Good night, Big Boss

I hate taking calls in the middle of the night from Nigeria. It’s never good.

Who calls in the middle of the night? What is on the mind of a man that keeps him awake all night? What good comes in the dead of the night?

But, when it’s a friend you’ve known more than half your life, you pick up on the first ring. When it’s a brother you like to banter with, you answer the call with a bucket of blissful expectation.

“Keshi just died O,” Simon Kolawole whispers in a voice soaked so deep in grief my heart sank.

Stephen Okechukwu Keshi. Dead. At 54.

Dark, dreary thoughts rumble through your mind as tears dance in your eyes, turning a pretty evening into a misty nightmare.

They say death is inevitable. And, you know it too. You’ve seen it zap out the joy of happy families. You’ve smelled it on the streets of Haiti after a devastating earthquake. You’ve seen it zooming towards you at the Israeli/Palestinian border before the iron dome crushed it.

But, this is Keshi! The Big Boss!

I’m sitting in a haze and hearing the songs of Shina Peters and Adewale Ayuba. I cannot dance because my mind is wrapped in time travel. It’s back in the early 1990s and all I see is Keshi swaying and singing to the beats in the Super Eagles camps.

He loved life, that man we all called the Big Boss because he was way bigger than a normal “skippo”. He had a smile that could light the darkest room. He had a warm heart that was misunderstood by men and women who had little love for the game.

Ah, yes – the game. The one they call football. He lived for it. It made him and he made his country. You can divide Nigerian football into three phases – before Keshi, during Keshi and after Keshi.

Before Keshi, Nigeria was stuck outside the doors of glory. During Keshi’s era, Nigeria’s football was at the height of its glory. People from Australia to Yemen see an African and they immediately think he’s Nigerian because of the prowess of the Super Eagles. We were number five in the world! Wrap your mind around that for a minute. The king and one of the key architects of that team was Keshi.

Keshi turned adversity into prosperity when he became the first homegrown Nigerian footballer to have success in Europe. He could have been selfish. He could have worn his success like a garment and proclaimed his greatness from Mount Everest.

But, that’s not the way of the Big Boss. He was always thinking about how to make Nigeria a great football nation. He opened the door to Europe to Nigerian players. His Belgian home was like a camp for Nigerian players in Belgium and surrounding countries. When calls came to represent Nigeria, the man whose ban from local football drove him to seek a living abroad would lead the team back to Lagos in the days when Nigeria truly had a home field advantage at the National Stadium in Surulere.

He would buy tickets. He would make sure the boys showed up at airports. He would make sure they trained hard. He would make sure their heads were right. He would make sure the kits were on the bus. He would make sure they win. He made sure they did Nigeria proud.

The Eagles are called the Super Eagles because Keshi lead a team that was truly special, a team that was a few egos away from going all the way at the 1994 World Cup.

After Keshi, the Eagles stumbled from greatness to pedestrian. Why anyone still call a team that can’t even make the “birthright” African Cup of Nations with a far easier qualification route the “Super Eagles” beats me!

I never saw Keshi as a coach for life. I saw him more in the mold Michel Platini and Franz Beckebeaur, iconic players who became great administrators. He had the charm, he knew the sports, he loved the game and he adored his country. He was a politician in cleats. His only problem was he was Nigerian and black.

He could have rescued Nigerian football from the tribe of clowns and misfits masquerading as soccer administrators. We could have been great. But, the Big Boss was a man of class and pride. He loved his own aroma and couldn’t carry the smell of local football administrators who walk around with the stench of the butts of the godfathers they kissed to get to the top.

He wasn’t not a saint. Oh, no! He had his flaws. All men and women do. But, have you ever been subject of a coordinated media attack on your person, integrity and skills? Have you ever given so much and be derided for it? Have you ever loved Nigeria and football the way Keshi did? Have you ever been on the hot seat?

His biggest flaw however may have been that he loved his country so much and hoped it loves him back. Now you understand what they mean when they say a prophet is without honor in his homeland.

Keshi is not a man you remember for a short life. He lived a full life in a very short time. Put up a list and check it down. Won domestic titles in African and European leagues. Played on the biggest stages in Europe. First Nigerian to lead the national team to the world cup. Only one of two Africans to win the African Cup of Nations as a player and a coach. First African to qualify two countries for the world cup.  Wow!

What a life! What a journey! What a man! What a hero! What a patriot!

Good night, Big Boss.

Twitter: @iam_ose