The first ‘Chairman’ in Nigerian football was NOT Christian Chukwu.
He had not joined Rangers FC of Enugu, or the national football team, the Green Eagles, when Emmanuel Okala was called ‘Chairman’ by his team mates from Rangers FC of Enugu, when we all assembled in lagos for the birth of a new Green Eagles in December of 1973.
Christian was little known at the time. He Captained the Eastern State Academicals to the 1973 National Sports Festival. This is understandable because most young men in the East of Nigeria at the time had lost three to four years of secondary school education as a result of the Civil War. They had to return to school as young adults to complete their education. They legitimately, therefore, played as Academicals even though they were old for that category.
Christian Chukwu, Patrick Ekeji and many others fell into that group.
So, in 1973, after the 1st National Sports Festival, 100 players were selected from the festival. They were invited to the national football camp in Lagos, to form the core of a new Green Eagles. The Eagles had lost scandalously to Zambia in an African Cup of Nations qualifier and the country wanted a new team of players with a new coach.
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Chukwu joined the national team straight from his role as Captain of the Academicals in 1973, and joined Rangers, thereafter, in 1974. I know this because I was also invited from the Festival to that national camp. I, however, represented Western State in the senior category. That’s where Chukwu and I first met. Like Chukwu did with Rangers, I also joined IICC Shooting Stars FC, thereafter, in 1974.
At the National camp from 1973 and for the next year or two, it was Emmanuel Okala that was referred to as ‘Chairman’. Ernest Okonkwo had not come into the picture at the time. The more famous radio sports commentator was Ishola Folorunsho!
For a goalkeeper, Emmanuel Okala was a novelty. Nigeria, had never had or seen a person as tall become a goalkeeper. It was unthinkable how a person, about 6ft 6 inches tall, would defy gravity and stop ground shots. Yet, here was Emmanuel Okala, a real giant of a man, manning the goal posts of a new club called Rangers from the heart of the ‘conquered’ territory of Biafra.
Rangers emerged on the scene straight from the battle fields and made an immediate impression by getting to the finals of the 1970 FA Cup in their first try. They started to showcase a towering giant between their goal posts, a player that broke all the norms to become the tallest goalkeeper in the whole of Africa. Okala became a one-man football circus, sought after by fans as a spectacle all over the continent. Emmanuel Okala was the most recognisable football figure out of Nigeria in Africa. Several years later he became the first (and only) goal keeper in Africa to be named the continent’s best player!
I still do not know why he was nicknamed ‘Chairman’ and by whom, but that title did not quite fit despite his imposing height, and a hand span, like that of an Eagle in flight, that appears to cover the entire width of the goal posts.
‘Tallest’ was more appropriate, and that was exactly what Ernest Okonkwo did between 1975 and 1976 when he started his incomparable radio commentaries, and Christian Chukwu appeared on the football horizon like a tempest.
So, Ernest Okonkwo did the essential and everlasting adjustments. He re-christened Emmanuel Okala ‘Tallest’ and transferred the ‘Chairmanship’ of Nigerian football to the man whose persona, conduct and character on and off the football field fitted the title like a well-tailored Italian suit.
That’s how Chukwu emerged on the Nigerian football scene – a man with a mission and role carved out for him.
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He deservedly rose through the ranks in football to earn his position as Captain of Rangers of Enugu, and eventually, as Captain of the national team of Nigeria, sustaining a tradition established by Godwin Achebe and Victor Oduah his immediate predecessors that captained their respective clubs (Rangers FC and Bendel Insurance FC) as well as the national team.
Despite having ‘senior’ players in both teams, particularly the national team, Chukwu’s carriage on and off the field marked him out as a born-leader, one that players deferred to him and looked up to for inspiration on the football field.
He brought a new dimension to the central defense area. He must have copied copiously from the football handbook of ‘Der Kaiser’ Franz Anton Berkenbuar, the legendary captain of the German national, one of the greatest players of all time, that introduced and perfected the ‘Libero’ system in world football.
Chukwu was a Libero in that mould – taking care of all balls behind his co-defenders, never conceding cheap fouls, economic with tackles that could hurt his team. Chukwu played calmly and elegantly, poetry in motion, a beauty to watch on the ball. His passes, long and short, were launched and delivered with precision as if measured with a tape. He would occasionally transition smoothly and almost effortlessly from defense to attack, and deliver superb, long range deadly shots at opposing goals.
He was a General, marshaling his defenders and organising them on the field whilst playing, himself. He had a commanding presence on the field of play, constantly communicating with his team mates. He was a player-coach on the field, leading, always, by example.
Christian Chukwu was the real ‘Chairman’,
a complete gentleman, deceptively soft on the outside but as hard as steel and stubborn like a bull on the inside. The permanent smirk on his face, like a smile, is deceptive. He is a no-nonsense man that would always speak his mind on any subject, particularly when it concerns the welfare of players.
His colleagues loved and respected him.
The nickname ‘Chairman’ was his, given to him forever by late Ernest Okonkwo.
In today’s football the player that best reminds me of Christian on the football field, who plays closest to how Christian did between 1974 and 1980 for both Rangers International FC and the Green Eagles of Nigeria, is Virgil van Dijk of Liverpool FC and Holland.
Christian’s life was impacted deeply by the Civil War. He always had a mission behind his football. His determination to win, his do-or-die attitude, his fighting spirit, his patriotism, all were rooted in that experience. He loved Rangers International FC and the Green Eagles with uncommon pride and passion. And most importantly, he loved Nigeria and the country’s Green/White/Green flag!
Dr. Olusegun Odegbami MON, OLY, AFNIIA, FNIS
