Nigeria: Befitting Farewell for Olubayo

Femi Solaja

29 April 2011

It was a solemn atmosphere Thursday morning at the National Stadium in Lagos as several hundreds of football faithful turned up to give their last respects to late Eagles’ defender, Adefemi Olubayo at a lying-in-state ceremony.

The Skoda Xianti of Greece player, who died last week in an auto crash in Greece, was committed to mother earth later in the day at the Atan Cemetery in Yaba, Lagos.

As early as 8:00 am, many soccer loving Nigerians stormed the arena and had to wait about two hours for the body of the late Super Eagles defender to arrive in company of his about-to-be married fiancé and relatives.

An interdenominational service held at the Indoor Sports hall during which his former mates in the Under-20 squad paid glowing tribute to him.

Although most of the big wigs of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) are currently in South Africa for the Africa Youth Championships, the Glass House was adequately represented with Chief Mike Umeh, first vice president of the NFF and chairman of the Technical Committee, Barrister Chris Green, Super Eagles coaches, Samson Siasia, Ike Shorunmu and the Emmanuel Attah, the Super Eagles Secretary in full attendance.

Members of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club were also not left out of the two hours event to honour the fallen star.

At the emotionally charged ceremony, coach Siasia, who played a major role in the nurturing of the lad to limelight right from the 2005 African Youth Championship to the FIFA U-20 Championship in Holland, urged all soccer loving Nigerians to rally round the family of the late player in what ever form of assistance they can render.

“I have known Olubayo for some years now and he was such a disciplined, dedicated and a humble fellow but died too soon. Despite the sad event of his demise, I want to thank football fans for their turn out today to honour Olubayo. I am extremely happy with the turn out of Nigerians.

“This is not the time to name a street, or monument after him because the family really need assistance since we all know that this young lad was the bread winner of the family.

“Many footballers have died without any form of assistance to the family they left behind but we can use Olubayo to make a change for a turning point of not allowing our heroes to die in vain.

“As for me and my family, I will be passionately be involved with direct financial support to his family and I will urge all well meaning Nigerians and Government to come and make a point with this young lad’s predicament,” the coach pleaded.

Super Eagles’ skipper Joseph Yobo, who sent a message on behalf of his national team mates, expressed his sadness that many of the players could not be there to pay their last respects to Olubayo due to club commitments.

Yobo lamented the demise of Olubayo, someone who wined and dined with the group a month ago during the Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia and the international friendly against Kenya, both in Abuja.

“The big honour we can give to Olubayo Adefemi is to go to Ethiopia in June and take the three points and eventually qualify for the 2012 African Cup of Nations,” said Yobo in the message.

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