Connected By Fate, Separated By Death: Tale Of Two Strikers - Sunny Oyarekhua, Thompson Usiyan
THE elements are at work again, playing games with the affairs of man. This is an unlikely tale of two of Nigeria’s greatest football strikers.
Whenever my telephone rings at an ungodly hour, it bothers me, because, often it is a harbinger of sad news.
This past week I received two such telephone calls, one day apart, from two friends in the very early hours of each of the days. Both calls were spirit dampeners.
Godwin Efejukwu called me before 6 O’clock in the morning last Tuesday.
I picked up he call because it was Godwin. He is a retired police officer. He left the Police Force as a Chief Superintendent many years ago. We were, for a brief period, between
1977 and 1978, colleagues in the national football team of Nigeria. He was a goalkeeper and was invited from the Nigerian Police Machine FC, a team that regularly produced great football players in those days and was in the top echelon of Nigerian football. Because of the time of the call, I assumed already that it would be bad news. There is too much of it blowing in the air these days.
“Oyarekhua is dying, please you must do something to help him.” He gave it to me upfront and bluntly, not mincing words and without any pretentious niceties.
Of course, I know Sunday Oyarekhua. I never played with him if my recollection is correct.
Nigerians know him as a mercurial CentreForward for the Police Machine FC and also for Green Eagles in the early 1970s. I had also recently read somewhere that he was bedridden as a result of Stroke and was living in pain at his home in Lagos.
Godwin’s message is painful: Sunny is now unable to walk or talk audibly, and is slowly being drained of life. He needs help.
Sunny Oyarekhua, as he was better known before and during the Second All- Africa Games in 1973, was at the top of the goal scoring chart when Nigeria won the Gold medal at the Games in Lagos. He was Nigeria’s most prolific goal scorer in the national team for the years that he was there. He had pace and power, always at the right spot at the right time in the box, pouncing on loose balls and ’ burying’ them behind opposing goalkeepers. He was so consistent that many football fans described him as a goal- scoring machine. He had the nose for ‘ smelling’ and scoring goals. By the time he was done with the national team in 1976, he had amassed a goal- chest of 17 goals in 28 international matches for Nigeria, the highest by any player at national team level up to that point.
Unfortunately, by the time the national team returned from Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, in 1976, venue of the African Cup of Nations, where Nigeria won her first Bronze medal in AFCON, Nigeria had identified a fresh pair of legs to strike for the national team. That trip marked the end of Sunny’s career and reign as the Green Eagles’ hit man. That young man, was Thompson Usiyan.
But back to Sunny for a moment. Unlike most retiring athletes that suffer and languish in despair, neglect and penury after their sports careers are over, Sunny Oyarekhua returned to his primary constituency, the Police Force after retirement. For the next 3 decades, or so, he served the Force with dignity and honor, just as he served Nigerian football with distinction.
A couple of years ago, by the time he finally retired from the service of the police, he rose to the position of Assistant Commissioner of Police. This is a position from which he should NOT now be counted amongst former athletes neglected and languishing in their aging years. Apparently, for whatever reason, he is, hence Godwin’s call, as well as social media reports calling for help for him.
My response to Godwin is that we must first know exactly what Sunny needs to alleviate his situation, and then we can jointly raise the issue with appropriate authorities that can help, including the Nigerian Police and the Nigerian sports and football authorities.
I was still trying to digest Sunny Oyarekhua’s situation when another call came the following morning. Again, the time was ungodly - before dawn. This time it was from my friend and fellow Green Eagle member, ’ Franco Nero’, Francis Moniedafe, from his base in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
Francis calls me at all hours, so I had no apprehension when I picked up his call. He broke the sad news to me - Thompson Usiyan was on his death bed. Thompson’s wife had just called him a few minutes before calling me that her husband who had
been receiving treatment for Colon Cancer in a hospital in California, and had been receiving treatment in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital, had been discharged. His case was terminal and there was nothing more the hospital could do. So, he was to be taken home to spend his final hours, or days, as the case may be, with his family. That was shattering. Francis was calling me to tell me to get Nigerians to pray for Thompson as nothing more could be done for him.
It was very frustrating to realize the fragility of life and the futility in struggling to live ‘ forever’ when ‘ it’ will inevitably come when ‘ it’ will come.
Two hours later, another journalist called asking if I had heard the news of Usiyan’s death. Then the calls started to rain. Thompson Usiyan had died in his home with his family around him.
That really hit me hard. For once, I realise how completely helpless we all are against the Elements.