BY JOHN EGBOKHAN
Cast your mind back and imagine this. A charged atmosphere at the National Stadium sees two teams emerging from the tunnel and the fans go wild in their thunderous ovations.

And on one side are these players: Agwo Nnaji, David Adiele, Francis Monidafe, Felix Agbonifoe, Peter Iyharevba, Henry Ogboe etc. You would have played the match in your head. And you would sure to have value for your money. When the story of the great days of Nigerian football is being told anywhere, those who lived it get emotional for they find it difficult to understand what is going on now.

Bendel Insurance

Then, players had class, the crowd was unbelievable and the matches thrilled and lured them back to the venues all the time. Our local league had heroes. And many of them were in Bendel Insurance, a side with culture, fan base and a sweet narrative that kept ears open.

When a list of Nigerian teams who made waves in the last three to four decades is made, a certain club from the old mid-western region will un

equivocally rank amongst the top five.

Surely, Bendel Insurance remain one of the top teams to have come out of the Nigerian top-flight football, making waves nationally and on the continent to the sheer delight of their teeming fans, who were then regarded as the most colourful supporters club in the country although many could rightly disagree, citing Rangers International of Enugu and Stationery Stores of Lagos and Shooting Stars of Ibadan.

Indeed, the records of Bendel Insurance speak volumes of the great feats achieved by a team, which assumed a cult-like figure for natives of the former Bendel State, comprising Edo and Delta State. Indeed, the fan base of Benin Arsenals extended far beyond the shores of the Bendel region as fans from the west, east and even north joined the bandwagon of loyalists drooling for the team.

Bendel Insurance Football Club, also known as Insurance of Benin Football Club, were originally knowm as the Vipers of Benin.

The club started as the soccer arm of Bendel Insurance Limited, an insurance firm owned by Bendel State, but which later went down owing to bankruptcy.

Insurance FC were one of the founders of the Nigerian Premier League in 1972. They won the Premier league title in the same year of its start in 1972 and second league shield in 1979.

Frank

They have also won the most glamorous and oldest running competition in the country, the FA Cup thrice, in 1972, 1978, 1980

On the continental level, they won the CAF Cup, now known as the Confederation Cup in 1994 while they reached the semifinals of the 1980 edition of the African Cup of Champions Club. The competition is now’ called CAF Champions League.

At the regional level, Bendel Insurance won the West African Club Championship in 1993, 1994 and 1995, making them about the best Nigerian team to have achieved such feat in the history of the competition.

But the club’s started flirting with trouble in 2007 when they had their first month of the 2007-08 season delayed because of a management dispute over who controlled the team. At one end was Ekhosueyi, who was the chairman of the club at that time and Brown Ebewele, the former national athlete, who was then the Commissioner of Sports.

Ebewele’s grouse with Ekhosueyi was that he was running the club as his personal empire, despite government’s heavy subvention to the team referred to as the pride of the State.

The raging crisis later snowballed beyond proportions as Bendel Insurance at one time presented two different clubs claiming the name Insurance. It was the height of it and there was no going back as the later got relegated at the end of the 2007- O8 season after finishing in last place.

It was their first relegation from the top level since the league started in 1972 and regrettably, the giants are still deep in their slumber, while fans continue to rummage over when the club will wake up from this enforced slumber.

For many fans of the club, the emergence of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to the Governorship seat of Edo State on 12 November 2008 was seen as the tonic that would usher in the revival that Insurance FC critically needed. They were on the knees, fighting for their very survival, leaving in its wake the attendant untold hardship on players and the coaches, who were simply lacking in motivation.

Before Oshiomhole was returned as Governor by the Election Tribunal, it seemed the ownership crisis of the Insurance FC was settled in August, 2008 as the Edo State government took control of the administration of the club.

Thus the name officially reverted to Bendel Insurance Football Club. But to the bewilderment of all, financial troubles of the club continued throughout the season. Things got to a head in February 2009 as Insurance were banned from prosecuting their home matches at their traditional 20, 000- capacity Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium ground in Benin City, temporarily because it did not meet the minimum standards set by the the board of the Nigeria Premier League.

A month later, Bendel Insurance FC were listed amongst eight teams threatened with having their participation suspended due to a backlog of debts to players and coaches and fines imposed by the NPL. But the hammer soon fell heavily on them when they were exiled to Ilorin for their final home game of the season after crowd trouble in a 1-1 tie against Shooting Stars FC that put an end to their promotion hopes.

So it was with much optimism that Edolites saw Oshiomhole’s entry into the Dennis Osadebey Government House as the oil Bendel Insurance needed to get back running again. But alas, the status quo seems not to have changed in seven years, as the club still languish in the periphery of the NNL.

Fans of the club are at a loss as to how the club were yet to find their rhythm after these seven years under the comrade governor, who has renovated the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, regularised their salaries of the team and extended his love for sports into the organisation of the Okpekpe Road race, the only International Athletics Association Federations certified event in Nigeria.

The Okpekpe Race commands huge rating in the world and it is to the credit of Governor Oshimhole that Nigeria is hosting such a notable event in the calendar of the IAAF. But how come that this charm offensive by the comrade Governor in hosting such

a highly acclaimed competition has not transcended to the foot-mat of Bendel Insurance FC, a club the people see as their sports pride? Why has the club remained in the doldrums?

Responding to this last question, a former coach of Bendel Insurance, Godwin Izilein said that things were not as bad as being painted by critics and skeptics, who he reminded that the crisis that ravaged the club was allegedly sparked off by a former commissioner of Sports.

While noting that it takes just a few seconds to destroy, Izilein said that it takes a longer time to rebuild what has been destroyed.

Speaking to Saturday Vanguard Sports, the former Golden Eaglets coach said that it was to the credit of the government that there’s a new lease of life on Bendel Insurance and predicted that the club would return to the top-flight of the Nigerian Premier League at the end of the new season, kicking off on March 7 across all centres of the country.

“I was there when this crisis started. they goofed when they brought another team to counter the certified Bendel Insurance team for a match. We told the government in power then that what they did was going to destroy this team. But instead of holding the bull by the horns, they held it by the tail and it escaped.

“Ebewele never saw anything good in Ekhosueyi running the club on behalf of government but he failed to realise that he would have achieved his aim through other means that will not tear the club into sheds.

“But something good will soon happen to this club. This club will rise again and the government has already started taking good care of the players and coaches, who are all being played promptly. The players get alerts on their phones before the end of the month. Things have changed and it is now up to the team to justify the efforts being made by government by playing well and getting the promotion ticket to play in the Premier League”, added Izilein, who is with the Edo State Football Development programme in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions.

Words are rife that the Bendel Insurance team have no personal bus to convey them to their training sessions but responding to this claim, Izilein noted that at no particular time were the players left to go to training on their own, adding that a new bus was going to be given to the team before the season flags off.

“We know how lean our resources are like in Edo State. We are not like Delta, Cross River, Rivers or Akwa Ibom States, in terms of revenue from the federation account. There is no father who would not want to train his children to the highest academic level but when the money is not there, he can only offer what he can afford.

“The players have not been having difficulties going for training because the management takes care of their responsibilities. But we have written to the government

on the need of a modem bus and they have accepted our request and would soon give the team the bus before the start of the season.”, added Izilein.

He noted that the Edo State Football Development programme in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions, coordinated by former Super Eagles coach, Shaibu Amodu, in its quest to contribute to the revival of Benin Arsenals, has sent 18 of its potential players to Bendel Insurance for trials by the Coach Roland Ewere-led technical crew.

“We have just drafted 18 of our players to them for screening to see if they are good to play in the league. That is the least that we can do as a body. With the players now getting the money on time, it is now left for them to work above their capacity”, said Izilein.

But some fans still feel that the Comrade Governor has not punched good enough to get Bendel Insurance out of troubled waters. They point to the calibre of persons he has appointed as Commissioners of Sports, people who observers see as neophytes in sports and conclude that sports deserves a lot more.

“What the governor has simply done with Bendel Insurance is not enough”, said Ehiosun Omokhodion, a Bendel Insurance FC faithful, who has been on the footpaths of the club since the early 70s.

“Our governor has done well in changing the face of our state but what about leaving a lasting legacy for the youths, who see football as the major means of escaping the poverty in the land. If the biggest club in the state, Bendel Insurance are yet to find their rhythm, then what hope awaits our youths”, he reeled out.

Another worried fan of the Benin Arsenals said that “if the governor wants the club to return to the Premier League in a year, he will inject funds and get the right personnel to handle the team. There is urgent need for the club to return to the Premier League this year because the governor will vacate office next year and if the team are not back in the NPL before he leaves, then t will be a sore point in his glowing CV”, said Solomon Monday.

Current coach, Roland Ewere, a former captain of the club, said that “things would get better. In fact, I see us achieving much in the coming season. We are hopeful because we are getting the support of the government. We will return stronger and better. I don’t want to remain in the past but focus on the things ahead”, Ewere said.

For new chairman of the Edo State Football Association, Frank Ilaboya, a road-map to take Insurance FC to the top-flight will be out in the next 30 days,

Speaking to Saturday Vanguard Sports, the broadcaster of repute said that it was painful that the famed club from Benin were now swimming in the lower rungs of Nigerian football.

“We are planning a total revamp of football in Edo State. A road-map on how we intend to do this will be out in the next one month and Insurance will be in the front burner. The

road-map will involve all stakeholders and it will tell us what we want to do and how we want to achieve this goal. One good thing about us is that we are blessed with talents and Insurance, a team which brought us much joy in the past, should be where they are now.