Of the First Lady and Flamingos in Aso Rock

Politics Spice Special Features Education Sex & Relationship Interview Columns Opinion Advertise with us Of the First Lady and Flamingos in Aso Rock Opinion November 15, 2026 12:00 am Behind the Rock by Stephen Angbulu

In 1974, Zaire’s national football team, the Leopards, became the first team from sub-Saharan Africa to qualify for a World Cup. President Mobutu Sese Seko wasted no time in showering every player with a car, a house and exciting cash bonuses.

He invited them to his palace in Gbadolite and promised more cash and gifts if they did well. That March, they won the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt and flew home on the presidential jet. Mobutu even paid for advertising boards at the tournament in West Germany, telling the world “Go to Zaire,” much like the present-day “Visit Rwanda” ad.

However, by the time the Leopards landed in Germany, the love had fermented. According to defender Mwepu Ilunga, after a 2–0 opening loss to Scotland, the players discovered that corrupt government officials had stolen their promised stipends.

The squad briefly went on strike before pressure forced them to play Yugoslavia. This time, the players took their frustrations to the pitch. On June 18, 1974, in what appeared to be deliberate ineptitude, they faced Yugoslavia in Gelsenkirchen and lost 9-0, one of the worst defeats in World Cup history.

To many Zaire fans and Africans at large, it did not make sense that Africa’s champions “suffered” such a disgrace on the world stage.

Mobutu did not take this well. And unlike ordinary fans who could only tsk and complain, he acted. According to CBS, he sent his presidential guards to the team hotel, where they sealed off the building from journalists and threatened the players. As Ilunga recalled years later, “If we lost 0-4 to Brazil, none of us would be able to return home.”

On match day, Zaire was down 3-0 when Brazil won a dangerous free kick near the final whistle. But before Rivellino could take the kick, Ilunga darted out of nowhere and booted the ball up field, costing him a yellow card. Some officials were puzzled by the move.

But fans laughed at the African player who appeared not to know the rules of the game. But Ilunga was not ignorant. “I did it deliberately,” he said years later, because a fourth goal meant nobody could go home. So the match ended 3-0.

The Leopards did go home, but instead of the luxurious coach that had met them after their AFCON victory, they were received by an empty army truck. There were no luxury open-top buses and cheering crowds waiting to greet them. Mobutu reportedly barred players from accepting offers from European clubs, threatened their families and then withdrew funding from football altogether.

In Africa, football is a religion, and the Head of State is often the high priest. Quick to bless, and in some cases quicker to curse or simply ignore. But Nigerian teams have often returned to a grateful nation after such outings, even when they don’t turn out fine, like our Super Eagles, who lost to the Ivory Coast in 2024 but got a warm reception from President Bola Tinubu that month.

In Morocco, a group of Nigerian teenage girls did what no African team had ever done. The Flamingos beat Japan 2-1 in the final of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, and became the first African women’s team to win a FIFA World Cup at any level.

On Wednesday, at about 1 pm, they, the Flamingos, tiptoed into the Presidential Banquet Hall in the President’s office complex. They were returning victorious to a grateful nation, but nobody had fully briefed them on palace etiquette. So the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, gave them their first civic lesson.

After the standing ovation that greeted her arrival upstage, Mrs Tinubu noticed that the girls were still seated. “When we get up, the protocol is that you rise. You saw people rising. Okay, so you do that, and then they tell you in a place like this, ‘Now you can be seated,’” she said like a mother.

Then she addressed the elephant in the hall.

You see, the girls had been told they would see the President. But sensing their disappointment upon seeing no signs of him, she said, “We are expecting to see Mr President today. Most of you are Christians, aren’t you? Because I saw that you sang a lot. You know Jesus would say, ‘If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.’ Is that good enough? This is actually Mr President’s banquet hall. If I were the one receiving you, it wouldn’t be in this hall.”

She praised the girls’ humility and the way they had worshipped together after the final, and urged them to stay disciplined. She also recalled the President’s promise to every athlete to make Nigeria proud and come back to a grateful nation.

And in the president’s usual fashion, gratitude to athletes often came in figures. Each player received a N100m savings certificate. The coach, Akeem Busari, got N100m in cash, and each member of the technical crew, N50m.

But why certificates? The First Lady told the girls, “You are still very young. You want to start handling N100m now?” And so the Flamingos left Aso Rock far richer than they came that afternoon.

With three years of experience, Stephen, The PUNCH correspondent, has been covering Nigeria’s presidency, politics, security, immigration and trafficking in persons

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