AFCON
Has sports commentary on radio died with Ernest Okonkwo?
BY KUNLE SOLAJA
There was a time when sports, especially football thrived in Nigeria. It was also an era of beautiful and graphically crafted informed commentaries on the traditional electronic media – radio and television.
In addition to the expected beautiful spectacles on the fields, sports followers eagerly awaited the voices of notable commentators like Ishola Folorunsho, Ernest Okonkwo, Sebastian Ofurum, Joe Lartey, Walter Batowei, Yinka Craig and Tolu Fatoyinbo among others.
That was in the ancient past. Most of these men have gone to the world beyond. Others have retired from service.
The Nigerian sports followers are starved of informed commentaries of proceedings on the fields, tracks and other sporting arenas.
In many instances, spectators went to the arena with their transistor radio sets to listen to graphic descriptions of scenes they were watching live.
Those commentators added colour to events they were describing. They were a delight to listen to.
The up and coming commentators have no models to take after. Most of the tapes of the informed commentators are no longer in existence.
Sina Abimbola, a retired Director of Programmes at Radio Nigeria is one of the broadcasters who worked under the tutelage of the Late Ernest Okonkwo.
He described him as ‘commentators’ commentator’. “EO, as we fondly called him, was a in the A1 class because of his knack for pictorializing scenes and situations in a way that successfully made him the eyes and ears of his listener. He was exceptional.”
But unfortunately, the country appears to be bereft of the A1 class of sports commentators both on television and on radio.
Abimbola explained that what obtained in the 1970s through the 1980s is no longer prevalent.
“We appear to have left the era when it was just radio and now that it is the era of television and middlemen in the mould of TV Rights buyers.
“They further use their rigidity to further alienate radio from the people with what you may call the Pay per View regime.
“In other words, the public service broadcasting philosophy that existed in Ernest Okonkwo’s time is no longer available. This is hampering radio talents in this field”, remarked Sina Abimbola.
Incidentally, in spite of the services rendered by Ernest Okonkwo and others in his ilk, the only significant remembrance of them is a broken board announcing the “Ishola Folorunsho – Ernest Okonkwo Media Tribune” on the left wing of the covered terrace of Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos.
In other climes, this may not be the most appropriate tribute. For instance, there was a certain Diego Lucero, a Uruguayan journalist based in Argentina who was reputed to be the only man known to have witnessed all World Cup finals from 1930 to 1994 before his death on June 3, 1995, aged 94.
Before his death, he was honoured with a Medal of Merit by FIFA at Mexico ’86 and had the School of Sports Journalism of La Plata in Argentina named after him.
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
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