After his primary education at the famous St. Theresa Primary School,
Jos, which has also produced the likes of the Atuegbu brothers and
Segun Mathematical Odegbami, the young lad, Mabo, enrolled at the
Academy Institute of Commerce, Jos, famed for breeding footballers
that included Sam Garba, Tony Igwe (World 2), among others.
Mabo’s rise to stardom began when he was invited to the Nigerian
Academicals camp along with another rising star, Sam Garba. The
Academicals were made up of young players drawn from post-primary
institutions across the country. Both of them were also members of the
Northern Academicals.
The young Mabo soon graduated to the senior level and became a key
component of the famous Plateau XI of Jos that produced legends like
Teslim Thunder Balogun, Fabian Duru, Christopher ‘Don’t Mind Them”
Udemuzue, who later became the Flying Eagles Coach in the late 80s,
among others. I once described Jos as the Bethlehem of football in one
of my early write-ups on the Standard sports pages.
The Plateau XI, labelled as a jinxed team because of their perennial
failures in the quest for the prestigious Challenge Cup, was laid to rest
and the Mighty Jets rose from its ashes. Perhaps, it was thought that
the Jets would fly higher in the quest to capture the flagship of the
nation’s football competitions.
About three or so years after the Jets flew into limelight, a glimpse of
better years began to manifest: the club won the maiden Amachere
Cup competed for by all Nigerian football clubs on home-and-away
basis in 1971. The victory qualified the club to represent Nigeria in the
continental club championship. They paraded some of the best football
legs in the country: Isma’ila Mabo, Sam Garba, Layi Olagbemiro,
nicknamed Eusebio because of his striking resemblance with the
Portuguese soccer legend, Babalola Olugbodi, Uba Jnr., Lawandi Datti,
Sule Kekere, Bayo Adenuga, the Atuegbu brothers, Batande Ali, Ali
Lime, Nda Liman, just to mention a few.
However, the Jets lost out in the very first round of the competition in a
dramatic, weird encounter played in Ouagadougou, the capital of the
present-day Burkina Faso, formerly known as Upper Volta. The
Ouagadougou encounter stretched a little beyond sunset in a stadium
that had no floodlights. So, the spectators had to surround the pitch
with illumination from (burning) newspapers.
It was a nasty experience. Layi (11) and Babalola (7) narrowly escaped
being incinerated by the spectators who chose to strafe them with
flames whenever they ventured to the touchline. Skipper Mabo had to
do a lot of calming down when his boys were becoming agitated. In the
end, the Jets lost. It was an escape from hell (fire) as narrated by Mabo!
The 1972 Challenge Cup was a test to see whether or not the jinx had
been broken, having won the Amachere Cup the previous year. Again,
the Jos lads, like the Plateau XI before them, got to the final. The
Onikan Stadium, Lagos, was jampacked. Among the VIPs at the stadium
were Governor J.D. Gomwalk of the old Benue-Plateau State and his
Bendel State counterpart, Samuel Ogbemudia. The Jets were to face
the Bendel Insurance FC of Benin in the epic final, handled by FIFA-
badged referee Sunny Badru.
The pulsating encounter saw the Insurers coasting to victory (2 – 0) five
minutes to the final whistle. The crowd had begun to exit the venue
when Sam Garba began to do the impossible. He cancelled the two
goals one after the other in a one-man raid on the Insurers’ stubborn
defence led by Skipper Sebastine Brodricks Imasuen. Skipper Isma’ila
Mabo had his inputs in the build-up to the two dramatic late goals.
The Insurers’ spectators who had exited the venue went into rapture in
the belief that their team had increased the tally, flashing three fingers
in mockery of supporters of the Jets who were in mourning. Then
another ovation immediately rang out of the stadium followed by more
jubilation outside, unknown to them that it was the Jets that were
flying high. Sunny Badru had the whistle firmly between his lips quite
alright but he was shellshocked to breathe air into it. And if at all he
did, the ovation that greeted the equaliser must have drowned it. It has
gone down in football history that Sam Garba prematurely retired
Sunny Badru from refereeing. He was suspended by the Nigeria
Football Association and he hung his whistle afterwards.
There was confusion at the stadium. While the Insurers’ supporters
transited from ecstasy to melancholy, it was the turn of the Jets’
disciples to paint the venue red.
A replay was fixed for the following Saturday at the Liberty Stadium,
Ibadan, to contain the crowd expected at the venue. Unfortunately, the
Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo (Wazobia) sentiments crept into the squad and
the Jets lost out. It is on record that Plateau lost the Cup in 10 final
appearances. And the jinx lingered on, earning them the moniker
“Soroye”, meaning “those who sight the throne without sitting on it” in
Yoruba.
The jinx with Jos teams persisted until November 1999, when the
Plateau United, morphing from the Standard FC of Jos, clinched the
elusive diadem by a lone goal in a duel against the Iwuanyawu
Nationale FC of Owerri.
The Mighty Jets FC, piloted by the international business mogul, Alhaji
Isyaku Ibrahim, decided to send the trio of Isma’ila Mabo, Sam Garba
and Matthew Atuegbu to Brazil on a six-month coaching course. They
were at the twilight of their football career and it was thought that it
would be more beneficial to Plateau football if the three musketeers
were exposed to coaching.
Upon returning to the country, the threesome gained employment with
the Benue-Plateau Sports Council. The duo of Sam Garba and Matthew
Atuegbu were at various times assigned to the Standard FC whenever
the club or any other clubs qualified for state engagements. If death
had not cut short Sam Garba’s life in July 1978 after a car crash, he
would have ended up as a national team coach… just as Mabo did later.
I could not keep tabs on Matthew Atuegbu’s coaching peregrinations,
but Isma’ila Mabo did exploits with the Mighty Jets also as a coach.
There was a competitive match between the Jets and the Standard FC I
would never forget. In the build-up to the encounter, and in my
capacity as the club chairman, I talked the coaching crew into agreeing
that our attackers should shoot on sight from all angles. The strategy
was to weaken the goalkeeper in the first half. Ayalo Magaji was in the
net for the Jets and sharp shooters like Bala Ali, Bitrus Bewarang, and
Sunday Daniels were firing on all cylinders. How Ayalo survived the
bombardment remains an enigma to me till date. However, Mabo saw
through us. He pulled out Ayalo and replaced him with Bob Nathan. It
became a fresh Bob Nathan against the tired legs of our strikers. The
duel ended scoreless.
Mabo was later to become arguably one of the most successful coaches
of the female senior football team, the Super Falcons. When his
appointment was announced, I asked him how he would cope with the
(luscious) laps larruping all over the place, not to speak of the sight of
pistoning boobs and backsides! His religion frowns at such exposure.
His response was simple: “Those girls are like my daughters and I will
treat them as such”. And that was exactly what he did. He guided the
ladies to many conquests on the continent and beyond. I know of a
Super Falcons’ coach who did not last long with the team because he
kept his eyes on the boobs and backsides rather than the ball(s)!
Isma’ila Mabo’s soccer odyssey cannot be fully told in this space. An era
has ended, even though two or so of his mates are still living: Babalola
Olugbodi and Batande Ali who is bedridden in Kano. Layi passed on a
little over a decade ago.
Mabo will be sorely missed. His death is a personal loss to me. Though
by far my senior, he always addressed me as the Chair, even when we
played together in Highlanders XI in the 80s. The Plateau state
Government should immortalise his name. He died as the serving
Chairman of the Board of the state Sports Council of which I am a
member for the third time.
May Allah grant his soul Aljannah Firdaus, and his family, friends and
followers the fortitude to cope with his painful departure. Ameen.
