Bazuaye: If Football Was What it is Today in My Days, I Won’t Have Seen the Four Walls of University

For supporters of the defunct ECN of Lagos, Dr. Osarieme Bazuaye’s stint with the club was laced with fond memories and he reminisces it with nostalgia as he recalls some of his teammates at the club such as Late Paul Hamilton, Tunde Disu, Sebastian Brodrick, Muyiwa Oshode amongst many others. Sam Baz, as he was fondly called by peers and admirers gave Kunle Adewale an insight to his sporting life, how Nigeria’s moribund sports can be revived, the country’s terrible performance at the recently concluded Paris Olympics and his Sports Foundation that will be launched today on his 80th birthday at the Ikeja Golf Club, in which a tournament would be played in his name… excerpts

Dr. Osarieme Bazuaye coming into sports was not by accident, as a primary school pupil at St. Michael Anglican Primary School, Kaduna, he watched his father, Pa Benjamin Omorogbe Bazuaye, play cricket against the Europeans. Little wonder the graduate of veterinary medicine at the Ahmadu Bello, University, Zaria, at one stage in his life was an ardent cricketer and also sponsored cricket competitions.

“My late dad was a cricketer, when I was in primary school, I use to watch him with the Europeans playing cricket, so in my second year at Edo College I had made the school’s junior cricket team and a year later I was already in the proper school team.”

Bazuaye was also a  a notable member of the school football team.

In pursuit of higher education, he moved to CMS Grammar school Bariga, Lagos for his Higher School Certificate, HSC.

During his stay in CMS Grammar School, he was decorated with school football honors for distinguished services to the school.

“I was appointed as prefect for school and Livingstone House respectively.  In addition to these responsibilities, I captained the school football team in 1966 and was awarded the MVP (Most Valuable Player) in the same year.

Some years later after leaving school, both of us were inducted into the HALL of FAME in recognition for our outstanding achievements in Lagos school football  “Principal’s Cup”.

Bazuaye played for Lagos Academicals in 1965 and 66 and won the Manua Cup in 66, after being a member of the pioneer football team of mid-west in 1964 for the same competition.

After graduating from CMS Grammar School, he joined Electric City of Nigeria, (ECN) and played with the likes of late Paul Hamilton, Sebastain Broderick, Inuwa Lawal aka Rigogo and Amusa Shittu amongst many others.

In spite of his exploits in football as a secondary school boy, Bazuaye never took it to the zenith and there was only one reason for this- his dad’s constant beating.

“My father was beating hell out of me; he would say ‘your mates are reading and you are busy playing football.’ Moreover, football was not seen as a career then, footballers were seen then as the never-do-wells. Then, we were looking forward to becoming doctors, lawyers, engineers and the likes. Football was not what it is today. If football was what it is today, I would probably not have gone to the university.

“Imagine a boy of 22 years earning over two hundred pounds per week playing football. He can conveniently afford to employ a teacher to develop himself,” he said.

In 1968, Bazuaye got admission to read Veterinary Medicine at the  Ahmadu  Bello University, Samaru, Zaria.

“While I was at Amadu Bello University I was a senior member of the football XI, for the four years I played for the school football team no Nigerian university defeated us. We won the NUGA Games twice under the tutelage of the legendary Teslim Balogun. It was at that point I got nicknamed Shege Bazu! For my defensive prowess.

“We also played twice in the final of the West Africa University Games (WAUG) but lost to University of Ghana on both occasions,” he narrated.

For Bazuaye, making the best 11 of football event of the WAUG Games was the peak of his footballing career.

Though before now, the Vetenary Doctor has been giving back to sports, but as he turns 80-years today, he plans to set up a proper sports foundation at Edo College Benin.

“Because of my 80th birthday, I decided to start a foundation. I realise government funds is becoming leaner and leaner. Sports and education these days can go together. Sport is a lucrative business if well managed. You can see how young men are earning millions of dollars in football now.

“When I was at Edo college, we are just 25 in a class and there were good people managing the affairs and resources the government was providing. The school provides all the sporting facilities including the note books. But now the reverse is the case, in the last inter house sport the school held, I had to send down the water for my own school house, which is one of the reasons I am really getting towards a sustained sports development and donating sports equipment in Edo College. If you don’t have equipment in school there is no way you can discover and develop potential athletes, and that’s the essence of my foundation. This legacy I’m going to leave in Edo College if it’s well managed would outlive me and that is the whole essence of my foundation,” he expressed.

Asked what he has put in place for the foundation to live beyond him, he said: “There is a committee of old boys’ association and the money would be managed by the committee for credibility purpose and they will be in charge of maintaining the sports facilities, providing football boots, cricket bats etc.

“If there are no sporting facilities, how can you bring out the budding talents? Unlike in my time in which you have to compulsorily participate in every sport and if you excel in a particular one you will now specialise in it. During my secondary school days, a form four student represented Nigeria in the sprint. Every student must have a knowledge of all the sports.”

Nigeria’s disastrous performance at the recently concluded Olympic Games and the moribund state of the country’s sports would not indeed miss Bazuaye’s candid opinion.

For the octogenarian, going back to regional government is the only way Nigeria can revive her sports that is going moribund.

“In our time you know the fastest child in primary and secondary schools within the district, vis a vis in football and other sports. But all these things have collapsed. If there is no basics anything you invest will not stand. Those days we use to have the academicals every year, which was a good way of developing sports, then there were lots of crisscrossing in sporting activities amongst schools which also brings about unity in the country.

“Sports is a very lucrative business if well managed. After oil and telecommunication, sport comes next because it has a ripple effect,” he noted.

He would however prefer government involvement in sports to be limited to proving infrastructure and enabling environment.

On what sports has given him in life, the CMS Grammar School HSC graduate says emphatically: “Sports has given me friendship both in Nigeria and outside of the country, it’s a good form of network and it helped health wise.”

Though he came into golf late in his life but stated that he always knew while he was younger that he would end up playing golf. Saying that golf not only helps a person mentally but also helps in overcome obstacle of life. “Golf is life he said.”

As part of Bazuaye’s 80thbirthday ceremony, the Ikeja Golf Club will today be playing a tournament in his name of which some of the proceeds from the tourney will go into his foundation.