Sports
Tribute: Keshi More Popular In Death
Stephen “Bobby Moore”
Keshi, was my childhood play mate, my youthful and faithful companion; he was a brother, a teammate and my captain.
We ate from the same plate at each other’s houses. We were friends since our pre-teen age, and followed the same football career path.
He was personable, shy, humorous, charismatic, and disciplined as an individual and as a captain. He was not a womanizer; he never skipped camp to go partying, in fact, he detested that wholeheartedly. Hence, he led by example.
During his speech at a Greater Tomorrow event, in 2014, where we presented computers, laptops, a generator, ceiling fans and a printer to Saint Paul’s Primary School, Apapa Road, Ebute-Metta, Mainland, Lagos, he said, ”Lucky, ‘Johnny Rep’ Okoku, is not my friend, he is my brother….” Lucky was my birth name while Paul was my baptism name.
Anyway, it speaks directly to his character of unbiased and unassuming leadership and his father-benevolent approach and direct action to humanity where he co-donated (with me and Godwin Odiye), computers, laptops, printer, generator, etc. to St. Paul’s primary school.
He was a marvelous guy and a gentleman, but widely misunderstood by so many. He made time for the Abuja’s orphans and less privileged children and took pictures with them during the launch of Greater Tomorrow Children’s Foundation.
He graced Greater Tomorrow Children’s Foundation to celebrate Children’s Day and World’s Hunger Day as his own way of giving back to the community. He received the highest Mainland humanitarian award for his giving back to the society that supported him. That was Stephen, an ambassador for goodwill.
He was a true Christian; he epitomized what it meant to be a devoted and loyal Catholic growing up with him during our pre-teen age and until his death, he remained a true and believer in the doctrine and teachings of Catholic principles.
We attended St. Paul’s Catholic Church, at Denton / Oyingbo, together. We particularly preferred the 6am mass because it gave us enough time to get back home and rush to Morocco for Seven Planners Youth club’s tournaments.
It was during this youth club participation that the founder of the club, Mr. Gomez, nicknamed us after the 1970s World Cup stars. Stephen was named after the England captain, Bobby Moore, while I was named after the Dutch great, Johnny Rep (not republic), Simeon Alada was “John Billy Bremna” Scottish great, Patrick Macauley was “Piedro Anastasia,” Italian great, Emmanuel Akpan, was Fabio Capello, Italian great, etc. Stephen and I thought that Raymond King, our goalkeeper at Seven Planners then and at St. Finbarr’s College, was given to him by Mr. Gomez.
We also played together for Greater Tomorrow under the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), as the curtain raisers to entertain the crowd before big named clubs and national teams played. We were sponsored by the NFA to attend the coaching clinic organised by Pele himself at the Liberty stadium. This was in 1976, when we, as a team, traveled from Lagos to Ibadan to meet with Pele of Brazil. He captained the team then as well.
We also served as ball boys with Henry Nwosu. Stephen was my captain at St. Finbarr’s College, Akoka, Lagos, where we stayed at the boys’ quarters in the school’s compound for two years consecutively, courtesy of the principal, Mr. Kpotie.
He took his education seriously then as he did at the primary school level. He would abandon vital games during soccer season for his classes. He was also my captain in the 1980s when we played for the then Green Eagles team B as the feeder to Green Eagles’ team A.
It was from the team B that he got a call in to the Green Eagles team A. He came in as a substitute during the 1982 World Cup qualifiers against Algeria, at the National Stadium in Lagos.
Since that very moment in time, and in his accomplished life, he went on to play and captained Nigeria for the next fourteen years. I can remember very clearly his excitement and thanksgiving to God when he was named the new Super Eagles coach in November of 2011.
I called to congratulate him when he was in Nigeria, and we were on the phone for over two hours. Sadly, that excitement later turned sour which brought him stress, sadness, despair, depression, distress to his personal and professional life and it proved deadly in the end. He expected to have been treated with reverence which every human being deserves.
“How come the things that make us happy make us so sad”? Frankie Beverly asked.
He was my teammate and captain during the 1984 African Cup of Nations, when we won the silver medal. The youth teams he and I played for together in addition to the aforementioned: Olaleye boys club, Iponri, Seven planners, Morocco, Seven Pillars, Mushin Olosha, Seven Scorpions,Masha, YSFON, etc. These teams kept us busy and off the streets.
He cared and helped the underserved children with their social, academic and physical development of which many were unnoticed because he didn’t want any credit for them. He was committed to humanity, to the less privileged children to be specific.
He supported, embraced and welcomed my initiative to bring to the forefront, the neglect and forgotten students of the primary schools, and their decapitating buildings with no technology or library to advance and enhance their education. That was why he suggested increasing the number of the computers that we donated to St. Paul’s.
As a result, Mainland local government has converted and made the computer laboratory at St. Paul’s primary school accessible to all the entire students of the City of Mainland because until we donated the computers, they only had one computer laboratory in Sabo, where the students have to risk their lives two, three times a week, in public transportation to Sabo in the name of technology.
He valued education as evidently here, when he asked for the support of his world renowned star players in Joseph Yobo, Mikel Obi and Vincent Enyeama, to hold the Greater Tomorrow Children’s Foundation’s banner and take pictures with it to promote and support his dedication to his cause.
They obliged without any questions. Stephen was a virtuoso and an iconic personality, a great father, a loving and faithful husband to Kate, a devoted and loyal friend, a role model to his children, colleagues, friends and admirers alike, a father figure to many as well.
He was a God-fearing man, honest and humble. BUT AGAIN, WIDELY MISUNDERSTOOD BY MANY who never even got closed to him but was unfairly judged from a distance.
I can say all of these attributes and qualities that he possessed because I witnessed them growing up with him as pre-teens, through his adolescent living to his adulthood. These are facts.
Stephen ‘Bobby Moore’s’ humble beginning, he did lots of domestic chores for his parents, and as a child, he helped his mom to sell yam to put food on the table, other times, as a student at Premier College, before going to school in the afternoon, he would carry yam on his head, in the morning, trek miles through the railway line to Oke Ira, from Ojo Niyun street, Ebute-Metta, to deliver to his late mom at the Tejuosho market and then rushed home to get ready for school. This, he did, even when he was in primary school.
I was doing the same thing for my late mom, in my case, it was bread. There’s so much to talk about his humble beginnings that only a book with thousands of pages will suffice.
Stephen’s sense of humour and he had more of this. In 1979, during the St. Finbarr’s College’s senior lit, DJs Skelly Moore and Stevo Ree were blasting “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” a track from Michael Jackson’s “Off The Wall” album. ‘Bobby Moore’ got up like every other male student in the hall to ask the girls for a dance. Unfortunately, every girl he asked to dance with refused him and so he carried a bench, took to the dance floor and started dancing with the bench. Yep, he did and we had a good laugh afterwards in our way home. That was Stephen. Betcha!
I am happy and pleased to see the public outpouring of condolences. It is a befitting and welcoming development, the one that sends a shock wave through my spine. He would have appreciated it even more in living, appropriately.
He seemed though that he was more popular in death than when he was living. Stephen’s happiest moments when he took charge of the Super Eagles was when he was with his childhood friends he trusted.
He executed his national coaching tasks, assignments and responsibilities flawlessly and professionally, with the utmost financial sacrifice that brought the nation a flood of relief when his team won the 2013 AFCON tournament after 19 years. He was our nation’s pride, the face of Nigerian football.
Just as he was about to get an opportunity for a chance to start all over he was called upon by the most high, Almighty God.
On Friday, June 10, 2016, I had driven out of my house basement garage, not realising how closed my vehicle was to the building. I was still absent minded, in a daze from Stephen’s demise, with heavy eyes from lack of sleep, thinking about him, I dented my vehicle, and left a stretch of huge and noticeable scratches. This vehicle has lost its value and will never be the same. I told Keshi. I will not fix the damage but instead, it will serve as a reminder of you.
Thank you for your friendship, your companion, your sacrifices and dedication to less privileged children, for humanity and Greater Tomorrow Children’s Foundation.
Say me well to Kate.
Rest well, sun re o, my bosom friend.
Paul Okoku is former Nigeria international and Keshi’s associate.
Paul Okoku
Nigerian football fans and former internationals may have finally joined the call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to save Nigerian football from the grip of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), demanding a complete overhaul and the resignation of the board following a series of national-team heartbreaks, including the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, their second consecutive absence and the Super Falcons’ recent loss of an automatic qualification spot for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
Until now, football legend Segun Odegbami has been a lone voice in the vanguard of those calling on the Ibrahim Gusau-led NFF board to step aside. However, many ex-internationals, angered that the national embarrassment has now spilled over to the women’s team, have joined the call to “save our football.”
“We are demanding a total systemic clear-out and consequences at every tier of Nigerian football,” one of the former players said yesterday, pleading to remain anonymous to avoid “arrows” from what he described as desperate officials holding Nigerian football by the jugular.
Ahead of the September 27, 2026 elective congress of the NFF, scheduled to hold in Lafia, Nasarawa State, Chairman of the Advocacy for Nigeria Football Reforms Initiative, Prince Harrison Jalla, has also painted a gloomy picture of the future of Nigerian football.
Jalla’s position is in tandem with that of some aspirants who are also crying blue murder, alleging that the electoral procedure is skewed in favour of incumbent NFF President Ibrahim Musa Gusau to secure a smooth passage to a second term unopposed.
Jalla insisted that “all indicators are pointing to a gloomy picture for the future of Nigerian football, mainly due to administrative ineptitude, while the gladiators remain engrossed and fixated on the election.”
“The major crux of the election is the guidelines, which make it very difficult for other candidates to secure endorsements from across the six geopolitical zones to challenge Gusau.
“The NFF elective congress creates a skewed voting structure because [certain blocs] hold an overwhelming majority of the voting power, which critics argue marginalises key football stakeholders such as club owners, players, coaches, referees and sports writers.
“Out of the total delegates and voting structure, the 37 State FA chairmen form the primary voting bloc, making it difficult for independent candidates to win.
“This is so because of the marriage between the FA chairmen and the NFF. Most FA chairmen depend solely on the Federation for favours. Over time, during national and international engagements, the NFF uses such opportunities to reward the FA chairmen with trips and estacodes.
“They have been so compromised that no Jupiter would make them see reasons for a change. The system, therefore, heavily favours the incumbent leadership seeking re-election. That explains why they were in a hurry to pass a vote of confidence in the NFF leadership even when Nigerian football became topsy-turvy.
“As desperation has beclouded their reasoning, they have forgotten how low they have dragged Nigerian football.”
A cursory look at the catalogue of failures by Nigeria’s national teams will reveal this;
Super Eagles (Senior Men): Failed to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Their campaign ended in agonising fashion in November 2025 during the CAF playoff final, when they lost 4–3 on penalties to DR Congo. This marked the second consecutive World Cup missed by the senior national team. Earlier, in January 2026, they were also eliminated from the 2025 AFCON via a penalty shootout.
Super Falcons (Senior Women): Suffered an early continental exit by losing 1–0 to Cameroon in the 2026 WAFCON quarter-finals. The defeat stripped them of an automatic ticket to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil, forcing them into an inter-confederation playoff route. Worse still, Banyana Banyana of South Africa stopped the Super Falcons with a 2-1 defeat in Morocco, marking Nigeria’s worst outing in the history of WAFCON.
Golden Eaglets (Men’s U-17): Failed to qualify for the U-17 AFCON and subsequently missed out on three consecutive FIFA U-17 World Cups — 2023, 2025 and 2026.
Flying Eagles (Men’s U-20): Missed both the 2026 U-20 AFCON and the FIFA U-20 World Cup.
Olympic Team (Men’s U-23): Failed to qualify for the 2023 U-23 AFCON, which directly resulted in their failure to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
An official NFF apology to the government and Nigerians was met with backlash, with fans dismissing it as “too little, too late” and “one apology too many”, while demanding actual resignations.
The current frustration among fans stems from what they regard as an unprecedented catalogue of systemic failures across all tiers of Nigeria’s national teams.
Segun Odegbami said the failures had become one too many.
“If you fail to take your team to the World Cup, you find out that more often than not, they vote you out or sack you.
“That’s the measure. If you have a coach who doesn’t do well, they sack him. If you have a player who is doing badly, you remove him.”
“These guys have not succeeded. They’re our friends; that’s the painful thing. We know ourselves. We are all in the business and, when we champion the fact that they should go, they make you an enemy.
“It’s not a personalised thing. They have failed and, if we go back to that route, we are going to fail as we have failed before,” he said.
The financial damage from missing recent major tournaments is equally devastating, with total losses estimated at between ?150 billion and ?300 billion in direct payouts and broader economic partnerships.
This continuous string of qualification failures has effectively choked off the federation’s primary revenue pipelines and left its local development initiatives starved of funds.
The economic wreckage breaks down across several critical areas. By failing to reach the expanded World Cup, the NFF forfeited a guaranteed baseline participation fee of $10.5 million, reportedly worth roughly ?15.5 billion.
This single tournament loss wiped out an amount equivalent to roughly 87 per cent of the NFF’s projected annual operational budget. Had the Super Eagles advanced beyond the group stage, the rewards would have risen above $12 million, while reaching the quarter-finals could have yielded up to $20 million in performance-related payments.
Early exits by the Super Falcons and the qualification failures of the youth teams, U-17, U-20 and U-23, mean the NFF has also missed out on vital developmental subsidies and travel grants normally provided by continental governing bodies.
Corporate organisations and major sports betting companies are scaling back their sponsorship valuations. Without global television exposure, the NFF cannot command premium rates for brand placement.
The federation also misses out on potential revenue from global jersey sales, training gear and licensed supporter memorabilia that normally spike around major tournaments.
By missing out on tournament participation, Nigeria also loses leverage to draw heavily from FIFA’s financial programmes aimed at upgrading domestic training academies and pitches.
Consecutive missed World Cups have further lowered the market value of the national team brand, making future broadcast and marketing rights significantly harder to sell at a premium.
Former Ajax midfielder Hedwiges Maduro has praised Nigerian striker Tolu Arokodare, highlighting the forward’s strength and power and suggesting that he could prove valuable to Ajax in the Eredivisie.
Arokodare joined Ajax from Wolverhampton Wanderers on a season-long loan in July, with the Dutch club holding an option to make the move permanent.
He has already made an impact for his new side, providing an assist in Ajax’s 2-0 victory over PEC Zwolle in their opening Eredivisie fixture.
Maduro discussed Arokodare’s qualities during an appearance on ESPN’s Voetbalpraat, where he assessed how the Nigerian could complement Ajax’s attacking options.
He sees Arokodare as offering a different profile to Marcos Leonardo, particularly against opponents who defend deep and limit the space available for attacking runs.
Speaking about the Nigerian striker, Maduro highlighted his physical qualities and explained why he believes they could make him a valuable option for Ajax in the Dutch top flight.
“I think Tolu has something special, in terms of strength and power. I think he can be of real value in the Eredivisie,” Maduro said, as quoted by Ajax Showtime.
According to Maduro, the tactical demands of certain matches could make Arokodare’s physical presence an important option for Ajax, especially when opponents retreat towards their own penalty area.
He contrasted the situation with Leonardo, who he believes benefits from having space to make attacking runs. Maduro explained that when teams defend deep, those spaces become more difficult to find.
“Leonardo needs space. If teams drop back completely, where are you going to make those runs?
Then you get more use out of Tolu as a focal point to drop the ball,” he added.
The Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee, LOC, of the Arsenal Nigeria Converge 2026, Ugochukwu Oputa, has said that over 25 states across Nigeria were involved in the second edition of the Arsenal Converge scheduled for Port Harcourt from August 14 to 16, 2026.
Oputa disclosed this on Sunday after the Converge meeting at the Ediz Wine Bar in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
According to him, Arsenal’s popularity cuts across the nation, and the Converge is organized to provide a period for supporters to network, interact, and harmonize.
“Knowing how Arsenal’s popularity is spread across the nation, it became necessary that all the different supporters of Arsenal club across the country harmonize and create a particular period where we can meet, network and interact,” Oputa said.
He outlined the five-day schedule of activities to include
Press conference,
Environmental sanitation and community service at Mile 1 Market, Diobu, involving both visitors and residents, arrival, welcome and cocktail party. Others included Games Day, football competition and other fun activities at the Rivers State University football pitch, Community Shield watch party yesterday, where all Arsenal supporters’ groups met, interacted, and discussed the future of Arsenal, including plans for the 2027 hosting rights of the Converge.
Oputa added that this year’s Converge which was in Port Harcourt, had over 3,000 fans registered.
“Port Harcourt Arsenal Community is a recognized supporters’ club of Arsenal in London and we have over 25 states that participated in the Arsenal Nigeria Converge 2026,” he said.
Also speaking, a member of the Nigeria Arsenal Supporters Working Committee, Nsikak Ntia, said that what distinguishes Arsenal supporters is their offline community impact.
“What we are doing here in Port Harcourt is beyond football. It’s a family that is growing. We had over 3,000 to 4,000 people on Saturday at the Rivers State University that shared the confidence that Arsenal represents,” Ntia said.
He noted that the club’s motto, ‘Victoria Concordia Crescit’ – ‘Victory Through Harmony’ – is the bedrock of the group.
“The work that we do at Mile 1 Market is to help with environmental protection and increase what we do in society.
“We also have future plans to promote environmental protection and better ways to handle waste.
“These are things that are germane for our future, the future of our young people and generations unborn.
” It goes beyond football, it goes beyond banter, it goes beyond yapping at each other.
“That is what Arsenal Football Club is all about. Arsenal has the most well-organized supporters’ club in Nigeria and Africa’ he sated.
-
News4 days agoRSG Targets Nine Million Residents in Mosquito Net Distribution Campaign
-
Oil & Energy4 days agoAiyedatiwa Signs New Electricity Bill
-
Oil & Energy4 days agoNLNG Commissions Research And Innovation Centre In RSU
-
Maritime4 days agoMarine Minister Commends President Tinubu On NPERA Bill Assent
-
News4 days agoKenPoly Holds Eight Convocations, August 29
-
News4 days agoRSG Begins Another Phase of Projects Commissioning Today
-
News4 days agoRMAFC Completes Revenue Sharing Review, Proposes New Pay
-
Maritime4 days agoNAGAFF Petitions IGP Over Alleged Maritime Police Harassment