By Val “Frakas Mo’Fire” Amadi
Gov Uzodinma only hosted “Imo” and not “Igbo” FALCON players
Imo State Governor, Gov. Hope Uzodinma hosted only the Imo State Indigenes and not the “Igbos” in the team as erroneously reported by VDM and some bloggers. Very unfortunate and wrong reportage.
Funny enough, Governor AbdulRahman AldulRazaq of Kwara state also recently hosted only Halimatu Ayinde, a Kwara state indigene who also was a member of the recent FALCON winning team. Kwara is a Yoruba state, and the player is Yoruba. Where is the outrage?
In 2023, after the FALCONS’ outing in Australia, Governor Adeleke of Osun state only hosted 2 FALCON players, Rasheedat Ajibade and Rofiat Imuran Again, the governor is Yoruba, and the players are yoruba. Again, where’s the outrage? Governor Adeleke then proudly stated via a tweet, “This morning, I received Osun State-born Nigeria Super Falcons players, Rasheedat Ajibade and Rofiat Imuran. I commended their efforts during their time in the tournament and restated our admin commitment to the growth of the girl-child and sport development in Osun State.”
It’s a thing about encouraging youth from their various local communities to do better while emulating the successful players as role models and never about tribalism. Content creators need to be doing more research before posting certain things. Perhaps not as much research as some of us, the traditional journalists do, but enough to be better educated on certain subject matters as that would help avoid some of these Bruhaha and tribal bigotry that’s on the rise.
For some of our fellow Nigerians who think Imo State is the only place you find indigenous Igbo people, let me educate you a bit more. States where they have indigenous Igbo speaking people include Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Abia, Ebonyi, Rivers, Delta, Bayelsa, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Benue, Kogi & Edo States. You can thank me later.
Gov. Hope Uzodinma simply hosted the Super Falcon Players who happen to be indigenes of Imo State. Is the fact that he hosted them in Abuja instead of Imo his crime? Na wah. Not holding briefs for the governor, but if it happened that it was a lot more convenient for the players and the governor to host them in Abuja, why not? Many of those players play for major teams around the world who are either on tournaments tour or in training camps and need to return to these teams who were nice enough to release them to play for their country, something that many teams (especially in Europe) are becoming more and more reluctant to do.
Check back in the history of tournament and team wins (Sports, education, etc) Nigeria – Each individual state had always hosted, honored, and rewarded their indigenes aside from what the Nigerian Nation had already done for the entire team.
Some of the biggest beneficiaries of State and Regional hosting in the past were Nigerian Super Eagle players, Ahmed Musa, Tijani, Ibrahim & Haruna Babangida. Kaduna state and the entire Northern Nigerian politicians and organizations hosted and celebrated them several times in the past, and it was never an issue with the rest of their teammates. No notable Igbo bloggers or journalists cried fowl then or labeled them tribal bigots.
Lately, VeryDarkMan (VDM) had been receiving steady attacks especially from some frustrated Yoruba people who accuse him of playing too much to the gallery and dancing more to the tribal drums of the Igbos and so, it’s not unlikely that this unfortunate post was just his own attempt at balancing the equation of criticism. But he’s wrong because he didn’t do enough background research before jumping on the matter. If he did, he would have realized that Hope Uzodinma simply just only hosted players from his own state and not just “only Igbo” players as erroneously labeled by VDM.
While we love VDM very much for all that he’s been doing, we ask that he correct himself on this wrongly captioned post as in his bid to balance his criticisms of the various tribes in Nigeria, he has inadvertently even caused more hatred on the Igbos.
By Val “Frakas Mo’Fire” Amadi
CEO, We4We Media USA
Val Frakas Mo’Fire Amadi is the Publisher of We4WeREPORTS.com, a music & Film Producer, a Biochemist, BioMedical Researcher, a People’s Advocate, a Social consciousness crusader, an Activist for Social Justice, freedom & Equality.
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