With right facilities, Nigeria can become great sporting nation again, says Bazuaye

Unless he tells you, you will not know that Osarieme Bazuaye, a retired veterinary doctor, is 80 years old. The retired footballer and cricketer, who spends much of his time playing golf at the Ikeja Golf Club, will mark his 80th birthday today at the same club.

Surrounded by family and friends, the former ECN Football Club star will also use the opportunity of the celebration to launch his foundation, which he intends to use in providing some vital facilities for his old school, Edo College.

Bazuaye, who has traversed the nooks and crannies of the country from his primary school days in Enugu to his university education at the ABU, Kaduna, also intends to use the birthday celebration to canvass a return to grassroots sports development, which, he said, served the country well in his days.
Born on August 24, 1944, in Ugbague Quarters, Benin, Edo State, Bazuaye has lived through all the good times and the current situation of the country, and thus, has a strong opinion on what has gone wrong with the nation.

Known as Sam Baz in his playing days “because somebody translated my name, Osarieme, to Sammy, Bazuaye says the country has the required human resources to became one of the greatest sporting nations of the world. Using his experience to illustrate his point, Bazuaye said that he became interested in sports in the 1950s because the country had many sports facilities across the regions, adding that the Europeans made sports enticing to the youth of his era.
“My late father was a keen cricketer, who was a regular member of the Kaduna European cricket team. I occasionally accompanied him to the Kaduna Race course during practice and competitive matches. That was how I gained interest in cricket.

“When I was at Edo College, every student was made to feature in all the sports and then settle for the ones he has the mastery of. No student went through that school without playing one sport or another. It was like that in all the schools across the country.”

To try to return to the good days, Bazuaye said his 80th birthday celebration would be used to promote sports among young men and women. He said: “I am starting my foundation’s intervention at Edo College, where I will support the students to combine their education with sports.

“I am trying to provide some sports equipment to the school through the Old Boys’ Committee, which will identify the school’s needs and we will see how we can help to provide such equipment.”

Bazuaye said he expects his friends and associates to gather at the Ikeja Golf Club to look at ways to help reposition Nigerian sports, adding that all the proceeds of the one-day kitty in his honour would be channelled towards rekindling sports in Edo College.

He said: “During the celebration, we will launch the foundation and use the proceeds to provide some facilities in Edo College. My friends and colleagues will come to celebrate with me with a kitty and we will use the opportunity to launch the foundation.

“This will be my contribution to the development of sports in the school. I started playing for the school’s football team in form two with the juniors. That was because we had the environment and teachers who encouraged us to do sports.

“In those days, if you were in the school team, you had a pride of place among your peers. I was a pioneer player of the Midwest Academicals in the 1964. We played in the Sir Manuwa Cup in Lagos and my colleagues then were the late Adedoyin, Muyiwa Oshode, Manuwa Adebajo, Tunde Disu and others. I left Edo College for CMS Grammar School, Bariga, the mother of all schools, for my higher school and I played for Lagos Academicals in 1965/66 alongside Adedoyin. The late Ishola Folorunso was my team manager. I later joined ECN, where I played alongside the late Paul Hamilton, Sebastine Brodericks Imasuen (our Captain), Inua Rigogo, Omeokachie and Amusa Shittu, but I just spent a year in ECN before my father insisted that I went back to school.”
Bazuaye explained that he was forced to leave active football in the 1960s because sport was then regarded as a career for people who are considered never-do-wells.

“I stopped playing football and went to read veterinary medicine at ABU. At ABU, I was the captain of the school team and for five years, no Nigerian university beat us in NUGA Games, which was played every two years.

“We played in the final game of the West African Universities Games twice and we lost in those finals to University of Ghana; first in Sierra Leone and then in Lagos. That was the height of Ghana/Nigeria rivalry in sports.”

He attributes the country’s decline in sports to the neglect of grassroots development and the effects of the division of the country into malfunctioning parts.

“I Speak Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba fluently because I had opportunity of mixing up with people from different ethnic groups. My perception of Nigeria is a bit different now. I believe that we should go back to the regional system to bring back our sports.

“The only time I spent in my home town was when I went to Edo College. I did my primary school education in Kaduna and Enugu and I have observed that people tend to respect their regions more than they do the country.

“I believe that if we revert to the regional system, we will have a better sports system because the regions will develop their various sports.
“There is money in sports now and we must get the facilities, the competitions and system right to build a virile sports economy. After oil and technology, sports is the highest paying profession. You can see what these children earn playing football in Europe.

“Even Baba Awolowo said Nigeria is just a ‘geographical’ expression. Our people see themselves, first as Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa. In the past we were at par with the Americans and Jamaicans in athletics and in cricket, with Australia. But all these countries are far ahead of us.

“We should bring back school sports to recapture our glory. We used to travel to Umuahia to play against Government College and they did same. All over the country, there was a crisscross of activities with schools from different regions going to others to compete.

“When I was growing up, a student can move from one region to the other to compete in events. The Principals Cup was thriving and other athletics events had many events that brought students from all over the country together.

“We had a thriving country until the military boys came and created 12 states and now we have 36 states that we do not have the money to run. The politicians have also not helped matters.”

Looking back on his involvement in sports, Bazuaye said it has given him many friends. “I have Igbo, Hausa and Yoruba friends. Sports is good for networking and makes one healthier,” he said.

Bazuaye, who spends much of his time playing golf and following his darling club, Arsenal of London, said he has found latter-day fulfilment in the sport, which he describes as a way of life. He said: “I will recommend it to every retiree. It keeps one going in old age. Golf is a way of life. With golf, you can know the character of your partners.

There are hurdles involved and one moves round to play the game. At the end of a round you drop the ball into a hole and at the end of one’s life, he is dropped into a hole. That’s what golf teaches us.

“I have met many people in the golf course and you can know the character of a man playing with him within three hours.” On his love for Arsenal, Bazuaye said that he has been supporting the club since 1967. “We had a star in those days called Victor Sensi ‘Arsenal,’ who died two years ago. He was a skillful player, who could juggle and dribble the ball like no other person. He made me to start supporting Arsenal. He was a close friend of mine.”