TEMITOPE DAVID-ADEGBOYE writes how the labour of a hero past was retrieved from the jaws of vanity, after two and half decades.
Peter Ayodele, a retired boxer, who had been living in abject poverty, after representing Nigeria at the Olympic Games in 1980, received a boost penultimate Saturday, when he was presented with the keys of a furnished apartment and a cheque of N100,000 from Grassroots Nigerian Boxing League, in conjunction with Bullet Energy Drink.
The pugilist also got clothes, shoes and other personal effects from the organisers.
On hand to present the cheque at an event tagged ‘Celebrating Peter Ayodele’ was Nollywood actress, Chiege Alisigwe-Clinton.
Alisigwe-Clinton, who is Bullet Energy Drink brand ambassador, appealed to other corporate organisations to come to the aid of Nigeria’s past heroes who are presently living a not-too-comfortable life.
“These men and women put in their best representing this nation in their youth. If they do have financial or health issues now and cannot afford treatment, Nigerians should rise up to assist. We cannot leave everything to the government. We can start in our little corner. That way, we’d bring succour to their lives,” Alisigwe-Clinton said.
Also present at the event was Charles Oputa, a.k.a. Charly Boy, who made a surprise $200 (about N35,000) presentation to Ayodele.
Charly Boy decried the spate of sport legends who have lost their lives due to negligence by the government of a nation they served assiduously as youths. He urged Nigerians to speak up for their rights, so that our leaders will lead well.
In his response, a delighted Ayodele thanked the organisers for the gesture, adding that he will never forget them.
Ayodele was living in an uncompleted three-bedroom bungalow, devoid of any identification number in Ayobo, a suburb area in Lagos.
According to him, like most Nigerian sport legends, his journey from grace to grass started when he fell out with the officials of the Ogun State Sports Council in 1989.
Having started his boxing career as a student of the Lagos State Technical College, where he graduated with a certificate in Building Technology in 1976, Ayodele was immediately co-opted as one of the pioneer staff of the Ogun State Sports Council after its creation same year.
‘Anikulapo’, as he is fondly called by his admirers, narrated how he watched his wife and kids (a boy and a girl) die in a bizarre circumstance in 1996. According to him, they had fallen ill at different times and he couldn’t provide N5,000 for their treatment.
Just 56 years of age, the frail-looking ex-boxer is already looking 80. He represented Nigeria at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, where he fought his way to the quarter-finals before he was stopped by an Iraqi boxer in the 63.5 kg weight category.
Before his Olympic appearance, he had made his mark on the local scene as one of the most decorated boxers in the country, winning laurels at the prestigious National Sports Festival (NSF) and other competitions for Ogun State in the 70s and late 80s, with the dreaded Davidson Andeh as one of his contemporaries.
The Grassroots Nigerian Boxing League was established in 2012, to develop and promote boxing in Nigeria, in partnership with Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria (YSFON).
The organisation aims to unveil, in the first half of next year, three ultra-modern boxing gymnasium, in Abia, Imo and Cross-River states.