OBITUARY: Nojim Maiyegun, Nigeria’s first Olympic medalist dishonoured by his country

“This my hand,” the ageing Nojim Maiyegun tapped at his left arm’s atrophied bicep. “I knocked out many people with this hand.” The old man glowed with pride as his revelation tickled out giggles from the guests who had squeezed into his dimly lit apartment in Vienna, Austria.

They had come there to hear the tales of the storied “Omo Oloja”, the boxer from Isale Eko, Lagos state. The guests had gathered to revel in the story of Nigeria’s first Olympic medal from the mouth of the maverick himself. They had assembled for a long narration and reenactment of legendary fights and knockouts. But age and little retelling had stolen the images from the octogenarian.

The old man’s face lit up at the faint remembrance of his accolades, but the botched images struggled to connect to his speech. He held his mouth wide open as he attempted to piece the jigsaw of memory together, but the pieces kept evading him. His cloudy, blind eyes flickered behind a thick pair of glasses as he struggled to recall those his punches sent sprawling on the canvas.

But Nigeria will remember Maiyegun till eternity. He will remain the country’s vanguard soldier in its quest for dominance in the world of sports. A pioneer in the Nigerian sports fraternity that nothing before could surpass and little after can outshine. A hallowed ancestor of the country’s excellence in global sporting. He will remain Nigeria’s first-ever Olympic medalist.

Maiyegun breathed his last on Monday at his base in Austria. He died at 83, just a few days after the 60th anniversary of his historic milestone in Tokyo in 1964. Ironically, the country’s first Olympic medalist died the same month Nigeria returned from another Olympics without a medal.

Maiyegun was as hardcore as a human could be. At 16, he picked up boxing to defend himself against a bully. He fought a world title bout despite being partially blind. A few years later, a completely blinded Maiyegun climbed to the summit of a 1700-metre mountain and jumped down with a parachute to defy the odds.

His story is more of a painful narrative of what could have been, but he certainly made the most of his time on earth.

EARLY LIFE

Maiyegun was born on February 21, 1941, on Glover Street, Lagos Island. He was a dutiful kid who went about errands with little attention drawn to himself until a bully forced out a side the young Maiyegun never knew he had.

“I was 16 when I first knew about boxing. It started when I went to fetch water at Bamgbose in Lagos. There was a boy at that time who bullied everyone whenever he got to the public tap; he beat me a lot then,” Maiyegun said in a 2012 interview with Punch.

“When I later learnt he was a trained boxer, I sought out Bonny Ade, who secretly trained me for six months until I was able to face the boy and beat him at the public tap.”

At the muddy mouth of a community tap in Lagos Island, Maiyegun discovered he had an innate weapon that could make him a world beater: the power and swiftness in the punch of his left arm.

He defended himself in Lagos Island’s hostile streets with his newly fangled armament. He bobbed, feinted, and punched out of dangerous situations. His crude, street-honed techniques were refined, and the power of his left punch was fully harnessed. Maiyegun matured into Omo Oloja, his nickname, and became a household name across the neighbourhood and beyond.

His parents’ attempts to beat the boxing drive out of him only hardened Maiyegun’s resolve.

“It wasn’t long before I began to see my name in the newspapers as the next big thing in Nigerian boxing. I was excited, and that was when my parents reduced the criticism of the sport. They never really liked boxing because they believed it was for hooligans,” he said.

WINNING NIGERIA’S FIRST OLYMPIC MEDAL

Maiyegun was inspired by the feats of legendary Nigerian boxers that preceded him, like Dick Tiger, Hogan “Kid” Bassey and Olufemi Moseley. He wanted to go beyond Nigeria and Africa and conquer the world. He got the opportunity during the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 1964.

It was just four years after Nigeria’s independence, and although the country had achieved multiple successes at the Commonwealth Games, an Olympic medal remained elusive. The contingents of Team Nigeria to the three previous Olympics — Helsinki 1952, Melbourne 1956, and Rome 1960 — yielded none.

But Omo Oloja was in Tokyo to break the jinx and propel Nigeria’s young flag into the Olympic sky for the first time.

Maiyegun was just 23 when he took to the ring for the light-middleweight boxing category in Japan. After getting a bye in the first round, he shocked the world in the second round.

Maiyegun defeated Great Britain’s William Robinson in just one minute and 59 seconds — a remarkable feat in amateur boxing.

He defeated Tom Bogs of Denmark in the quarter-final before losing to France’s Joseph Gonzalez in the semi-final.

Maiyegun and Poland’s Józef Grzesiak settled for the shared bronze medal.

“I was too excited to realise I was the first Nigerian to win an Olympic medal; all I was thinking was that I had a chance to fulfil my dream of being the world’s best,” Maiyegun said.

STOLEN MEDALS

According to Maiyegun, the government did not reward him for his historic feat until 1989, when he was awarded a plaque. He added that a year later, the award was taken from him “for no reason at all”.

“I don’t recall getting anything special as a reward when I won the medal at the Olympics, but former Head of State Ibrahim Babangida gave me an award in 1989,” Maiyegun said.

“The award was eventually retrieved by the sports ministry the following year for no reason at all. I was thinking the award would belong to me forever, but they took it back.”

At the 1966 Commonwealth Games, Maiyegun added to the laurel he won for Nigeria by picking up another bronze medal. The boxer also won other African titles and national belts.

But Maiyegun revealed that every medal and silverware he won was stolen while he was in Nigeria.

“All my medals were stolen while I was in Nigeria. But I believe a good name is better than gold or silver, so I’m not worried. I reported the theft to the sports ministry back then and asked if there could be replicas, but nothing could be done,” he said.

“I’m the first to win an Olympic medal, a trailblazer. No one can take that away from me. You don’t buy that with money.”

LOSING HIS SIGHT AND FIGHTING PARTIALLY BLIND

Maiyegun left Nigeria for Vienna, Austria, in 1971. He began his professional boxing career in Europe.

Within two years, he was notorious throughout Austria for his ferocity in the ring. Austrian newspapers’ cartoons depicted Maiyegun’s gloved hands as guns to demonstrate how lethal his punches were.

However, Maiyegun’s body failed him when he seemed destined for greatness. Around 1973, he gradually lost his vision, with doctors predicting constant punches to the head as the cause.

Despite the impending blindness, a resolute Maiyegun went on to fight in a World Championship bout against Domenico Tiberia in December 1973 and lost only on points. The match ended his career prematurely.

“I’m not sure what could have caused the blindness, but doctors thought it could have been from punches on the head. It started partially, and at a point, I had to fight a world championship title bout with the sight problem. I lost the fight by decision, but it is on record that I am the first blind boxer to fight for a title. I could see with one eye then.”

He fought 16 times and won 12 — 10 of them by knockouts.

LIFE AFTER RETIREMENT

Following his premature retirement from boxing, Maiyegun survived in Austria by working in street cleaning and janitory services. His visual impairment made it difficult for him to carry out his functions.

The Olympic medalist was not completely helpless. He channelled the repressed adrenaline into mountain climbing and other sports.

Maiyegun climbed to the summit of a mountain 1,700 metres high in Austria and jumped with a parachute while entirely blind.

“I do not have many health issues aside from my eyesight, which is manageable. I don’t go out much, and I have people always around me to help me,” he said.

“I’m happy to tell you that I come from a family where we live to a ripe old age. My mother is 99, and my father lived up to 100. That is what operates in my family.”

Maiyegun indeed lived a long life, but his health ultimately failed him. He died after constant admission to the hospital for six months. Nigeria’s first-ever Olympic medallist died in Vienna, Austria, away from the country whose sporting history will be incomplete without mentioning his name.