Table tennis legend, Chief Waheed Ekun, the Agba Akin Mayegun of Ibadanland, reflects on winning the first National Sports Festival Table Tennis Championship in 1973 and dissects the level of the game today. He shares his experience with Niyi Alebiosu and OLAWALE OLANIYAN, how he’s ready to celebrate the 50th anniversary of winning the medal and his plan to open a foundation to raise fresh talents for the games in Oyo State.
50 years ago you won a gold medal at the National Sports Festival, can you reflect on your feeling of achievement ?
I remember in 1973, that was 50 years ago, I won the National Sports Festival Table Tennis Championship by defeating Sunday Eboh at the final. In fact, the then Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon was the guest of honour. I was 17 years old then and I knew nothing but to play the game to the very best of my ability. That time, there were 12 states in Nigeria and all the states participated in the championship, from round one to semis, I met players from different states until I got to the final, which was watched by a large crowd at the stadium because my opponent was a popular table tennis star in Lagos State, but I was a young player from Oyo State. As of then, Lagos was always harassing us as dominant force in sports.
I was just praying to God for victory because the crowd were cheering him, though I also had those rooting for me, they were not enough to silence the Lagosians.
When the match started, I won the first two games but Eboh came from behind to level the point, making it 2-2, and when playing the fifth round, I almost lost concentration, but, as God would have it, I won the last round, making it 3-2 and I was embraced by everybody at the hall. That was the scenario at the festival.
When we came back from the festival, we met the governor of Western State, Colonel David Jemibewon. He only gave me a warm handshake. All he did then was a handshake and he encouraged me to keep it up. That was the major honour we had from the state.
Despite the fact that there was no compensation from the state, I was not bothered because I did not even expect any cash reward. What did I want to spend money on? Nothing. Except for going to school and, that time, I was on scholarship from Muslim Grammar School, Odinjo. I was not paying any fee to the extent that whenever there was any championship, I would be sent to the stadium to prepare ahead. That was all we were doing then.
Before the National Sports Festival, I have been playing different tournaments. I was in Lagos to play the All Nigeria Championship in 1971, I was also at Port Harcourt for All Nigeria Secondary School Championship, Coca-Cola championship before participating in the Sports Festival in August 1973.
How did the National Sports Festival make you more popular?
Actually, the festival was a good spot to launch oneself on the International scene. After winning the National Sports Festival, I was invited to the national team, thereafter I played for the Nigerian team in the Central Africa Championship, West Africa Championship and in the All African Championship. That was the benefit of being in the national team. We had a good time, we all played and there was no complaint, except that we did not stay at school. We played all the championships and did the camping in Lagos. I did not have the opportunity of attending classes, but being on the scholarship of the school, I was always promoted on trial but there was no ‘on trial’ at WASSCE. Thank God, I scaled through due to my hardwork and extra-mural classes.
Then and now, how will you describe the standard of table tennis in the country?
Table tennis in the country at that time was more popular and widely acceptable to everyone because not all talents will play football. We had talents both in the junior and senior category and things were going on very well and we were doing very well with the little allowance we were paid and we were all satisfied.
We also enjoyed media publicity from the Nigerian Tribune, Daily Times, Daily Sketch and Western Nigerian Television stations. Anytime we were featured, people knew more about us and that gave us more encouragement to do better.
To what should we ascribe the slump in the game these days?
So many factors are responsible for what we are witnessing today in the game. Things have changed. We may want to blame the playing public. Anybody that plays table tennis now wants to be a millionaire overnight and once they are not having that million, they look the other way and venture into football where they will make millions. That is why there are not so many stars in table tennis as it used to be. Tennis stars of that era concentrated on the future, not the idea of travelling abroad to play anywhere. There was nothing like that, otherwise, I would also have been overseas since 1974.
In 1974, I was in Europe for three months with the national team despite the fact that I was still a secondary school student. Though the idea of staying back crossed my mind, I summoned the courage to come back and be better. Here I am today, I thank God Almighty.
These days, most of our players always have it at the back of their minds that they want to travel out of the country and anytime they represent the country, immediately they come back, they use the passport to travel and fail to show up again. That is one of the things that kill our sports, especially table tennis. Though going abroad is not crime as they have most of the facilities yet the Nigerian authorities did not have any bargaining on where the talents are going, so they were just going free onboard, that was what killed our sports as most of the stars left for foreign countries.
I remember in 1989 in particular, I took some Nigerians overseas for three months, four players to be precise, Sule Olaleye, Gbenga Ogundimu, Kazeem Badiru and Gbenga Akinola; who were junior players then. The report I wrote to the national body then, in the year 1990, was that the four players would surprise Nigerians. The first tournament of the year was Coca-Cola championship, It was Kazeem Badru that won it, one of the boys I took to Germany. Others won in different championships but by December that year, they said they were having inter-club championship in United States. They went with Nigerian Airways but failed to come back. That was the end and that was how Nigeria lost investment and opportunities of these boys representing the country. They have not come back since then. That was 1989 and today, they are big boys now.
What are the plans to celebrate the 50 years of your award and the new foundation set to be launched?
I have to be grateful to God Almighty that in the last 50 years, I have gone through so many things but we scaled through with the help of God. No serious injury or illness, my people are not asking Nigerians to donate money for me, many people that we played together have gone but It is by His grace I’m still alive.
I felt it is necessary to celebrate oneself if nobody celebrates you. Sunday Eboh, now based in Germany and one of the first set of Nigerians that travelled out to play professional table tennis, has promised to be part of the celebration and even agreed to play a novelty match that day to reflect what happened in 1973. I’m just grateful to God. However, in 1974, I had a terrible accident I was in my house at Agbeni, Ibadan with my brother and the house collapsed in the middle of the night.
The incident shook the whole of the city, my brother was picked dead from the debris that day. We were on the same bed, people assumed I was at the Liberty Stadium training but one of the boys said’ Waidi Ekun is inside’, so people were looking for dead body until they saw my leg, assuming I was dead, so they pulled me out and took me to University College Hospital (UCH) where I was admitted for six months. I was a student at that time and I was told Governor Jemibewon visited me at the UCH and the management of the hospital gave their best in making sure I survived the accident.
If I survived that incident, it means I have something good to do, so I’m grateful to God that I survived that accident.
At the anniversary, we plan to launch a foundation where we will nurture the young ones to benefit from the world of table tennis.
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