Samuel Okwaraji: Separating Reality From Myth

If you grew up in 1990s Nigeria (and even early 2000s), you probably had seen a poster of Samuel Okwaraji on the wall of your barber’s shop, on the wall of a printing press store, the wall of your neighbour’s parlour, or at the artist’s. lf you didn’t see this poster, you probably still had the image of a superhuman Okwaraji in your head, drawn from the many stories told of his legendary exploits.

As with many childhood myths, adulthood did a lot of harm to the superhero of Okwaraji built in many heads. So today, the average person is aware that most of the appellations of praise heaped on him and most of the deeds claimed for him are exaggerations. But does the average person actually know that the stories are closer to outright fantasies than the mere hyperbolic expression of a child? In this post, we would look at the story, query it, and work to establish what actually happened to Okwaraji.

The myth of Samuel Okwaraji

The story of Samuel Okwaraji is linked to that of India as a former footballing powerhouse and why they are now “banned” from football. This story is rooted in a child’s interpretation of Bollywood which paints India as a diabolical country where everyone had a personality between a magician and a witch: No wonder their men and women are so beautiful (a pointer to their pact with the devil).

The story has wide variations but generally, it tells of a football match between Nigeria and India. In this match, India had bragged that they would put 100 goals into the net of the Super Eagles of Nigeria. The Indians were threatening to score one goal every 54 seconds. You have to be playing two-year-old kids to achieve this feat. Even kids would have to restart the match after every goal and would create obstructions if not successful tackles that would still delay things. To beat adults 100-0, you need to use a powerful charm that would hypnotize your opponents to a spot.

India did more than hypnotizing Nigerians to a spot. They manipulated the football so that it turned into a lion’s head, meaning that the (Nigerian) players were afraid to kick it and the goalkeeper just couldn’t stop an angry lion head from flying into his net. Again and again.

1-0, 2-0, 3-0 up to 10-0, then 20-0, then 33-0, 45-0, 60-0. The floodgate wasn’t open, it was removed from the bottom. The Indians were getting to their goal of 100 goals to naught. At 99-0, Samuel Okwaraji did the unthinkable. It was in the dying minutes, as they say, when he charged at the football which was the head of a roaring lion; he didn’t care that he might be torn into pieces by the beast, he was determined and full of patriotic anger and fervour. He kicked the lion’s head with so much power that the head turned into a football and beat the Indian goalkeeper and tore the net.

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“It’s a goal!” Nigerians watching at home lept with joy. This should have been the most useless consolation goal ever scored in the history of football, in any normal match, but this was no normal match – it was a dance of devils against the good people of Nigeria and David came to the rescue in the form of Okwaraji and slew Goliath with the swing of his boot and won the match for Nigeria.

This is where the story becomes really shady. Some accounts said Okwaji died at the spot where he kicked the ball that tore the net and won us the match. Some said Nigerian supporters invaded the pitch to carry him shoulder-high and he died in their hands. Some, still, opined that he died in the hospital with the winning medal (world cup, of course) around his neck.

That is why India was banned from football and Sam Okwaraji is a national legend, the story ends.

Chinua Achebe has nothing on whoever formulated this story. Even the Nobel Price for Literature would prove an inferior reward for such a ridiculous yarn. Whatever reward for this storyteller, 99 lashes of koboko on his bare bottom should be added unto it just to it, poetic justice for each of the goals India supposedly score, not enough even for the wild journeys it took Nigerian youngsters.

What really happened to Samuel Okwaraji

Samuel Sochukwuma Okwaraji was born on May 19, 1964, in Orlu, Imo State. In those days, it is not uncommon for a professional footballer to attain higher education qualifications thus Okwaraji was a trained lawyer with a master’s degree in International Law from a university in Rome, Italy.

Okwaraji played his professional football in Italy, Croatia, Germany, and elsewhere. He featured eight times for the senior team and scored one goal. He was part of the team at the Seoul Olympics in South Korea, in 1988. His last match for Nigeria was against Angola in a 1990 World Cup qualifying match played at the Lagos National Stadium in Surulere on the 12th of August, 1989.

He slumped and died on the pitch. His cause of death was put as congestive heart failure caused by his enlarged heart and high blood pressure, a real anomaly for someone just 25. He died playing for Nigeria. He died for Nigeria and Nigerians have continued to remember more than thirty years later.

It rather feels whelming that Sam Okwaraji died in a World Cup qualifier as there is that part of you (admit it) that wished the fatal winning goal in the fictional Indian-Nigerian match was his true last act.

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