How my world stopped the night Stephen Keshi died

How time flies. Today marks the first anniversary of the untimely death of Stephen Okechukwu Keshi. For me, the wound is still absolutely fresh, almost like I just heard the news.

Stephen Keshi’s death caught me completely unawares and seriously tested my journalism professionalism, to say the least.

I still remember it all clearly till now. It was during Ramadan period like it is as I write this piece and I was praying in the middle of the night but there was a persistent caller who kept calling me but I could not pick up because of my prayer.

About thirty minutes later, I called back and it was Abiodun Tella, late coach Tella’s younger brother who is a friend and brother. He was so agitated and asked me if I had heard that Keshi is dead.

At that moment everything stopped, I simply could not react because I could not comprehend what he was talking about. He told me it was definitely true that he confirmed from Keshi’s family members. I could not doubt him because I knew how close he was to the family.

The world stopped for me at that moment. I was in complete shock. I had spoken to Keshi a day before and we arranged to meet in Benin as Super Eagles midfielder Ogenyi Onazi was getting married and I told him we would see at his traditional wedding.

That, alas was the last time I heard his voice. I was however still in a state of shock and continued to make calls and called his “manager” Emmanuel Addo, who happens to be his younger sister’s husband. He told me Keshi was still at the hospital and that I should pray, but as it turned out later, Keshi was dead at the time he told me to continue praying.

Eventually, I got Keshi’s closest friend on phone. Coach Valerie Houdonou and Keshi were inseparable, they were closer than some members of Keshi’s family. He told me without hesitation that surely Keshi was dead. That was the moment when I completely forgot I had to react without emotions and immediately report the tragic story.

I did not know what to do next. I then put a call through to Kayode Tijani, a mentor in the profession, and he told me to get a hold of myself and that I still had a job to do – that I can cry later – after reporting that Keshi was dead.

Of course, I thought he was being mean and so unemotional, so I immediately called my CEO at TheCable, Simon Kolawole. I obviously woke him up the middle of the night, still crying and inconsolable. He was completely calm after the effect of my words hit him but composed himself within minutes.

When I told him that I was not in a position to write anything, he got the details from me, and within minutes, TheCable broke the story that: Stephen Okechukwu Keshi was dead.

Captain of the Super Eagles for sixteen years, Keshi was in charge when Nigeria won its second African Cup of Nations in 1994. The man was the trailblazer of Nigerian players storming European football clubs to become successful and attain millionaire status.

He qualified Togo for the FIFA World Cup, first-ever Nigerian to do so and returned to coach the Super Eagles to again win the African Cup of Nations as coach. The last time Nigeria had won the continental trophy was when he lifted it in Tunisia 1994. He had qualified Nigeria for the FIFA World Cup 2014 and got the team to the second round.

It will be very difficult to forget my relationship with Stephen Keshi. My family loves football. I followed Nigerian football players’ exploits from a very young age – as early as my primary school days. I never thought I would meet Keshi and be so close to him.

In my line of duty as a sports journalist, I met Keshi when he became the Super Eagles coach months after the NFF had chosen Samson Siasia ahead of him. Kayode Tijani was the one who introduced me to him. And he was the one who told me he knew Tijani from his primary school days; that he used to come to the Eagles camps with his friend and colleague Bright Oyelade to sign autographs and take pictures.

On the first day I met him, we did an exclusive interview and from then we became very close. He gained a daughter while I got a dad.

Stephen Keshi was a huge benefactor, but I still was able to do my professional job in spite of our closeness. Anytime a story concerning him was reported, I did my job but endeavoured to get his side of whatever the issue was, which he appreciated. Back then, I was the Abuja correspondent of Sportsday Newspaper and my closeness to Keshi made my job absolutely easy as I was breaking lots of stories.

Then I left Sportsday and joined The Nation Newspapers, where I met a very delicate challenge. My new editor, a veteran, Adetokunbo Ojeikere and Stephen Keshi, to say the least, did not see eye to eye.

Keshi had before my joining The Nation said that he would never grant an interview to the newspaper but he later changed that decision because of me. The phrase he said to me when I took up The Nation job remains etched in my brain: “Mogbodo support Omo mi lati se ase  yori” (I must support my daughter to succeed).

I was writing daily exclusive stories from the Eagles camp and getting his side of the stories. We were very close but I knew the limitations. My boss Ade Ojeikere was very happy knowing that Keshi will always talk then to The Nation first.

In fact, the Sulolas too were close enough to Keshi. I remembered once when ‘my dad’ Keshi called me to come and see him at the Bolton White Hotel of the Eagles because my mother had reported me – an occurrence which happened on several occasions.

My father and elder brother used to talk to him to wish him luck sometimes before Eagles games.

I knew so much about his family but Keshi mostly kept that to himself such that none of his close friends ever knew his wife was battling cancer. I was at their daughter’s wedding in Benin and she was an embodiment of beauty and poise such that no one could have guessed what she was going through and Keshi never once mentioned it and then everything completely changed the day his wife died.

Keshi also “died” from then; he was never the same again.

Rest on, dad! RIP Omo Olubodun Ti o Teri!

Remi Sulola is a sports correspondent at TheCable