Nigerian Football
PHOTOS: UNVEILING THE ACTUAL FOUNDERS OF NFF 86 YEARS AGO
BY KUNLE SOLAJA.
In 2012, The FA in England decided to trace and honour the living descendants of the eight founding fathers that created the body 150 years earlier.
At the end of the exercise, a total of 16 relatives of the Founding Fathers of football were invited to a special ceremony at Wembley Stadium, where a Blue Plaque was unveiled that pays tribute to the historical significance of their work in creating the game of football and the first football association in the world. What a lasting tribute those pioneers got.
Here in Nigeria, the labour of our heroes past must not be in vain. Sports Village Square also salutes the founders of the Nigeria Football Association whose efforts many Nigerians are benefiting from today.
Henry A. Porter Esq., F.R.I.BA, the President
Henry A. Porter was the founding president of the Nigerian FA. He was also the founding chairman of the Lagos Amateur Football Association in 1932. He was a Scot and the Senior Architect at the Public Works Department.
He designed the Centenary Hall, Abeokuta, which was opened on October 28, 1930. When the Nigerian Football Association was founded in Broad Street, Lagos on August 21, 1933, Porter was appointed the pioneer president.
But so far, it has proved impossible to get his image. Only documents signed by him were obtained from the National Archives, Ibadan.
From his signatures, ‘H’ was easily deciphered to be Henry which was later corroborated by information supplied by Peter Kent who responded to enquiry sent by www.sportsvillagesquare.com to the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).
But his middle name has a little controversy. While RIBA gives it as Arthur, another source, the book “RIBA Directory of British Architects 1834-1914” gives the middle name as ‘Augustus’.
Upon further enquiry to RIBA’s Peter Kent, he affirmed the middle name was Arthur.
“All references to him in our members directories (50 plus years worth) and the nomination papers refer to him as ‘Henry Arthur Porter’. The only source which calls him ‘Augustus’ is the RIBA Directory of British Architects 1834-1914 – usually super-reliable – but in this case I am sure it has made a mistake.”
Porter was elected a fellow of RIBA in 1927. His registration number was 2498. The Directory of British Architects also noted that Porter was elected to RIBA as an Associate with number 1827 in 1907.
The Dictionary of Scottish Architects adds that Porter was the one that trained and proposed Thomas Scott his deputy at PWD in Lagos to be licensed by the Royal Institute of British Architects after 12 years of licentiateship.
Porter also proposed Thomas Scott as a fellow of RIBA but the latter was only admitted into the institute on February 13, 1940 after Porter had returned to Britain.
At the moment, the Dictionary of Scottish Architects also had no more information on Porter.
The information released had been from the British Architectural Library/Royal RIBA Dictionary British Architects 1834-1914.
His date of birth in 1885 is also unknown. But Peter Kent of RIBA informed that Porter described himself as 42 on March 14, 1927.
While in Nigeria, he wrote an application on December 1, 1933 to the Chief Secretary to the colonial government of Nigeria for a £300 loan to develop a playing ground for the 13 clubs playing in the Lagos Amateur League.
The 13 clubs were: three teams belonging to UAC, two owned by Africs, Muslims, Spadlings, Post & Telegraphs, Medical & Health, Lagos Athletic, French Club and two teams of Olympic.
From the records obtained on UK citizens travelling overseas from the National Archives, London, Porter apparently left for Nigeria aboard “Olenda”, a ship operated by British and African Steam Navigation Company Limited on March 21, 1900 from Liverpool to Forçados, a small town in Burutu LGA of Delta State.
In 1934 at the maiden Annual General Meeting held on February 18, he was unanimously re-elected as president of the Nigeria Football Association.
He was believed to be the brain behind the PWD, which was the oldest-organised football club, especially in Lagos area.
The PWD was formed in 1929. His name suddenly disappeared from Nigerian newspapers after 1934. He may have left Nigeria in 1936 as passengers’ manifest of the ship: “MV Accra” operated by Elder Dempster Lines Limited, listed him among the passengers that arrived Liverpool from Port Harcourt on March 3, 1936.
Also, all his addresses offered by RIBA from 1936 were in the United Kingdom. According to Peter Kent, Porter died aged 75 on April 11, 1960.
He may have died in Tonbridge District of Kent in UK if the report concerning one Henry A. Porter in www.findmypast.com has anything to do with him.
Frederick Baron Mulford, Vice President
Mulford is the best known in the football circle, among the founders of Nigeria Football Association 85 years ago.
Fondly called “Baba Eko”, Frederick Baron Mulford was often referred to as father of Nigerian football. He died in Lagos on September 3, 1949, four days after the very first set of Nigerian-selected team, the famed UK Tourists, arrived England.
According to a family tree constructed by one John Bird Monk, Mulford was born in January 1881 in Southampton, Hampshire in England.
He came to Nigeria having sailed aboard “Aro” an Elder-Dempster and Company Limited ship that departed Liverpool for Lagos on April 7, 1906. He came to Nigeria as a junior assistant in the firm, Lagos Stores, which was later absorbed by UAC in 1929.
While at the Lagos Stores, Mulford rose to the position of deputy to the head agent, Hon. A.M. Harvey who was also a member of Legislative Council then tagged LEGICO.
Mulford left the Lagos Stores when it merged with UAC. He was appointed as the Business Manager of the Nigerian Daily Times in 1933. He was also the sports editor of the publication.
Mulford was also the games master at CMS Grammar School, Nigeria’s premier high school. He later moved to Kings College and by 1914, he was already organising weekly matches with European teams in Lagos.
His greatest legacy was the presentation of a trophy to Lagos and Districts Amateur Football Association (LDAFA), which is today’s Lagos FA, for a knockout competition: The Lagos War Memorial Cup.
The Lagos War Memorial Cup later became Mulford Memorial Cup and got rechristened as Oba Cup, following Stores’ eternal win of the trophy in 1965.
Mulford was buried in Lagos at the Ikoyi Cemetery on September 4, 1949, the day after his death at Creek Hospital.
According to a tribute by Ernest Ikoli published in the Daily Times edition of September 5, 1949, Mulford was never married.
Sir Adeyemo Alakija, Vice President
Alakija was a Nigerian of Brazilian origin. His original name was Placido Adeyemo Assumpcao.
He was born to Ribeiro and Maximiliana Assumpcao in 1884, the son of the Brazilian families of Lagos and one of the black repatriates from Brazil. He was able to trace his roots to Abeokuta.
He was one of the founding directors of Daily Times of Nigeria, which had its offices on the same Broad Street where the NFA was founded. Daily Times was perhaps the only source of information on the early days of the Nigeria Football association.
The newspaper was thanked for the assistance offered at the first Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the association in 1934.
The newspaper’s link with the foundation of NFA probably had to do with the involvement of Alakija, a prominent figure in the foundation of both organisations.
He was the founding chairman of board of Nigerian Printing and Publishing Company, publishers of Daily Times in June 1926 and also founding father of the NFA. Alakija was re-elected vice president at the 1934 A G M. He died on May 10, 1952.
Dr Isaac Ladipo Oluwole, Vice President
Dr. Isaac Ladipo Oluwole was a medical doctor and the son of the Anglican Bishop, Isaac Oluwole.
A pioneer student of King’s College and the school’s first senior prefect he trained at the University of Glasgow and made important improvements to public health in Nigeria.
In 1925 he was appointed the first African assistant Medical Officer of Health in Lagos and also founded the first school of Hygiene in Nigeria to train sanitary inspectors.
In 1940, he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE). He was the General Secretary of Lagos Amateur Football Association , LAFA (later LDAFA) for 17 years.
He made the facilities of the health office available to the association and the NFA in which he was deeply involved till his death at age 61 on May 4, 1953, a year after Alakija passed on.
When in 1934, the Lagos Amateur Football Association approached the government for a £300 loan to construct a football ground for Lagos clubs to play their league matches, Dr. Oluwole stood surety for £15.
The government approved the loan, which initially was to be repaid in five years. But on December 21, 1933, Dr. Oluwole wrote to the government to ask for extension of the repayment to eight or 10 years.
The government granted the request and extended the loan repayment to eight years. He was recognized as the father of public health in Nigeria.
Joseph Mead, Honorary Secretary/Treasurer
Joseph Mead was the first secretary of the NFA in 1933. His identity was a mystery until the Unilever Archives in London provided photograph of him and his full name. The meaning of the initial “J” which appeared in all newspaper references to him was later given as Joseph.
According to the Daily Times accounts, he worked with the firm – UAC at Martins Street, Lagos.
Checks at Unilever in UK revealed that he joined the company in February 1929. Great thanks to Helen Onsworth, the archivist at Unilever UK Central Resources Limited who assisted in unveiling the convener of the meeting that led to the foundation of a central football body in Nigeria.
From the information on Mead, he became the first secretary of the NFA at age 26.
On leaving Nigeria after working with UAC in Lagos and Ibadan, he was transferred to the then Gold Coast (now Ghana) where he worked in Kumasi and Takoradi.
According to information from Unilever in UK, Mead married on January 23, 1939 before resigning from the firm in 1949.
Checks by www.sportsvillagesquare.com at the National Archives of the United Kingdom revealed that Mead must have arrived Nigeria in 1929 having left Liverpool for Lagos on February 26. His occupation in the manifest of the ship was given as “assistant”. He was part of the European football league in Lagos, playing for UAC team.
Shortly before the August 21, 1933 meeting which Mead called, he was involved in an accident. Unilever Archives disclosed that their records showed his date of birth as March 22, 1907.
He would therefore have been 73 years; the day Nigeria beat Algeria to win the Africa Nations Cup for the first time in 1980. Joseph Mead left for Sekondi-Takoradi in Gold Coast (now Ghana) as District Manager of UAC in March 1946.
By Kunle Solaja
As the Nigeria Premier Football League celebrates 36 years of professional football, one troubling pattern continues to define the competition — the inability of most league top scorers to evolve into enduring stars of the Nigeria national football team.
In more than three decades of professional football, only one league top scorer can truly claim to have successfully crossed the bridge from domestic hero to established Super Eagles icon: Ahmed Musa.
The former Kano Pillars F.C. striker remains the outstanding exception in a league littered with what many observers now describe as “one-season wonders.”
Musa announced himself to Nigerian football in the 2009/2010 season when he scored 18 goals to emerge as the league’s leading scorer, breaking the long-standing 17-goal record set by Ishaya Jatau in the inaugural professional season of 1990.
Unlike many before and after him, Musa successfully translated domestic brilliance into international relevance.
He went on to become Nigeria’s fastest-ever scorer and remains the only Nigerian player to score two braces at the FIFA World Cup — against Argentina national football team in 2014 and Iceland national football team in 2018.
Yet Musa’s success only magnifies the larger mystery surrounding the Nigerian league: why have so many prolific scorers failed to reproduce their domestic form at the national team level?
The list is remarkably long.
The first professional league top scorer, Ishaya Jatau of Heartland F.C. — then known as Iwuanyanwu Nationale — scored 17 goals in 1990 but managed only one goal in a handful of appearances for Nigeria.
Despite his reputation as a deadly finisher in the league, his wastefulness in national team colours reportedly left then-coach Clemens Westerhof unconvinced.
From there, a pattern emerged.
Players such as Olumide Harris, Ben Agadah, Paul Kpoughoul and Emmanuel Agbo dominated league scoring charts but disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived.
Others, including Peter Ijeh, Victor Ezeji and Joseph Akpala, briefly tasted national team football but never secured lasting places in the Super Eagles.
The problem has persisted across generations.
Even players who set impressive scoring records in recent years struggled to establish themselves internationally.
Mfon Udoh set a league record of 23 goals in the 2013/14 season for Enyimba F.C., while Junior Lokosa, Anthony Okpotu and Godwin Obaje all enjoyed prolific domestic campaigns.
Yet none became long-term Super Eagles regulars.
The contrast with Nigeria’s greatest striker, Rashidi Yekini, remains striking.
Yekini’s 37 international goals still stand untouched decades after his retirement.
Observers believe several factors may explain the recurring failure of league top scorers to mature into elite internationals.
One issue is consistency.
Many players explode for a single season before suffering dramatic drops in form. Some quickly leave Nigeria in search of opportunities abroad, often joining lower-profile leagues where their development stagnates.
Others struggle with the tactical and physical demands of international football, where defenders are stronger, spaces are tighter, and opportunities are fewer.
There is also the quality question.
Critics argue that the Nigerian league’s inconsistent standards sometimes inflate the reputations of local strikers, making domestic scoring records misleading indicators of international readiness.
In several seasons, top scorers emerged with relatively modest tallies. Arthur Moses won the golden boot in 1992 with just 10 goals, while Peter Anyiolobi topped the 1996 chart with only nine.
The instability of clubs and coaching systems has equally affected player development.
Unlike elite leagues where strikers are nurtured within structured tactical environments, many NPFL forwards operate in unstable teams with limited sports science support, inconsistent officiating and poor playing conditions.
Still, the league continues to produce raw attacking talent.
What remains missing is a system capable of transforming prolific domestic scorers into complete international forwards capable of sustaining excellence over many years.
As the NPFL clocks 36, the enduring question remains unanswered: why does Nigeria consistently produce league top scorers, yet so rarely produce strikers capable of dominating African and world football the way Yekini once did?
Top scorers who failed to make an impact in the Super Eagles
- 1990-Ishaya Jatau (Iwuanyanwu Nationale), 17 goals
- 1991-Richard Ojomo (Bendel United), 12 goals
- 1992-Arthur Moses (Super Stores), 10 goals
- 1993-Tony Nwigwe (Iwuanyanwu Nationale), 13 goals
- 1994-Olumide Harris (Shooting Stars), 14 goals
- 1995-Ben Agadah (Gombe United), 12 goals
- 1996-Peter Anyiolobi (Enyimba), 9 goals
- 1997-Paul Kpoughoul (Jasper United/BCC Lions), 16 goals
- 1998-Hassan Minda (Gombe United), 14goals
- 1999-Emmanuel Agbo (Iwuanyanwu Nationale), 14 goals
- 2000-Peter Ijeh (Julius Berger), 14 goals
- 2001-Uche Okereke (Enugu Rangers), 13 goals
- 2002-Joetex Frimpong (El-Kanemi), Victor Ezeji (Dolphins), 16 goals
- 2003-Chibuzor Ozurumba (Iwuanyanwu), Endurance Idahor (Julius Berger), 12 goals each
- 2004-Kabiru Alausa (Berger), 13 goals
- 2005-Timothy Anjembe (Lobi Stars), Joseph Akpala (Insurance), Charles Omokaro (Sharks), 12 goals each 2006 -Ibenebu Ikechukwu (El Kanemi), 10 goals
- 2007 – Ameh Aruwa (Kaduna United), 10 goals
- 2007/2008 – Abubakar Babale (Wikki Tourist/Sunshine Stars), 14 goals
- 2008/2009 – Akarandut Orok (Akwa United), 17 goals
- 2009/2010 – Ahmed Musa (Kano Pillars), 18 goals. (The only one established in the Super Eagles)
- 2010/2011 – Jude Aneke (Kaduna United) 20 Goals
- 2011/2012 – Sibi Gwar (Niger Tornadoes) 17 goals
- 2012/213 – Victor Namo (Nasarawa United) 18 goals
- 2013/2014 – Mfon Udoh (Enyimba) 23 goals
- 2014/2015 – Gbolahan Salami (Warri Wolves) 17 goals
- 2015/2016 – Godwin Obaje (Wikki Tourists) 18 goals
- 2016/2017 – Anthony Okpotu (Lobi Stars) 19 goals
- 2017/2018 – Junior Lokosa (Kano Pillars) 19
- 2018/2019 – Mfon Udoh (Akwa Utd) & Ibrahim Sunusi (Nasarawa Utd) 10 goals
- 2019/2020 – Cancelled owing to Covid-19
- 2020/21: Silas Nwankwo (Nasawara United) & Charles Atshimene (Akwa United) – 19 goals
- 2021/22: Chijioke Akuneto (Rivers United) – 19 goals
- 2022/23: Chukwuemeka Obioma (Enyimba) – 16 goals
- 2023/24: Chijioke Mbaoma (Enyimba) – 17 goals
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By Kunle Solaja
As the Nigeria Premier League marks 36 years since the advent of professional football in Nigeria, a familiar debate has resurfaced: just how good is the Nigerian league?
The answer depends largely on the yardsticks applied. In football, the quality of a domestic league is often measured not merely by local excitement, but by the strength of its clubs in continental competitions, the calibre of players it supplies to the national team, its commercial appeal and the emotional grip it holds on supporters.
Additionally, at least in Africa, the performance of the national teams at the African Nations Championship (CHAN) is solely for citizens who are nationals of the domestic leagues.
Possibly, too, the number of foreign players attracted to the league could also be a yardstick.
By those standards, the Nigerian league presents a paradox — rich in history and passion, yet struggling to keep pace with Africa’s elite competitions.
When professional football kicked off in Nigeria on May 12, 1990, expectations were enormous. The transition from amateurism was expected to modernise the game, improve club structures and strengthen Nigeria’s competitiveness internationally.
Instead, while professionalism brought organisation and structure, the domestic league gradually lost one of its greatest strengths: mass appeal.
Before professionalism, local football rivalries routinely packed stadiums across the country. Matches involving Shooting Stars SC, Enugu Rangers, Stationery Stores F.C. and Bendel Insurance F.C. attracted overflowing crowds and intense regional loyalty.
Today, many NPFL venues struggle to attract significant attendance, while European football — especially the Premier League — dominates television screens, conversations and sponsorship attention across Nigeria.
The contrast is stark.
While European clubs attract billion-dollar investments and global commercial partnerships, most Nigerian clubs remain heavily dependent on government funding, with limited private-sector participation.
The imbalance is also reflected in player development and national team representation.
Since the introduction of professional football, the overwhelming majority of players who shaped the fortunes of the Nigeria national football team have emerged from European leagues rather than the domestic competition.
Even competitions specifically designed for home-based players exposed the league’s limitations. Nigeria failed to qualify for the first two editions of the African Nations Championship (CHAN), losing to the Ghana national football team in 2009 and to the Niger national football team in the qualifiers for the 2011 edition.
On the continental club scene, Nigeria’s achievements remain modest when compared to Africa’s leading leagues.
Enyimba F.C. remain the only Nigerian club to win the CAF Champions League in the professional era, triumphing back-to-back in 2003 and 2004.
Since then, Nigerian clubs have struggled to make deep runs in continental competitions, while the CAF Confederation Cup has remained elusive.
The statistics reveal the gulf.
In the first 20 years of Nigeria’s professional league, Nigerian clubs won the CAF Champions League only twice. During the same period, Egyptian clubs claimed the title nine times.
Overall, clubs from Egypt have won Africa’s premier club competition 18 times in 59 editions, while Nigerian clubs have managed just two triumphs.
The dominance of North African leagues extends beyond the Champions League.
Egyptian clubs won the now-defunct African Cup Winners’ Cup eight times, compared to Nigeria’s three victories. Tunisian clubs dominated the CAF Cup with four titles in 12 editions, while Nigerian clubs managed two.
These performances are reflected in rankings by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS), which has consistently rated the Egyptian league as Africa’s strongest, usually followed by Tunisia, with Nigeria often trailing behind.
Perhaps the clearest evidence of the disparity lies in national team composition.
At the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, Egypt’s 23-man squad included 19 home-based players, highlighting the strength and competitiveness of its domestic league.
Nigeria, by contrast, fielded an entirely foreign-based squad.
Indeed, only two players from the Nigerian league featured among the 368 footballers registered for the 2010 AFCON: goalkeeper Chitou Rachad of Wikki Tourists F.C. and Akinsola Boussari of Rangers, who was named in Togo’s squad before the country’s withdrawal.
The financial implications are equally significant.
Under FIFA’s Club Benefits Programme, clubs receive compensation for releasing players to the World Cup. Yet Nigerian clubs have barely profited because the country’s World Cup players are almost entirely based abroad.
Following the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, African clubs collectively earned about $4.57 million through the programme, with Moroccan giants Wydad AC receiving more than $1.4 million alone.
No Nigerian club came close.
Still, despite the criticisms, the Nigerian league retains enormous potential.
The country remains one of Africa’s richest reservoirs of football talent, while the emotional attachment many Nigerians still have to domestic football suggests the decline may not be irreversible.
What the NPFL lacks is not history or talent, but structure, commercial vision, stable administration and sustained investment.
Thirty-six years after professionalism arrived, the Nigerian league remains suspended between glorious memories and unrealised possibilities, a competition still searching for the consistency and quality required to reclaim its place among Africa’s elite.
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By Kunle Solaja.
Thirty-six years after professional football was introduced in Nigeria, the country’s top-flight league continues to grapple with many of the same structural problems critics warned about decades before the professional era began.
The Nigerian Professional Football League officially commenced on May 12, 1990, following nearly 40 years of debate over whether the country was prepared for the financial realities of professional sports.
When professionalism was first proposed in the 1950s, opponents questioned whether Nigerian clubs could survive the burden of player salaries, stadium maintenance and administrative costs.
Former football administrator Derby Allen warned in 1953 that most clubs lacked suitable stadiums and sustainable revenue streams to operate professionally.
More than seven decades later, many NPFL clubs are still heavily dependent on state government funding, while issues such as poor infrastructure, irregular player welfare, low commercial returns and weak marketing continue to limit the league’s growth.
Despite these challenges, the league has survived political transitions, administrative crises and financial instability to become one of Africa’s longest-running domestic competitions.
The league’s history has featured remarkable moments and strange twists.
Kwara United F.C. endured a 14-match losing streak in 2000, while Udoji United F.C. controversially emerged champions in 1996 following boardroom decisions.
Traditional giants have also suffered dramatic declines. Bendel Insurance F.C., one of the pioneer clubs of the 1972 National League, were relegated for the first time in 1995 and later spent a decade outside the top division after another relegation in 2008.
Defending champions Shooting Stars SC suffered relegation in 1999, becoming the first title holders to fall out of the top flight, while Bayelsa United F.C. repeated the unwanted feat in 2010 and has now suffered another drop.
Even continental giants, Enyimba F.C., once experienced relegation in 1991. Another relegation looms large at the end of this season.
Only Enugu Rangers have maintained an unbroken stay in the top division since the National League era began in 1972.
Administrative instability has equally shaped the NPFL’s story. In 2005, the league left direct NFA control with the establishment of the Nigeria Premier League. The League Management Company later emerged after a court ruling declared the NPL illegal in 2012/13.
Today, the Nigeria Premier Football League board oversees the competition, which continues to seek improved television coverage, sponsorship and stronger club structures.
As the league celebrates its 36th anniversary, many observers believe its future success will depend on finally resolving the same financial and organisational issues identified long before professionalism arrived in 1990.
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