Catch the bug if you can. Lagos will never be the same again as deep pocket, Shola Akinlade, moves his Paystack into sports beginning with soccer.
It is a matter of time before the best legs in football embark on a voyage to join Sporting Lagos Football Club. We are talking of the new team in town, set up in 2022 and ready to go places.
Akinlade, a Software engineer is the co- founder and Chief Executive Officer of Paystack. He is channeling his millions to football development. Sporting Lagos have picked a place in the Nigerian National League. One more step, they will hit the Premier League.
Paystack was bought in 2020 for 200 million dollars by Stripe. Sporting Lagos is a multi billion naira venture that will banish poverty and help talented players live their dream.
It is a shame that what we call Premier League in Nigeria leaves players begging for food like destitutes. Some of the clubs do not pay salaries. Many of them are used by politicians to buga.
How can one explain that promises made to Enugu Rangers for winning the League and Challenge have not been fully settled. Plateau United were also promised every beautiful thing in Jos and beyond when they lifted the league. The story today is that the players have the ugliest pockets.
Welcome Akinlade. Bravo Sporting Lagos. Things are happening in the South -West. We also have Kunle Soname doing wonders with Remo United of Ikenne, where football is served in Golden dishes. There are no beggars in Remo.
Akinlade, a 2006 Computer Science graduate of Babcock University, Ilishan – Remo has the spirit of giving. He has been influenced by his spiritual academic background.
Babcock belongs to the Seventh – Day Adventist Church. The young man attended St. Gregory’s College, Obalende, Lagos, an elite Roman Catholic school.
I am sure the story of Sporting Lagos has been coloured with the pedigree of St. Greg’s. The immediate past principal, Rev. Edmund Apala was an outstanding athlete. He played alongside Patrick Ekeji, one of the Green Eagles that qualified for the Montreal ’76 Olympic Games.
Ekeji began with Vasco Da Gama, Enugu before crossing over to Rangers. He missed the 1976 and 1978 African Nations Cup because a particular lecturer at the University of Nigeria Nsukka was bent on failing him if the star did not attend classes regularly.
Ekeji later bagged a post graduate degree in Germany, managed teams like Diamond of Sierra Leone, UNTL Kaduna, ACB Lagos before leading the Green Eagles briefly in 1986.
St. Greg’s and sports are like six and half a dozen. Rafiu Adio Oluwa was in the first Nigeria team to the Olympics, Helsinki ’52, as a sprinter. The first Sports minister, Modupe Johnson (JMJ ) was a Gregorian.
Anthony Omoera was principal of the school between 1977 and 1992. He was a member of the Nigeria Football Association. I do not know of any principal that can achieve that today.
Omoera was so respected that he headed Nigerian delegations. I met him in 1991 when he led BCC Lions to defend their African Winners Cup title against Power Dynamos of Zambia.
The man was a delight to stay with. The stories did not end and I learnt a lot. The trip took us from Lagos to Accra, to Harare and Lusaka.
The team flew Ghana Airways and the connection from Accra to Harare was because President Robert Mugabe’s first wife, Sally, was a Ghanaian. It was a five – hour trip. We spent one night in Harare before flying Zimbabwe Air to Lusaka.
Omoera was lovely with jokes. To get to Lusaka, we flew past Harare, only to fly back to the Zambian capital. Of course, Ghana Airways had no business with Zambia. The Zimbabwean pilots did not make us comfortable.
Omoera encouraged us saying that they could be learning to perfect their skills. On that flight was a Zambian Airforce officer, who followed us from Lagos. He was in Nigeria for training. We laughed about trainee pilots.
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Omoera was a proud representative of St. Greg’s. The Nigerian High Commissioner to Zambia, Lawrence Agubuzu was impressed. The Defence Adviser to the Nigerian High Commission in Harare, Col. Gabriel Kpamber acknowledged it.
Akinlade did not meet Omoera, he may not know Patrick Ekeji but the Remo man is selling St. Greg’s one more time to lovers of sports across the country and even beyond.
Lagos will come back to life. The earliest football teams owned by individuals first birthed in the town.
In 1938, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe set up the Zik’s Athletics Club ( ZAC )comprising three football teams, Bombers, Spitfire and Hurricane. ZAC won the country’s first national soccer trophy, the War Memorial Cup in 1942.
Zik played for Lagos Diamonds in 1923 and also starred for his team. An all rounder, the journalist turned politician built the Sabo Stadium, Yaba in 1940.
Some prominent ZAC Bombers were Dan Anyiam, Carl ‘ Gentleman’s O’ Dwyer ( I guess he was the father of broadcaster, Joan O’Dwyer ), Thomas Adisa ( Addis Ababa), Daniel Okosa, Sonny Wokoma, Vidal George, Phil Akor, Bob Nwangoro and Albert Osakwe.
Akinlade, unlike Soname, does not have a stadium yet for Sporting Lagos. They use the Teslim Balogun Stadium as home ground. I am sure the Lagos club will in the near future, find home.
There were other clubs owned by individuals in Lagos. W.H. Biney had Biney’s Eleven. E. B. Silva Eleven and Ekang Eleven sprang up too.
The greatest of them all was Stationery Stores, founded by Israel Adebajo in 1958. Ten years later, they became the first Nigerian club to go international, debuting in the CAF Champions League.
That was the club of Sam Opone, Tony Igwe, Peter Anieke, Austine Ofuokwu, Peter Fregene and Fred Aryee ( Baba Ali).
Outside Lagos, we had Ikpeazu Redoubtables, Onitsha sponsored by Justice Chuba Ikpeazu, father of beauty queen Linda Ikpeazu. Two prominent players, Sebastine Bridericks and Paul Hamilton emerged from there .
Ikpeazu, who later became a three – time chairman of the NFA once rewarded the players with brand new bicycles for qualifying for the semi finals of the Challenge Cup.
In the 1970s, there was Alyufsalam Rocks of Ilorin, owned by Alhaji Yusuf Salami. They played in the grand finale of the Challenge Cup in 1976, parading 10 Ghanaians and one Nigerian, Humphrey Okechukwu.
Salami raided Koly Park, in the Sabon Zongo area of Accra to recruit players. There were Skipper Owura Agyei, Ahmed Nalado and Charles Tetteh, among others.
Chimezie ‘Watch me’ Ngadi’s brace gave Enugu Rangers a 2-0 victory. The Flying Antelopes won their third consecutive Challenge Cup. That record still stands. Okechukwu joined the Coal City Boys after that final. The Ilorin Ghanaians each got Vespa scooter.
With Akinlade, one should expect samba music from Sporting Lagos. St. Greg’s churned out classy musicians. Victor Uwaifo was also a national High Jump silver medalist. Then came Ofege in the 1970s with Wizzy Labo.