Perspective from Sport

By A Former BCC Lions of Gboko Player. I was tired, very tired, this was as a result of the flurry of activities that had taken place in the last 24 hrs. Here was I, it was Christmas season and I was several hundred kilometres away from home, far away in Gboko. I left home in Ilorin on the night of the 26th after coach Kafaru Alabi had turned up at my family residence to inform me that he wanted to take me down to Gboko to sign for BCC. The journey saw us both depart Ilorin in the midnight of the 26th en-route to Kaduna with the aim of signing Ayo Ogunlana, then onto Jos to sign Tunde Adedara, it was the early morning of the 28th that we got to Gboko. By then I was already homesick. I was told by Kafaru that I might be able to return to Ilorin that day as soon as I get the papers sorted were out at the club house. By 11am, I had signed all the necessary forms and papers, I just wanted to get to the park and hop on a bus back to Ilorin to continue my Christmas celebration...

Speechless!!! Shocking!!! Denial!!! Disbelief!!! Think of all the words in the world...those were my state of mind on seeing the news caption by Sahara Reporters that Stephen Okechukwu Keshi has passed on. I am still in a state of  bewilderment, hoping that it was a summer April fool prank.  How do I begin to explain someone who lost his wife last December and in less than six months he is no longer with us.  Indeed, a legend is gone! Our own Stephen Keshi is no longer with us. The most successful coach Nigeria have had and perhaps one of the most successful Nigerian football players in our generation. I have always known that he was great but what astounded me were the encomiums that flooded the social media from all over the world. Messages poured out from different strata of life - from the corporate world to media personalities, African Football Association, football ex-clubs and more. A picture of condolences is as follows: Tancredi Palmeri (It...