By Tony Amadi
I was holidaying in Port Harcourt in 1962 when I had the rarest of opportunities to meet the great soccer legend, Albert Onyeanwuna at the Port Harcourt City stadium. This was my second year at the Ibo Union Grammar School, Kano at the elite college which the Igbo merchants of Kano had established and modeled on Britain’s Eton College primarily for their children to attain the highest levels of education in those days. The college was special enough for the Premier of Northern Nigeria the late Sir Ahmadu Bello to send one of his relatives, Sani to attend the college. We were both in Class 2B.

Albert Onyeanwuna

Staying just across the road from the stadium at No. 10 Takoradi Street, Port Harcourt with my in-law, Francis Uzoenyi, I was not necessarily a soccer addict but as an avid newspaper reader, I knew by their names all the soccer stars of that generation such as Thunder Balogun, Albert Onyeanwuna, Elkanah Onyeali, Dejo Fayemi, Godwin Achebe, Fabian Duru, Augustine Oduah and others. I had never watched a major football match before this one and I was very excited. The Red Devils of NPA, Port Harcourt were playing ECN of Lagos and the three Onye’s – Onyeador (Green Eagles captain in the early sixties) Onyali and Onyeanwuna were on the team list.

The Red Devils were in action and Onyeanwuna scored a brace and the excitement I had was simply too much for me to put up with that I had to write a report of the match and send to the Eastern Nigerian Guardian newspaper of Port Harcourt which had its offices close to Takoradi Street on Bathurst Street. I had no inkling that the report would be published until the Monday after the match when the Editor ran the report under my byline Anthony Amadi. It was my first ever printed article and it felt like owning a million dollars.

Onyeanwuna lived at Lagos Street, Port Harcourt, just a stone throw from my Takoradi street residence and I used to hang around his No 30 house hoping to see and adore him. A few kids like me used to loiter around as well to see the famous man and he used to honour us with his presence by coming out, his trademark haircut which he wore with a pattern that had a straight line cut on the left side of the massive hair was copied by many soccer buffs in the area.

On the national stage, Onyeanwuna was a sensation and proved a continental threat to defenders of his generation. He always found a way to wriggle through the massed defence, whether it was Lagos teams or international teams clashing with the Nigerian sides that he played for. In the days of their clashes with Black Stars of Ghana, Onyeanwuna was one of the few strikers that were an antidote to the deadly defenders of the Black Stars. On a major soccer date against the Ghanaians, Lagos used to freeze when they touched down at the Ikeja airport as it was known in those days. They came with their deadly strikers like Agreey Finn, Gyamfi and the rest of them that I cannot remember their name. But Onyeanwuna and the Nigerian side were always going to give a good account of themselves, even though there were days that Ghana gave us a good thrashing.

Looking back, I doubt if Nigeria could ever produce great players like those of that generation. The passion exhibited in those days by players was certainly greater even with the general state of penury that marked the fate of footballers of the fifties and sixties. Onyeanwuna and his generation served Nigeria with more zeal. They still maintained their day jobs at NPA (Nigeria Ports Authority) or ECN (Electricity Corporation of Nigeria) unlike footballers these days that play professionally.

If Onyeanwuna were a British citizen, the premiership we all adore today would hold a series of events in his honour. A minute silence would be observed in all match venues on his passing and his name would have become Sir Albert Onyeanwuna MBE (Member of the British Empire).

What is the Federal Minister of Sports Dr Tamuno Danagogo waiting to send Onyeanwuna’s name as well as other great footballers that brought immense glory to Nigeria to the National Merit Award for appropriate posthumous honour? What is Rotimi Amaechi waiting to rename one of the stadiums in Port Harcourt after Onyeanwuna? Or can’t they, in his honour, build a monument at No 30 Lagos Street, Port Harcourt or even rename that street after this great man who lived most of his life there in the Garden City to the glory of Nigerian sports?

Thank God that Anambra State is doing something about honouring Onyeanwuna by the string of events penciled down for his burial programme on 19th September at Abatete, his home town by the Action Governor Willie Obiano and his vibrant Commissioner for Youths and Sports, Chief Tony Nnachetta who is a guru himself in the arena of Nigerian Sports. What makes the new governor tick is simply that he is fixing round pegs in round holes and not placing dummies around him to confuse him the more.

In a News Agency of Nigeria report on Sept. 5, 2014, the Anambra Commissioner for Youth and Sports, Tony Nnacheta, confirmed that the state would immortalize the late football legend, Albert Onyeanwuna, who died on April 22 in Lagos. Nnachetta inaugurated a 15-member burial committee in Awka to plan and execute the burial, and promised that Onyeanwuna would be buried on Sept. 19 at Abatete in Idemili North Local Government Area of the state in recognition of his contribution to Nigerian football. He said the state government had also constituted a 30-man national committee comprising top football personalities across the country, assuring that the late soccer hero would be given a befitting state funeral.

According to the Commissioner, “This is in remembrance of his contributions to the growth and development of the game in Nigeria.” He described the late footballer as an illustrious son of the state, and added that the Anambra State government would continue to appreciate any son or daughter that brought the state to limelight. He said that burial activities for the football legend would hold in four Nigerian cities — Lagos, Port Harcourt, Awka and Abatete.

Nnacheta said the Port Harcourt All Stars would also play a friendly with Port Harcourt ex-professionals at the Sharks Stadium, Port Harcourt, on Sept. 13. The commissioner said the final football match on Sept. 18 would be played at the home town of the legend between Enugu All Stars and Onitsha All Stars, at Notre Dame College pitch, Abatete.

The late Onyeanwuna would lie in state at the Women’s Development Centre, Awka on Sept. 18 and would be laid to rest after a funeral mass at the St. Dominic Catholic Church, Agbaja, Abatete on Sept. 19.

Onyeanwuna was one of the biggest players of his era, a master dribbler who debuted for the Red Devils, as the Nigerian senior football team was then known, on Oct. 30, 1955. He was a member of the Eastern Region’s Spartans Football Club that won the National Golden Cup for keeps in the 60s.

May the soul of Albert Onyeanwuna rest in perfect peace!