Follow Us on Google
“Rangers International Football Club is much more than a football club that gave grade one entertainment to billions of people who love the game of football. It is a symbol and an institution of a warrior tribe: it is a living monument, an expression of the indomitable spirit and muscle of the Igbos.” – Osa Amadi, Vanguard Arts and Books Reviews, July 3, 2017. Pp45.
In his own contributions attesting to the superdome of the Rangers, Segun Odegbami posited, “Rangers International Football Club is the greatest football club in the annals of the Nigerian Football (see Rangers International Football Club, History of a People, Gom Slam, Enugu, 2017).
The continuous history and times of that legendary club took me out of here and I was once again navigating the eastern side of the Niger checking those forgotten stars who in their prime brought glory and hope to the wounded, demoralised dislocated, hungry survivors of the catastrophic civil war. In Enugu, I cried as I stopped at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium. “Alhaji” Dom Nwobodo is ageing gracefully. Dom is the evergreen artist who created the Rangers logo from the galloping antelope. From the beginning, the Rangers football team was modelled and inspired into restless action in the field from that logo; the agility of the vibrant galloping antelope. Indeed Rangers’ football is pivoted from the relentless, springing thrusts of the attackers, the intense tail-biting thunder blitzing missiles unleashed by its aggressive and pacey wingers of Emeka Onyedika or Ogidi Ibeabuchi, or its scintillating and sturdy midfielders starring Nwabueze Nwankwo, inimitable Chibuzor Eheligbu, and the pint-sized Jiso god of soccer from Accra Olympics, late Christian Madu. I cried because, for the first time in more than 30 years, I met and have written about him and celebrated the Rangers captain, Christian Chukwu, I could not hold back the tears! The Chairman was holding a walking stick!! I was not paying attention, when he confirmed Johnny London Boy’s story of a UNN graduate Rangerman who died in Obosi. I was shaken to the marrow. Is it the end of the world? This man was Rangers’ and to a certain extent was Nigeria’s greatest defender of all time. What is he doing with a stick in his right hand? Is the Chairman a native doctor? Is Christian Chukwu the evergreen Iroko that manned the giant defence wall of the Rangers International going the way of all mortals? No, he is not a human being. No African in the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, whether from Tanzania, Egypt, Tunisia, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, Zambia or Cameroun, on the mention of the name Christian Chukwu, would not leave the matter just like that if after watching him display in field either leading Nigerian Eagles or marshalling out the Rangers defence against any of their national teams or clubs would believe he is human. So, what is he doing with a walking stick, if he has not transformed into an Agaba Idu? I was departing Enugu in tears when, from nowhere, somebody bumped into me at the Enugu Sports Club and pointed in the direction of the “London Boy” Johnny Egbeonu. Why is this great world footballer everywhere in those French suits and tennis shoes? When he discovered I was not forthcoming as regards to his questions, he rudely sat beside me and repeated his questions. “Probably that’s why at his age Johnny is walking without any canes!” I shouted back at him, and immediately decided to depart Enugu.
I was still in tears when I diverted from the express and landed in the ancient Nri Kingdom. By the Royal consent and grace of the last Igwe Nri, Ogbueshi Emma Okocha is the Onye Amuma Igbo and by that Royal consideration I am a member of the Royal Cabinet. Going to the palace for an appointment, was already passing through the Justice Peter Umeadi Appian way, when some village urchins from nowhere accosted me and would not let me go. Somebody had the audacity to open the back door and announced, “Rangers! Rangers!! So you are Rangers and you are here … And Kenneth Abana is dying!!”
When I heard Kenneth Abana was dying, I forgave those boys and saw one of them brandishing my latest work with the late Edwin Eze … Rangers International FC History of a People. The tears this time were uncontrollable … “Have we lost Abana?” I asked them.
When they felt my instant shock and saw my falling tears they surrounded my car in sympathy and in partial throttle they escorted me to Abana’s home.
When the villagers trooped out to welcome us, the spectacle was consuming. These boys, they know and whatever has struck them and brought them “home in tears must be from the Heavens,” they confessed. They took me with the equally crying hoodlums into the room Kenneth Abana has been in for six months now.
He cannot make it out. He is so sick he is swollen, and gotten bigger than his door! If Nigeria doesn’t come to his aid now, he will die the type of death nobody has ever experienced in this part of the world.
Kenneth’s memorable goal against the Army’s Sector Six of Niger in the ’70s was the feat that gave the Rangers FC the moniker ‘Rangers International!’ If there is any bank or humanitarian group or business organisation that wishes to help Kenneth to first of all move out from his room imprisonment, please call me now! We are moving architects, doctors, nurses, etc, to Agu Ukwu Nri immediately.
