off with the Nigerian
authorities over his contract after he had failed to secure
qualification for the 2015 Afcon. He was accused of calling the NFF
chairman, Amaju Pinnick, a liar. “I think it is my fault for not being
able to manage some information very well. I will never use such word
for the president of the federation. I am too cultured to use such word,
those who profit from sensationalism as a way of life, create chaos by
twisting facts out of context only to suit their own purpose,” he said
in a statement. He apologised all the same — the first time he would do
that to Nigerian authorities. Many thought it was because there was a
new Nigerian president who would not pamper him.
The elegant Keshi, born to the Ogbuenyi
Fredrick Keshi family of Illah in Oshimili North LGA of Delta state, was
a music freak with special taste for Caribbean zouk, but he was also a
big fan of his near look-alike, Shina Peters, and Adewale Ayuba. He
loved Barry White, Janet Jackson, Teddy Pendergrass and the Oriental
Brothers to no end. Having lost his wife of 35 years last year, it was
all sad songs for the “Big Boss” who reportedly never recovered, only to
die from cardiac arrest in the wee hours of June 8. Hopefully, they are
united again.
Keshi had remained out of job since the
July 2015 sack by the NFF. He was believed to be gradually recovering
from his wife’s death in December. Recently, rumours were all over town
that Orlando Pirates of South Africa had shortlisted him for a coaching
vacancy. But Keshi has kicked the bucket; he would never kick football
again.
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