Tribute to the fallen Pen Powers of Jos

Penultimate week, I stumbled on a post by Tunde ‘Flying Cat’ Adedara announcing the passage of Omo. My heart skipped for a couple of seconds. I quickly got in touch with him to find out which Omo’s death he was announcing. My fears were confirmed when he said it was the same diminutive Omo Zuberu who starred for the Nigeria Standard Football Club of Jos, better known as Pen Powers.

My mind raced back to the good old days when the club became a terror on the Nigerian soccer space from the mid-70s to the early 80s. The Pen Powers FC was midwived by Mr. David Attah the moment he assumed duties as the General Manager of the Benue-Plateau Publishing Corporation (BPPC), publishers of The Nigeria Standard Newspaper. He summoned me to his office one morning and discussed the idea of floating a sports club. I knew ab initio that the task of establishing the club would fall squarely on my shoulders since I was the sports editor of the paper. But I gave the idea a cold shoulder. He probed further and I had to open up to him. I told him that his predecessor, Peter Harrigan, a Briton, came up with the idea much earlier and I politely told him he could go ahead but I would not be part of it. That was how the initial idea died on arrival.

However, Mr. Attah promised to address my grouses. Two or so weeks after our discussion, he slapped my face with a double promotion. And the coast was clear for the club to emerge. An election was held to constitute the executive members of the club. Everyone looked up to me to be the chairman of the club. Mr. Attah was on hand to observe the process which produced Paul Wakkias as my vice chairman. Edward Nuhu emerged as the secretary. The post of team manager was clinched by Louis Ubaka and John Obida ‘Well done Well done’ bagged the post of treasurer, while Ismaila Mohammed was elected financial secretary. And we hit the ground running immediately after the inauguration. That was in April, 1976.

Besides the football wing, we added table tennis and jogging. But the two wings fell by the wayside, leaving only soccer, the king of all sports. And by 1977, we had assembled a potentially strong squad to compete at the national stage, having registered our presence at the state level. Then, in 1978, the Nigeria Football Association decided to categorise clubs into divisions One, Two and Three, and the Standard FC emerged in Division One after a hectic zonal qualifier across the states. From that moment, we never looked back. We won the Plateau State Challenge Cup in 1978/79.

Between 1979 and 1980, the Pen Powers had produced 12 national players… six in the Green Eagles and six in the Flying Eagles. The likes of Arthur Ebunam, Okey Isima, Bala Ali, Shola Popo and Sunday Daniel were in the senior national squad. The Flying Eagles’ first choice keeper was our own Ekpeyong among others. Once the 12 players were invited for national assignments, the Pen Powers became powerless!

Let me recall one nasty experience we had in Ibadan during a national Challenge Cup elimination series in 1979. The Liberty Stadium was bursting at the seams with a crowd that had come to watch the all-conquering Pen Powers of Jos. Unknown to them, however, we came with a depleted squad. All our first XI and one other player had been invited for national assignments. In our first match, we were so thoroughly trounced that the crowd descended on the players (and the officials) for dispensing mediocre performance which did not give them value for their money.

By the time Mr. Attah exited the paper to go into politics in 1979 to contest for a seat in the House of Representatives, his baby had blossomed into a fearsome killer squad. Virtually all the top clubs in the country had tasted its venom across all national competitions. Among them were the Enugu Rangers International FC, IICC Shooting Stars of Ibadan, Bendel Insurance of Benin, Raccah Rovers of Kano, Stationery Stores of Lagos, Leventis FC of Ibadan, Sharks of Port Harcourt, Mighty Jets of Jos, BCC Lions of Gboko, El-Kanemi Warriors of Maiduguri and Ranchers Bees of Kaduna. Attah never stopped reliving the exploits of the Pen Powers whenever we met until his last days. A product of the Daily Times of Nigeria, he was arguably one of the best newspaper/sports administrators to come out of Nigeria.

Before I engaged James Suleiman Peters as the first full-time head coach of the club in 1977 or thereabouts, two other coaches had been assigned at various times to handle the team on ad hoc arrangement. They were the late Sam Garba and Matthew Atuegbu who were employees of the Plateau state Sports Council. By 1981, James Peters exited the club to join the coaching staff of the Nigeria Football Association.

About the same time, there was a division in the club. Some players wanted the executive body replaced. They had a meeting with the Managing Director, Mr. Samuila Makama. In the spirit of democracy, Mr. Makama invited me to his office and informed me about the position of majority of the players. Those who were against the sack of the executive body cautioned against the idea, recalling what had happened to the ITF FC of Jos. The fortune of the club began to dwindle when the officials were caused to step down. I told the managing director that I had no problem with the dissolution of my exco but advised against changing the captain of a ship midstream. He agreed. When the season was over, I went back to the boss and told him that the appropriate time to sack us had come.

The executive body was dissolved. The following season, the club was relegated to Division Two. The worse was to follow. The management of the Standard appeared not to be too keen in keeping a Second Division team. Subsequently, it ceded the club to the Jos International Breweries Limited and renamed it JIB Rock Strikers. After a couple of years, the club ended up with the Plateau State Sports Council and was renamed Plateau United FC.

The demise of wing wizard Omo Zuberu, recruited from Dr. Obe’s Babes FC of Otupko, is the latest on the list of these great footballers that brought glory and fame to The Nigeria Standard Newspapers and Plateau State. We had problems getting out of the shadows of the Standard Bank of Nigeria that had existed for a zillion years before our emergence. It was for the shadowy reason that I gave the club the Pen Powers moniker.  Before Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo took over the bank and renamed it First Bank, the club had carved its own identity as a football club.

Among the fallen first-team heroes were striker Bala Lucky Ali, midfielder Okey Isima, defender Idris ‘Carmel’, winger Kolade Abejide, defender Osman, Acheampong, defender James Ndoma Ojong and midfielder Humphrey Okechukwu.

The pioneer executive members that have also answered their finals summons were the vice chairman, Paul Wakkias; team Manager, Louis Ubaka; and treasurer, John Obida.

May the good Lord grant their souls eternal rest and the Pen Power family the fortitude to bear the irreparable losses.

If football is played at the other end, I am sure that all of them, including our mentor, Chief David Attah, would make Heaven.

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