Remembering Israel Adebajo
By Dennis Akhagba
L ATE Chief Israel Adebajo, the founder of Stationery Stores Football Club of Lagos, died on July 26 1969 at the Royal Free Hospital London. Thoughts of the 35th anniversary of the death of the "Flaming Flamingoes" founder manifested in my psyche when on Tuesday July 13, 2004 two private radio stations announced the appointment of Mr. Taiwo Affinih (an ex-Stationery Stores player) as the new Chairman of the Lagos State Football Association with the Master Dribbler Mr. Haruna Ilerika (ex-Stores FC long serving player) as member while Mr. Daniel Ajibode (ex-Stores FC defence ace and later coach to National Bank FC) was listed as a member of the reconstituted Lagos State Sports Council under the Chairmanship of erstwhile Basketball Coach, Mr. Agboola Pinheiro.
The late Chief Israel Adebajo, it will be recalled, founded the Stationery Stores Football Club in 1958 and in terms of achievement on the local scene in Lagos State, it has won the Challenge Cup (now the Coca-cola F.A. Cup) over 16 times since the state was created in 1967, 1968, 1982 and 1990 and the National Professional League Division One title in 1992 (see The Guardian, Monday September 22, 2003, at page 65).
During his life time, Chief Adebajo demonstrated his love to his fatherland and commitment to the development of football in Nigeria in many ways, such as bearing the cost of importing special weather-friendly jerseys for use by members of the senior National team, the Green Eagles in 1968 during the Olympic Games qualifying series involving one North African team. The Stationery Stores Football Club subsequently supplied nine players to the Green Eagles team which represented Nigeria at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.
The legacy left behind by the late Chief Israel Adebajo endured for several years as the club continued its contribution to the National team, such as in 1973 during the 2nd All Africa Games when the club had three players " Haruna Ilerika, the late Yakubu Mambo and Sanni Mohammed in the gold-medal winning Green Eagles team. Also, we cannot divorce the superlative exploits of goalkeepers Peter Fregene, Peter Rufai and Ike Shorunmu from their Stationery Stores roots.
One lesson which the late Chief Adebajo has succeeded in teaching the present generation of leaders is the use of his football club to foster peace, unity, love and friendship among the diverse ethnic groups in Lagos State and Nigeria as supporters of the club cut across tribe, age, sex, religion, creed or political ideology. The club succeeded in employment generation by recruiting players from Nigeria, Ghana, Togo and the Republic of Benin.
The fact that the Stationery Stores Football Club brought joy to the people of Lagos State cannot be over-emphasized and an incident which I will treasure for the rest of my life took place on Saturday, June 27 1992 when the club won its 13th Lagos State Challenge Cup title at the Onikan Stadium and some of the Club's supporters were singing and dancing through some streets on Lagos Island. I left the stadium after the match and was driving through Lewis Street/Bamgbose Street en-route Catholic Mission Street and was caught up in the attendant "go-slow" when one supporter sighted the club's sticker on the windscreen of my car, brought out his handkerchief, wiped the glass and kissed the sticker in a display of boundless joy. How I wished Baba Adebajo were alive to witness this expression of love, I said to myself.
When we reflect deeply on the positive contributions of the late Chief Israel Adebajo to the development of football in Lagos State and by extension Nigeria vis-a-vis the present fortunes of the Stationery Stores Football Club which cannot be said to be anything to cheer about, we will be tempted to ask ourselves whether the void created by the departure of the founder should not have been filled by the comfortable resources of the State Government.
Whenever suggestions are made for the take-over of the management of the Stationery Stores FC by the Lagos State Government, opponents of the idea have canvassed the argument that Lagos being a cosmopolitan state, the government should not be supporting one club and make itself liable to be accused of neglecting other clubs in the state. But proponents of the idea have pointed to the fact that other clubs in the state such as Julius Berger FC, NEPA etc. are being backed with huge financial resources of their parent companies /corporation.
It will not be out of place to mention here that the declining fortunes of football in Lagos State (and Nigeria) can be traced to the absence of robust competition offered to other clubs by the Stationery Stores FC. Most of the big clubs in the then National Professional Division One Football League (now the Premier League) such as Rangers International FC of Enugu, Iwuayanwu Nationale of Owerri, Eyimba FC of Aba, 3SC Shooting Stars of Ibadan and Bendel Insurance of Benin have complained of poor gatetakings since the absence of Stores FC from the Big League and I strongly believe the Lagos State Government can take advantage of the tremendous goodwill and support enjoyed by Stationery Stores FC and tap into the goldmine of huge gate-takings waiting to be explored.
This will be an added boost to the Accelerated Revenue Generation (ARG) drive of the Lagos State Government and we have a good precedent in the huge success of the Executive Governor of Abia State Chief (Dr.) Orji Uzor Kalu with Eyimba FC of Aba who has turned the club into a money-spinning wonder.
Finally, as we mark the 35th anniversary of the death of late Chief Israel Adebajo today, it is my fervent hope that both the Lagos State Government and the fans of the club will put in place the machinery to immortalise this hero.
Akhagba is a legal practitioner in Lagos.
