Rangers, our Rangers International

Laughter is back in the land. For it goes without saying that there can be no laughter when Rangers are not in fine fettle. It started very long ago. There had been the Nigeria-Biafra War which brought bitterness across the country. Rangers Then the war ended in 1970, and there was the need to put laughter back on the faces of the erstwhile rebels known as Biafrans. It is a known fact of history: to play ball is to be free. The young men coming back from the war fronts and some others who had put going to school in abeyance because of the war had to come together to play ball. There were great organizers such as Jerry Enyeazu, BSC Nzenwa, Clifford Eneli and co who played redoubtable roles in assembling the ball players. At the national level, there was talk of reintegration, and the football contests needed to involve all the different zones of the country especially the war-torn side. The Nigerian Army football team had beaten all comers, but the great football administrator Orok Oyo explained that the army boys needed to play the team from the rebel side to be crowned true national champions. It was an epic match in which the Nigerian Army team ended up being defeated. It was in that match that Dominic Nwobodo had his head battered and he got it bandaged only to come back to complete the match with a bandaged head, thus earning the alias “Alhaji”. The defeated army team went to the office of their coordinator, Col. George Innih, to console themselves. A certain Olusegun Obasanjo came visiting George Innih and asked who the players were. Obasanjo was told that the players were the army football team. “Are you saying that these are our men lost to those hungry boys?” Obasanjo queried. Ask Paul Hamilton to complete the story for he was a member of the army team. The symbolism of defeating an army through unarmed combat could not be celebrated enough. The hungry boys who eventually made up the team named Rangers took the postwar Nigerian nation by storm, reaching the Challenge Cup finals in 1971, barely a year after the war. It was a pulsating match in which the legendary captain of Rangers, Godwin Achebe, had his penalty-kick saved by the goalkeeper of WNDC (now ICC) Ibadan, Adisa Amusa. The Rangers squad was beefed up thereafter with talented schoolboy players who had won the 1971 Manuwa Adebajo Academicals competition, notably Dominic Ezeani, Kenneth Ilodigwe, Christian Chukwu and Godwin Ogbueze. It’s noteworthy that the ace centre-back Ezeani displaced the captain of the Green Eagles in the team that won the 2nd All-Africa Games football event in Lagos, the very first time the national team was winning a continental crown. Ezeani also became the captain of Rangers and led the team to winning the 1974 Challenge Cup finals against Mighty Jets of Jos 2-1. Aloy Atuegbu who played for Mighty Jets in that epic final match told me that leading up to the match the then Head of State Yakubu Gowon who hailed from Plateau State paid him a visit to his family house in Jos and promised him a Volkswagen Beetle car if he helped Plateau to beat Rangers. The young Aloy was all charged up, always leaving the Rangers defenders for dead anytime he made his quick turns. Rangers’ captain Ezeani ran up to him and gave him an advice in Igbo: “Aloy, etua is agba iga emelu aru” which translates to: “Aloy, the way you are playing you will get injured.” Atuegbu pushed Ezeani away and replied in Igbo: “Gbaa nke gi, Dom!” (“Play your own, Dom!”) Incidentally, both players came from two neighbouring towns in Anambra State, Ezeani from Agulu and Atuegbu from Adazi. While Ezeani was advising Atuegbu on the pitch another Rangers defender cast a baleful eye at Aloy and soon enough gave him a crunching tackle that stretchered him out for good. After I heard this story from Aloy Atuegbu, I sought confirmation from his brother, Matthew “The Truckpusher” Atuegbu, who promptly confirmed it all. Aloy Atuegbu would eventually end up playing for Rangers, winning the African Cup-Winners Cup with the team in 1977. I remember shortly before his death that Aloy lamented to me that the authorities were diminishing his cherished team into “Nkanu Rangers” instead of Rangers International of Enugu! When Rangers’ current captain Okey Oditta lifted this year’s NPFL trophy, it was a moment steeped in history. It marked the end of 32 years of hurt in which Rangers literally won nothing. Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi (Gburugburu) of Enugu State deserves all the plaudits for rewriting history with his mandate. It needs to be restated that Rangers are not just a football team. The support base of the club is indeed intimidating, given that the team played a pivotal role in healing the wounds of the civil war. The early coach of the team Dan Anyiam did a yeoman’s job in building the indomitable spirit in the boys. A key supporter such as Mrs. Julie Alale, universally known as “Madam Rangers”, can be likened to the stuff of which legends are made. There was of course the irrepressible supporter Unoenu Ewulu, alias “Upstairs” who led the battle-cry of “Up Rangers” in all the stadia across Nigeria and Africa, dressed zanily while ringing his bell. Rangers was not just an all-Igbo affair for there was this supporter known as Segun Martins who fell in love with the team when the boys beat up all the teams supported by the septal lot deriding them. The team has of course seen very great and very abysmal times. Back in 1975, the team defeated the dreaded Mehala of Egypt in a match dubbed “Mehala saw Wahala in Enugu” to qualify for the finals of the African Club Champions Cup. The players thought they would play the final match in Enugu with Hafia of Guinea only to be flown to Lagos in the last minute. In the match, the referee contrived to disallow nearly all the long-throws of Nwabueze Nwankwo, the main offensive weapon of Rangers. Now that Rangers are back in business, it is incumbent on Governor Ugwuanyi to lead the away as ever for the club to win the coveted CAF Champions League. By retaining the services of Coach Imama Amakakpabo who broke the jinx, Rangers are truly on a surefooted path. Now is the time to put back the “International” on “Our Rangers”.