Not many people can still recall that once upon a time, these three gentlemen ruled in their various vocations in Nigeria. Today, they are no longer in the public square. ELEOJO IDACHABA, in this piece, seeks to know where they are now.
Clemens Westerhof
The name Clemens Westerhof is synonymous with footballing success in Nigeria. This eccentric Dutchman’s towering influence on international football, especially in Africa knows no bounds having coached national teams and clubs in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. Westerhof came to Nigeria in 1989 and was subsequently signed on by the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) to coach the national team, the Super Eagles. Under him, Nigeria reached the final of the 1994 African Cup of Nations and won it. The task had hitherto been a herculean one due to the poor management of the team. He was also instrumental to raising the 1994 World Cup squad, popularly known as USA ‘94. Despite losing 2–1 to Argentina, still under him, a win over Bulgaria and Greece allowed the Super Eagles to do the unthinkable and finished top of the group thereby advancing to the second round. In spite of the heartbreaking loss in that tournament, the Super Eagles’ World Cup campaign was considered a tremendous success as Westerhof and the players were hailed as heroes on their return to Nigeria, as FIFA rated the team the fifth best in the world. Under his watch too, Nigeria qualified for and competed in the 1994 African Cup of Nations in Tunisia and won it. That, of course, was Nigeria’s second African Cup of Nations triumph, the first since the year 1980.
Westerhof is credited with turning Nigeria into a powerhouse in African football with a story to show that African nations can compete on the world stage. He is responsible for what could be described as the ‘golden’ period in Nigerian football where the likes of Rashidi Yekini, Jay Jay Okocha, Sunday Oliseh, Kanu Nwankwo, and a host of others were discovered leading to their global football recognition in the 90s. This Dutchman, however, was not without any controversy in his glorious moments. For example, because of his style of football administration, it was said that the likes of Yekini, Finidi George and Emmanuel Amuneke often fall out with him, the reason for which some of them were dropped from the team at various points. In fact, Yekini was quoted as saying, “I have always been against this coach. It is no secret that I don’t like him and he doesn’t like me. I tried to go against him long ago, but my team mates did not support me. As a result, I was played out of the game. I never saw the ball.” Westerhof left Nigeria and returned a few years ago in what many football analysts call his second missionary journey. However, this time as rector and chief administrator at the Football School of Excellence in Ilorin, a college that helps to discover and develop young players. Even though he is not a Nigerian, he was said to have been married to a Nigerian lady of the Yoruba extraction. It’s, however, not certain where he could be at the moment. He is someone whose influence on Nigeria’s football cannot be forgotten in a hurry.
Duro Onabule
Chief Duro Onabule was first and foremost a journalist who rose to become the editor of the National Concord at a time that journalism was a profession second to none in the country. Apart from that, he was also the former chief press secretary to former President Ibrahim Babangida who was in charge of the information machinery of the government under a president who was a military man. His tenure as presidential spokesman was, painfully, when government gagged many newspapers and magazines with temporary proscription to make them conform to the code of conduct set up by the administration. In many cases, many publishers were also punished.
Chief Onabule who was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari as the board chairman of the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) IN 2017 is said to be a controversial person especially when it comes to asserting his belief on where he stands over any matter per time, for instance, even though he is a fellow Yoruba man from Ogun, the state of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Onabule is not a fan of the former president. He said of him, “It was always predictable that given his notoriety, it was a way of life for former President Olusegun Obasanjo to resume his pastime of undermining his military and civilian successors by making President Muhammadu Buhari his latest victim of attack. Amusingly, the rabble Obasanjo rouses on such occasions has dignified his deplorable tactics to a sort of distinction. There is this latent personality complex of striving never to be outshone or exceeded by any Nigerian living or dead. Hence, at the slightest prospect of being threatened, Obasanjo comes charging. Obasanjo’s major weakness of feeling superior to everybody is the cause of his running down contemporaries.” Chief Onabule, is said to be a die-hard Buhari supporter, but not much has been heard about this London-trained journalist.
Eddie Iroh
Chief Eddie Iroh is a media guru. His last major public outing was as the director- general of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN); this was in 2003. In the literary world, he is noted for the book, Without a Silver Spoon, which has been used in many secondary schools across Nigeria. Eddie came from a family that is not akin to becoming an accomplished media guru. He said, “I was born in circumstances that could have provided me a perfect excuse for being an armed robber.” Like the title of his popular novel, Without a Silver Spoon, he was born without any trace of what one can call nicety. He grew up in an Igbo village setting under parents who were materially poor, but spiritually and morally wealthy. Writing about Eddie, Joseph Dinwoke said, “Like every child, he had his fantasies of which one of them was to become the UN secretary general. His fantasies were fueled by how the UN chief scribes were treated then but even in his fantasies he knew deep down in him that he wanted to be a man of letters.”
In his own words, he said “I thought it would be exciting to be the man who was the world’s number one diplomat as well as public servant but deep down within me, I knew I wanted to be a writer and journalist.” He was a pioneer staff of the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) led by Engineer Vincent Maduka. From the NTA, he moved to The Guardian newspapers in 1993, where he rose to become its first managing director. Eddie, whose marriage to his first wife, a white lady, collapsed because his father-in-law would not allow her daughter to marry a black man, said of his second wife, “She has been able to cope with the stressful demand of running a home and looking after children. She has also shown the kind of strength that I didn’t know she had. She was about 25 when we got married. She has also gained by recognising her inner strength. She doesn’t allow anybody to iron her kids’ uniforms for her. There are things she doesn’t assign to anybody. I come in sometimes to assist her wherever I can. I cook quite often. I enjoy cooking and also take out the garbage.”
Eddie is said to have relocated to the UK with his family while at the same time working on a book about Nigeria.
