Keshi |
As soon as the death of Stephen Okechukwu Chinedu Keshi was
announced, those same “people” who hated his guts were among the first people
who started mourning him, saturating the air with eulogies. The same Nigerians
who then had filled the blogosphere and social media with anti-Keshi
sentiments have been using superlatives to describe him and shedding crocodile
tears. They cannot wait to give him a “befitting” burial. They are racking
their brains on how to immortalise him. They are now “so” proud of him. They
have changed their display pictures on their Smartphones to that of Keshi. Such
is life!
Keshi may have died of a heart attack as widely reported,
which can only be confirmed by an autopsy.
But Keshi also died of another heart
problem which needs no autopsy: A broken heart.
After the death of his beloved wife, he never recovered from
it. But perhaps even more than that of his wife’s, Keshi never also recovered
from the way a country he loved treated him.
Love of any type, even the love of country comes from the
heart. The heart is never so smart. It is afraid of getting hurt.
The country broke Keshi’s heart first when it wrongly banned
him from football in 1984. His heart went on to repair, resulting in an
illustrious international career, until wham! the nation broke it again. He had
added in age. This time, it could not be repaired.
Wasn’t Keshi the same person who was regarded as the
“problem” that was holding Nigeria football back that needed to be dispensed
with quickly? Many Nigerians whom Keshi had made happy and proud by winning the
coveted AFCON after a 19-year wait, when the going was no longer good shouted
“Away with Keshi, away with Keshi!” That was the same way Jesus Christ was treated
by his people, the Jews. They were hailing him and shouting “Hosanna.” But
while Jesus knew that in a few days they would reject him and then kill him,
poor Keshi never envisaged being rejected after performing a feat where only he
and Egypt’s Mahmoud El-Gohary are the only Africans to have won the Nations Cup
as a player and as a coach. If Keshi were a whiteman, I am dead sure he would
not have been handled that way.
How should we have handled keshi? I gave a hint of that in
my article, “Keshi: The comeback kid,” published in this newspaper, when after
all the time-wasting in the world, Keshi was reappointed the coach of the Super
Eagles.
As I argued then, Keshi was never the problem of Nigerian
football. Only what Keshi needed from Nigeria were support, patience, and a
peaceful football house. But even now, the house is at daggers drawn. How could
any national team coach have won a match when FIFA’s ban was hanging on his
country like the sword of Damocles? How could Keshi have performed well when
his working environment was a minefield?
Whenever Keshi won, it was luck; whenever he lost, it was
Keshi’s fault. Now he is dead, they are shedding crocodile tears. Enough
of the hypocrisy!
How long must we continue to deceive ourselves? How long
must we keep prolonging our football travails? It is what we sow that we will
reap.
Stephen Keshi was a God-sent to Nigeria football, a true
hero, a true legend. Other countries saw him that way. But we did not see him
that way. Mind you, I am talking about a coach who was in 2014 voted the best
coach in Africa and ranked 14th in the world. What else could Nigeria have
asked for? Indeed, Nigeria never deserved Keshi!
Keshi was different for football. Off it, on it. Keshi was
larger than life in football affairs, that was why his detractors saw him as an
obstacle. Nigeria lost the chance to consolidate on the gains of the Nations
Cup glory.
When Keshi said, “Some day, I will be coach of Nigeria and
then they will know they have a coach,” he never reckoned that some day, they
would forget they had a coach.
If the powers that be in Nigerian football had allowed Keshi
to be, he would have revolutionised coaching in Nigeria just as he did with
Nigerian football.
What’s national talent when not enamoured with your country?
Football laurels are not won by superhumans. They are won by a dedicated team
that can believe as one, think as one, play as one. Keshi knew this. Given more
time, Keshi would have given us a long lasting glory. Yes, along the way, there
may be bad spells. But it was for the long haul.
We would have patiently tapped into his wisdom. Our young
kids would have grown with his philosophy adapted to suit our peculiarity.
Nigerian coaches would have understudied Keshi’s football philosophy whose
bedrock is the building of a team around the home-based players. A formula he
had proved. A formula to be deployed by African teams if they ever hope to win
the World Cup.
When an ex-international who loved his wife and football
loses his wife, he falls back on his other love. But Nigeria denied Keshi the
companionship of his country’s football. His late wife was beautiful. Football
too is the beautiful game. The joy of showing young Nigerians the way of
football, the joy of working for fatherland.
After Keshi was humiliated out, where is Nigerian football
today? We didn’t qualify for two Nations Cup in a row. If we cannot qualify for
a tournament in Africa that has 16 countries, what hope for qualifying for the
World Cup where Africa has only five slots?
Did Nigeria truly love Keshi when he was alive? The answer
is a big “No!” What we had for him was a conditional love, a fair-weather love.
That is what a Nigerian hero and an African legend got from us!
Keshi might have had this ode for Nigeria from a song by Jim
Reeves of the blessed memory:
“No need to say you’re sorry
No need to feel ashamed
If I’m not the one you love
Don’t feel you’re to blame.
I don’t deny it hurts me
And this pain is hard to hide
But at least I lived a little while
Before I died.”
Nigeria deeply hurt Keshi. But, now he is safe somewhere,
and standing tall in the courtyard of history, never to be hurt by Nigeria or
anyone, again.
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