RELATIVELYSPEAKING Only football gives Tijani Babangida fulfilment – Hajiya Amina
Hajiya Amina Hussain Ahmed is the elder sister of Nigeria’s ex-football international, Tijani Babangida. She speaks on the love he has for the game.
Amina Alhassan, Mulikat Mukaila & Maryam Rufai
Daily Trust: Aside being a footballer, what other sport does he like? Ahmed: Apart from playing football he doesn’t really play any other sport but he likes watching basketball a lot. Football is all he does and lives for.
DT: As a child, what was your brother like?
He was the family’s pet because he grew up in the midst of his elder ones. In fact, even now, most of his friends are older than him. He hardly relates with people that are of the same age with him.
DT: What early signs did he show about his love for football?
In those days, not everyone had a television set in his or her house. There was this neighbour of ours that had a TV set back then and Tijani and our cousins would go to his house whenever there was a football match and peep through the window until one day the owner of the house came out and beat up my elder cousin. Out of anger, my dad bought us a TV set the next day and since then we noticed Tijani has had a passion for football.
DT: What was your relationship with him like while growing up?
We were very close because he is my immediate younger brother and till date, we are still close. Even as grownups, I still call him my love and other pet names. Whenever he is around we are always together even if not always but compared to other family members, he is closer to me. I can remember when we were young, my cousins and I would be together and at the end of our street, there was a football field and when I went out with my friends, he would follow us and to play football. Initially, he wasn’t a striker he was a goalkeeper until one day he broke his hand. After his recovery from the injury, he decided to switch to a striker.
DT: As an elder sister, how did you feel about his rise to stardom?
I can’t express the joy I felt when he became popular because of the closeness between us. I hardly sat and watch him play because I have hypertension. So when he is playing, I become tensed up and my body becomes hot. Therefore, I prefer watching his old matches since any day he is playing a match I am usually not myself until the match is over.
DT: What changed about your relationship with him after that?
Things have changed compared to how they were when we were growing up. Now we are now grownups, we have our own families; so the intimacy isn’t like before. However, we are still close despite all that but not as close as we were during our childhood days. Like I said earlier, He is closer to me than any other person in the family.
DT: What football match did he feature in that left you the most spellbound?
It was definitely his qualifying Nigeria against Ghana Atlanta 96 match in Lagos. It was that same match that took Nigeria to Atlanta then and he scored the winning goal. I was so proud of him and the whole of my family requested I take them out for dinner, which I gladly did. Well I had to.
DT: What would he have become if he weren’t a footballer?
Football is the only thing he grew up to love. All his life is all about football, he never thought of something outside football. When he was in secondary school, he was a boarding student but because of his evening football games he played then, he switched to day school unknowingly to our father and what he normally did, he would put his mattress under his bed and sleep there so that our father would not catch him and ask why he wasn’t in school. For someone who would do such, I don’t think there is anything he had wanted to be apart from being a footballer.
DT: How would you describe him?
He is very generous and easy going because even if he doesn’t have a single kobo for me to ask him, he would never say he doesn’t have. He would rather ask his friends to come and ask me for money. The friends would come and say I should give them so and so amount without them knowing if the money is his or mine. Some even go about insulting me, saying he asked for a particular amount but I gave another amount without knowing that I gave the money out of my own purse. He can never say no, he will rather hide himself or use the slightest opportunity of getting something.
DT: What traits of him are any of your children exhibiting?
I have five children and they are all boys. All my kids play football and my first son looks exactly like Tijani’s first son, in fact, my son looks like my brother more than his own son. The only difference between my son and his son is the fact that his son is half caste. My first son also plays football like his uncle and when he was in the university, he played for his school in Malaysia and he even won a trophy. DT: What is his favorite food?
I really can’t say what his favorite food is but I know whenever he comes to my house, I always cook tuwo and okro or vegetable soup, waina, cow tail and leg. He loves those foods when he is at my place. Outside of my house, I don’t know what he likes.
DT: What kind of books and television programmes does he read and watch?
He likes Nollywood and Kannywood movies. As for books, there was a time he was invited to South Africa when Mandela was alive and he came back with a book on Mandela’s biography. He read it till the end. He likes reading books on people (biographies) but not novels.
DT: What do you miss doing with him when you were children?
I miss our childhood and him being our younger brother because back then, he hardly comes home without an injury or dislocation. There was this local barber called Wanzami in Hausa at the end of our street that used to fix his dislocation and whenever we took him there, he would cry a lot while it was being done and we would sympathise with him. I really miss our childhood lives. Even now when we meet, we still play and run around the house.