Nigeria, A Country With No Government -By Azuka Onwuka

In the 1970s and 1980s, Nnewi in Anambra State was doing well in some areas, especially commerce and industry, but it was poor on sports. It had no stadium, no serious football club, and no major sporting event that attracted people from afar. All Nnewi football clubs were local teams: Egwudo Babes, Flamingoes, Bombers, etc. The people were passionate about sports, especially football, but there was no facility for anything big. The people created a football league within the local government area, where football clubs owned by individuals competed. It attracted passionate fans who bought tickets and stood around the football field of a secondary school to watch matches during weekends.

No team on the national league or even division 2 or 3 was based in Nnewi or its environs. We only heard of names like Christian Chukwu and Henry Nwosu on radio or saw them on TV. If you wanted to see those great names, you would have to travel to Enugu, our state capital, or Owerri, the capital of our neighbouring state, Imo.

After football, the next game of interest to us as boys was table tennis, which we played on benches or tables wherever there was space. When Mr Cosmas Maduka of Coscharis Group became the President of Nigerian Table Tennis Federation in the late 1980s, he began to sponsor an annual national table tennis competition at the Anaedo Hall in Nnewi. That brought some excitement, as we got to see and watch table tennis stars like Atanda Musa, Segun Toriola, Bose Kaffo, Olufunke Oshonaike, etc.

Azuka Onwuka

Then in 1990, Chief Oscar Udoji, a business man from a neighbouring town, Ozubulu, founded the football club, Udoji United. Chief Oscar Udoji, is the son of the man who gave Nigeria the Udoji Awards, Chief Jerome Udoji. Note that Chief Oscar Udoji is a businessman, not a civil servant or political office holder. Even though his club was based in Enugu, the fact that it was a top division club owned by someone from the then 14-town Nnewi Local Government Area, created some excitement among us that finally one of us had come up with something big in football. After their first season in 1991, Udoji United won promotion to the Nigeria Premier League. We felt that “we” had arrived in soccer.

In the early 90s while I was a university student, for the sake of Udoji United I travelled occasionally from Nsukka or Nnewi to Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu just to watch the club, especially when they had a fixture with a top club. I remember watching them beat football giants, Iwuanyanwu United of Owerri, and how the chants of “Owerri wu oke mba” (Owerri is a great city) ceased on the lips of the supporters of Iwuanyanwu when the second goal was conceded by Iwuanyanwu. I also remember watching Udoji beat Shooting Stars. I felt proud that “we” had a great football club.

Later Udoji moved from distant Enugu to Awka and began to use the Rojenny Stadium in Oba, some 15 kilometres from Nnewi. That made it easier to watch them. That same period the Fanny Amun-coached Golden Eaglets team made up of Wilson Oruma, Nwankwo Kanu, Peter Anosike, etc, camped at Rojenny for over two years. However, the day Udoji United played the Golden Eaglets at the Rojenny Stadium, it was obvious that I must suspend my support for Udoji and shift it to the Eaglets, because I loved all Nigerian-age group teams more than any club.

Rojenny Tourist Village was created by an entrepreneur, Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka. He made it possible for us to have close to us a stadium, a zoo, as well as a centre for children’s games. Continental matches were played at Rojenny Stadium, making it easy for us to watch in flesh and blood footballers we only used to read about or see on TV.

While all this was going on, one businessman seemed to be feeling that void of lack of a football club or stadium that Nnewi had. His name is Chief Gabriel Chukwuma. Please note his surname. In 1998 Chukwuma bought Iyayi Football Club of Benin City and changed it to his business name: Gabros International FC, Nnewi. We were jubilant that finally Nnewi had a football club on the national league. Anytime Gabros was mentioned, Nnewi was also mentioned.

Note that the owner of Gabros United is the elder brother of the owner of Innoson Group, Dr Innocent Chukwuma. Both of them were previously doing business in Nkwo Nnewi Market. The junior Chukwuma later went into manufacturing and finally came to national limelight with the manufacturing of motor vehicles through Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing Company Limited. Note that in spite of the challenges of electricity, roads, etc, he chose Nnewi as the site for the car manufacturing plant.

Let’s return to football. While we were at Okongwu Memorial Grammar School, Nnewi a young boy was also interested in football. He was a good goalkeeper. He was one of the goalkeepers who tried to save our junior school team in 1984 when the rampaging team of St Paul’s Seminary, Ukpor, led by the same Peter Anosike that later played with Kanu and Oruma at Japan 93, were battling us at the Nnewi zonal final. In spite of all theọtụmọkpọ (juju) our school prepared, the Ukpor boys trashed us. Those who played for us were fantastic footballers, but the Ukpor boys were simply better. That goalkeeper boy later went for trials under Fanny Amun in his bid to join the 1993 Golden Eaglets team to Japan but was edged out by Emmanuel Babayaro, Destiny Iyonu and Emmanuel Okhenoboh in the goalpost. He later became a business mogul. His name is Dr Ifeanyi Ubah, Group CEO of Capital Oil and Gas Limited.

His love for football never waned. Since he could not be a professional footballer, he decided to run a football club. So he bought over Gabros United from his kinsman and renamed it FC Ifeanyi Ubah of Nnewi. Ubah decided to build a big stadium for the club in Nnewi at the boundary with Ozubulu to fill that vacuum in Nnewi. He also ensures that he organises shows in Nnewi, bringing top footballers, musicians, actors and comedians to Nnewi.

In 2017, Chief Gabriel Chukwuma decided to float another football club by taking over Dreams International FC of Makurdi. Guess the name he changed the club to? Nnewi United. The club plays in the division 2 of the national league. Hopefully Nnewi United will soon join the premier league.

Now let us recap. Maduka decided to host annual national table tennis championship in Nnewi. Udoji from Ozubulu started a football club that made his community proud even though their camp was not in Ozubulu. Ezeonwuka decided to establish a small zoo in Oba where we went to see some animals. He added a football pitch to it. The only zoo and stadium we knew were in far away Enugu. Rojenny made it easier for those in the Onitsha-Nnewi axis to have a place to visit for recreation and football. These are individuals who filled a gap where government was not playing its role.

Then came the senior Chukwuma with Gabros International FC, which he sited in Nnewi, bringing footballers and spectators across Nigeria to Nnewi. His brother started his car manufacturing company in Nnewi to help boost the profile of the town. Ubah bought over Gabros International and started building a big stadium. Gabriel Chukwuma bought another football club and named it Nnewi United.

Through these individual efforts, Nnewi has moved from a town whose indigenes travelled over 100 kilometres to Enugu or Owerri to watch football matches to a city that hosts Nigerian Premier League matches and Confederation of African Football matches. Without waiting for government to play its roles, individuals took bold steps to force sports development to happen upon their communities by continuously siting projects in their communities despite all challenges.