Justice Chuba Ikpeazu was so magnanimous in his days as proprietor of Ikpeazu Redoubtables Football Club Onitsha in the late 1950s that he bought brand new bicycles for his players. In those years of Raleigh bicycle, it was a thing of pride to own one.
Ikpeazu, a lawyer was actually following the footsteps of kinsman, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, who founded the Ziks Athletics Club, Lagos in 1938. The younger Onitsha Ado man did not live in Lagos like Zik but he attracted players from the then national capital.
Former ZAC Bomber and national captain, Dan Amobi Anyiam, was recruited as coach by Ikpeazu. It was a wise decision. Ikpeazu Redoubtables went as far as the semi finals of the Challenge Cup in 1958.
Paul Hamilton and Sebastine Brodericks-Imasuen plied their trade in Onitsha and picked their fluent Igbo playing for the team. Before the duo, there was UK Tourists goalie, Sam Ibiam.
In 1976, Alhaji Yusuf Salam, proprietor of Alyufsalam Rocks, Ilorin promised his players a Vespa scooter each if they won that year’s Challenge Cup. The team captained by Owura Agyei had eleven Ghanaians in their starting line up. The lone Nigerian was Humphrey Okechukwu.
In the grand finale against Enugu Rangers, the Kwara team lost 2-0, no thanks to Chimezie ‘Watch me’ Ngadi’s brace. Okechukwu would later join the winning team following that cup miss.
Later in the year, Shooting Stars of Ibadan won the Africa Winners Cup. The Oyo State government presented Volkswagen Beetles cars to the players who also got a cash gift of 50 Thousand Naira from the Federal Government. That was perhaps the first time players would be rewarded with cars in Nigeria.
What Ikpeazu started in 1959 with bicycles grew to become automobiles in 1976. Green Eagles bagged Peugeot 504 vehicles in 1980 for winning their first of three Nations Cups. Dolphins got BMW cars after winning the Challenge Cup in 2004. For Enyimba, the prize for lifting the CAF Champions League in 2003 was a fleet of Kia Cars.
Ikpeazu became a High Court Judge in 1964 and moved on to head the Nigeria Football Association. He is best remembered for his open door policy. He was the first Chairman to devote time weekly to address the press. He insisted that it was the best way to keep them from speculating.
The judge was a disciplinarian who also spared the rod for good. Sometime in 1989, NFA Secretary General, Tunji Fagbemi, brought a Moscow ’80 Eagle to the Chairman’s cubicle at the National Stadium, Lagos. The player was accused of stealing while in camp.
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Ikpeazu took a look at the international and asked two journalists who were in his office to shut the door. Fagbemi watched. The player was in a deep blue funk. ‘You are a thief’, the former judge thundered. ‘In my court days, I would have given you seven years.’
Just when everyone thought the player was going to be taken to the police, the NFA boss pleaded with his guests to let the matter lie. The football body was owing camp allowance. That however was not enough reason to steal. The footballer’s sin was forgiven. Discharged and acquitted he was asked to quit camp.
A man of justice, Ikpeazu was. Manfred Hoener abandoned the Eagles after the Seoul ’88 Olympics. The NFA was indebted to him. Ikpeazu fought for and got Hoener’s wages which he sent to the man in Germany. It sounded strange. Some other officials would have pocketed the money.
Ikpeazu was transparent in his dealings. Anytime he traveled to London, he had a particular hotel where he lodged. It was below his status as NFA chairman yet some mischief makers alleged that he was living big in London. Ikpeazu showed the world the hotel receipt.
There was this tag he abhorred and a particular sports journalist was fond of addressing him as Pa Ikpeazu. ‘Gentleman, why do you refer to me as Pa Ikpeazu? , he queried. It was not funny in any way.
The day he was sacked as NFA chairman, Ikpeazu was on the road to Onitsha to worship in his chapel. Flying, he believed, would be expensive. He did that weekly to serve God.
In 1992, the NFA put him in the delegation to the Senegal ’92 Nations Cup. When we met as he enjoyed cool breeze from the ocean in his hotel, he told me it was a sweet experience, away from city noise.
The retired judge died in 2005 at 92. His first son, Onyechi, is a top lawyer. Daughter, Lynda was a beauty queen and member of the House of Representatives.
