Between Okwaraji and Foe

I watched the opening ceremony of the final match of this year Confederation Cup between Brazil and the United States with mixed feelings. On one hand, it presented FIFA as a responsible organisation that cherishes football practitioners, dead or alive. On the other hand, it provoked in me a sad memory of how Samuel Okwaraji has been ill-treated.
The ceremony was dedicated to the memory of Marc-Vivian Foe, the Cameroonian footballer, who died on June 26, 2003 while playing in a Confederation Cup semi-final match against Columbia.

This event was just a continuation of a lot that has been done to immortalize Foe. Foe slumped on the pitch like Okwaraji had done 14 years earlier, while playing for Nigeria against Angola in a FIFA World Cup qualifier. It will be 20 years on August 12, when Nigeria has lost one of his finest and most dedicated players in history.

The fact that both died at a FIFA organized match has not meant that they are treated the same. Foe is still highly celebrated and members of his family are properly taken care of, while Okwaraji is getting deeper and deeper into abyss of oblivion and family abandoned. It is most likely that if a survey is conducted among Nigerian football enthusiasts who are born as from 1990 on the knowledge of Okwaraji, the result will be abysmal. The only honour that has been done to his memory is lip service from the successive football administrators and governments. A friend reminds me of his bust; this is too tokenistic and insulting.

I will not blame FIFA or CAF for saying what is a sauce for goose is not a sauce for gander. Even if the fact that in addition to Okwaraji about nine football fans died after the match as a result of stampede could not make the continental and world football bodies to care a hoot. We have to blame the perennial self-serving football administrators the country has been accursed with.
He has not been properly honoured at home; we should not expect anything from the outsiders. You lift up your load where it is heaviest. The fate of Okwaraji is a metaphor of the crisis of football management in Nigeria .

I will not be surprised if the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) (I don’t like the name) has not had plan to commemorate the 20th anniversary. Even if anything is done, Nigerians will be most likely treated to another round of hot air.

The roles of the sport writers and lately, Association of Professional Footballers of Nigeria (APFON) in holding aloft the memory of Sam Okwaraji should be acknowledged. But a lot more still needs to be done by the media. I would expect comprehensive feature stories in the media on him at the 20th anniversary of his tragic death in the service of fatherland. The current football administrators should atone for the sin and irresponsibility of their forerunners by according due honour to the memory of Sam Okwaraji.