The remarkable story of British Nigerian football start Ola Aina

At the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt earlier this year, 23-year-old Ola Aina played in his first major international tournament, helping the Nigerian national team to a third-place finish.

In doing so, he completed a remarkable personal journey.

Born in Southwark, South London to Nigerian parents, Ola has risen to the ranks of professional football - playing for Chelsea, Torino and the Nigerian national team, despite growing up with few privileges.

His journey began when he competed in a tournament in Bognor Regis on the English coast with his youth side. He was voted "most valuable player" among over 600 others, spotted by scouts and attracted attention from 15 clubs, including Premier League sides Tottenham and Chelsea - he later went on to play for the "Blues" as an under-11.

His father Olufemi Aina, a central figure in Ola's story, always believed his son had the making of a gifted athlete. Ola as a child, Olufemi told Al Jazeera, was so physically impressive that he carried his birth certificate around to prove he was the right age.

"He was meant to sign for Tottenham," his father said. "They had him over for about three weeks, then on the day he was supposed to sign, they kept acting funny. As a big Spurs fan, it was heartbreaking. Luckily, Chelsea officials were still calling us daily, so we decided, 'Why not go where you are wanted?'"

But the celebrations were short-lived, as the family desperately rallied around to try and make Ola's dream possible.

His parents often worked several jobs. At one time, his mother Esther had four just to put food on the table for her four sons - Michael, Ola - the second born, Jordan and Benjamin.

When Ola started playing with Chelsea, they would pick him up in their shabby car from training after their work shifts, getting back home just before midnight.

Ola would be up for school again the next morning.

The situation got worse when Olufemi, unable to hold onto jobs because of his commitments to his son's training, lost their house.

"A bleak time for the whole family, and for me," said Ola. "That was a life lesson."

Although Esther is, in Ola's words, his "number one fan", she needed a bit more convincing every now and then.

As a young player, the budding footballer spent four days trying to persuade her to move the family from Essex to Surrey, to be closer to Chelsea. She eventually gave in.

But that was the least of it. About six years ago, his father was driving him to Chelsea when the car broke down.

"The car just stopped in the middle of Vauxhall (in central London), and we were just stranded.

"He sold the car on the spot and then he put me on the train. He came on the train with me because I hadn't really used trains like that before, so it wasn't really too familiar.

"He came with me all the way to Chelsea training ground, made sure I got into my changing room, and then went all the way back home again … All those sacrifices they [made] is fuel for me to strive and to do well and repay them in ways that they can't imagine."

Remembering that day, Olufemi said: "It was not always smooth sailing, but you need to give the child support. In football, some will not make it, but the child deserves a chance."

One of the ways Ola has "repaid" his parents is by taking Esther to a dealership and buying her a brand new car, which prompted her to fast for three days to thank God.

"My heart was full with thanks to God. I never thought that in my lifetime that my child would get me a car," she told Al Jazeera.

In August 2016, Ola made his senior professional debut for Chelsea in the League Cup. Over the course of that season, he made a handful of appearances.

But the next season was spent out on loan to Hull City in the English Championship.

When he returned to London in 2018, there was interest from Torino.

"This was an opportunity to be in a top league, and to get some good experience," he said.

The Italian team made his loan deal permanent earlier this year.

Playing for Nigeria

In 2017, Ola chose to represent the Nigeria national football team, also known as the Super Eagles, at the international level, despite having played for England in the youth ranks.

At the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, his spectacular back-heeled assist against Burundi was among the many moments celebrated by fans and countrymen.

His performance in North Africa earned him rave reviews in the local press and also impressed the notoriously judgemental Super Eagles fans on social media.

Thousands of miles away, he was being cheered in Nigeria.

"It was all over the news, [Ola] gave our folks something to be proud of back home," said his uncle Abayomi Aina.

"I was overjoyed and the fact that it's my nephew, the name Aina being mentioned by commentators.

"In a country of about 200 million people, his name was on the lips of millions from Lagos to Ijebu Ikenne (the family's ancestral hometown) and it was indeed a proud moment for us."

In Nigeria, the chances of a footballer ascending to the highest levels of the sport are slim.

"Nigeria is a conveyor belt of talent, with its sheer weight of numbers allied to the popularity of football," said Lagos-based sports journalist Solace Chukwu.

"However, there are simply no structures in place to develop and harness all that talent: among many other issues, there is a massive infrastructure deficit as a result of a non-existent sports policy, and the nation's football administration lacks the vision and integrity to get around that deficit.

"In those circumstances, real success stories are fewer than they should be, and are often a result of sheer determination and perseverance."

Reflecting on his performance in Egypt, Ola said: "It was completing a circle in my life having played for England at youth level. To then play for Nigeria at a major tournament - the buzz after that assist was amazing.

"To play five matches in seven at that tournament and to win a third-place medal is the stuff of dreams."


By Oluwashina Okeleji

Al Jazeera

Video - Nigeria's Lost Generation Pt. 2

In Part two of this documentary the story of courage and persistence continues. Fatima Adam, one of the chibok girls abductees soldiers on past the trauma she under went at the hands of the boko haram. Bukky Shonibare fights on to have the rest of the chibok girls released. A story of courage and resilience.

Related story:  Video - Nigeria's lost Generation

Black skinhead film directed by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje hopes to "heal" pain

Now an award-winning actor, he has brought his story to cinemas in his country of origin - Nigeria. He hopes his directorial debut will be part of a “healing” process for people who sought foster care to give their children a better life.

Farming, the film’s title, takes its name from a term used to describe the practice of Nigerian immigrants fostering their children to white families in Britain so they could work, study and save money. It refers to the idea that the children were “farmed” out.

The aim of the practise, mainly prevalent from the 1960s to 1980s, was for the immigrants to eventually return to Nigeria.

“Perhaps this can provide a healing in some sense but ultimately a re-evaluation of our child-rearing processes,” Akinnuoye-Agbaje told Reuters at the film’s Nigerian premiere on Saturday in the country’s commercial capital, Lagos, after first being screened in London last month.

“I’m hoping that it will create a dialogue and a collective therapy for those that are still suffering, and a healing because many of the Nigerian farmers don’t actually go back for the children that were fostered,” he said.


As a six-week-old baby in 1967, Akinnuoye-Agbaje was left in the care of a white family in Tilbury, a southeast England town around 20 miles east of central London. And, as a youth, he joined a gang of skinheads - a far-right subculture often associated with racist violence in Britain.

Membership in a gang that previously tormented him ended when his biological father, who had relocated to Nigeria where he worked as a barrister, paid for him to attend a private school in the affluent English county of Surrey.

That step was taken after he was contacted by Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s foster mother.

“It is an important part of British history as well as Nigerian culture, so to be able to bring a story that I have harboured for so long home to the Nigerian audience is... a wonderful sense of accomplishment,” said Akinnuoye-Agbaje.

The film - which cost 3 million pounds ($3.89 million) to make and stars British actor Kate Beckinsale as the foster mother - was greeted with cheers and applause in a packed cinema hall in the upmarket Lagos district of Lekki.

Thousands of Nigerians leave the west African country each year in search of a better life abroad - often in Europe and the United States. Some of those who attended the screening said it was interesting to see a depiction of life overseas that differed from their expectations.

“When it comes to racism... we normally focus on America but it was nice to see what actually happened in the UK (United Kingdom),” said broadcaster Simi Drey.

Similarly, a cinematographer who goes by the name T-Cent said he was surprised by the portrayal of people typically seen as having benefited from life in a nation richer than Nigeria, where most people live on less than $2 a day.

“We look at these people and we say they are very, very privileged, but then everyone has their
 internal struggles,” he said.

By Nneka Chile

Reuters

Nigeria on the brink of finally ending fuel imports

Africa’s biggest oil producer is trying to get its refineries working in an attempt to wean itself off imported fuel. Yet again.

Over the past 12 years, Nigeria tried and failed four times to crank up its ageing and unprofitable crude-processing plants. Now the state-run energy company is giving it another shot — a move that, if successful, could end the nation’s reliance on fuel imports. However, the country’s recent track record means there is scepticism about the latest effort.

“For our refineries that have not been properly maintained for years, it might be easier to build a new one,” said Cheta Nwanze, head of research at SBM Intelligence, a Lagos-based risk advisory.

The West African country of 200-million people imports more than 90% of products such as petrol and diesel, swapping its prized export — crude — for petroleum products that people need.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) operates four refineries that have long run at a fraction of their capacity. The newest is almost four decades old. By successfully making its own fuels, Nigeria would stop being reliant on traders bringing supplies on tankers from thousands of miles away, with all the extra costs that entails.

Truly committed

Mele Kyari, the newly appointed group MD of NNPC, says this time will be different.

He has made fixing the plants a main part of his agenda since taking the helm of the company in July, and says President Muhammadu Buhari is the country’s first leader in years to be committed to the revamp. Kyari has revived a target to upgrade the plants and end fuel imports by 2023, after the company missed a previous goal for the end of 2019.

Timipre Sylva, the minister of state for petroleum resources, said the overhaul should be successful this time because Nigeria is asking the owners of the refinery technology to get more involved in the work. Once the plants are operational, they will be run by external people, which will also help, he said.

The work is scheduled to begin in January, first on the Port Harcourt complex, a two-refinery facility with the capacity to process 210,000 barrels of crude a day. Repairs will then move to the smaller refineries.

Dangote boost

Some of Nigeria’s challenges to become more self-sufficient in fuel may soon be alleviated for another reason. In the next few years, a new, privately owned 650,000 barrel-a-day refinery is due to come online. In theory, it could meet all of the country’s fuel needs and have enough left over for exports.

The plant, being built by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is not owned by the Nigerian state. That means that the country would have to pay market prices — similar to those charged by traders — for the fuel the refinery churns out. There would be little reason for Dangote to subsidise Nigeria’s domestic fuel prices if it were more profitable for the refinery to sell elsewhere.

The scepticism that state-run plants can return to full operation stems from NNPC’s previous attempts. Efforts to overhaul its refining industry — in 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2016 — all failed to work out. The state energy company has to compete with other domestic demands for funding, such as health care, education and other social services.

Three years ago, Nigeria sought external financing for its refineries after a plunge in crude prices, oil theft and attacks on its pipelines by militants and other saboteurs. That effort crumbled after it failed to convince investors of the viability of the venture.

NNPC is talking to the African Export-Import Bank and other financial institutions to fund the revamp.

“The money to comprehensively fix the refineries is simply not there,” said Ayodele Oni, chair of the energy and natural resources practice at Bloomfield Law in Lagos. “It is a difficult task to attract any significant funding required for their repairs in their present state.”

Business Day

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Smuggling booms despite Nigeria border closure

Francis Sardauna in Katsina and Eromosele Abiodun in Lagos

Despite the closure of Nigerian land borders by the federal government in the last three months, smuggling still persists at the border between Nigeria and Niger Republic, THISDAY’s investigation has revealed.

THISDAY gathered that at the border between Jibia in Katsina State and Niger Republic, smugglers have resorted to the use of illegal routes to ferry in bags of foreign rice, bales of second-hand clothing and other contrabands.

However, the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has dismissed the observation, calling for either a photograph or video evidence to prove the allegation. NCS also said it would be impossible for smugglers to operate at any of the country’s borders.

Investigation revealed that while strict compliance appears to reign at the main border post between the two countries, illegal businesses still thrived at some bush paths and sundry illegal entry points where unscrupulous security operatives, work hand-in-glove with smugglers to smuggle contraband goods into the country.
President Muhammadu Buhari had on August 20, 2019 ordered a joint border security aimed at securing the country’s land and maritime borders.

But when THISDAY visited the border town of Jibia at the weekend, it was observed that there were some illegal routes that commercial drivers and motorcyclists were using to transport goods and passengers into the country.
It was gathered that rice smugglers were also taking advantage of the lax security to bring their wares into the country but at much higher price than before.

Some of the illegal routes the smugglers used to ferry in the contrabands from Niger Republic to Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina State include Sabon Gari, Dan-Harau, Alele, Makada and Maidabaro roads despite heavy security at the borders.
The smugglers, it was learnt, go through the laborious route of offloading the contrabands few meters away from the official border security post and use J-5 buses, Gulf 4 and 5 vehicles and motorcycles to ferry the items from their hideouts into Jibia for onward transportation to their warehouses in Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Zamfara, Jigawa States and some other parts of the country.

Residents of the border town told THISDAY that the smugglers were being aided by security personnel, including soldiers, policemen, Customs and immigration officials, who allegedly collected money from the smugglers to allow them a free passage at the 13 checkpoints between Jibia and Katsina metropolis.

A motorcyclist involved in smuggling, who pleaded anonymity, told THISDAY that those of them engaged in the business understood the risks and dangers involved but affirmed that they would not encounter any problem unless they refused to cooperate with security operatives at the checkpoints.

“Unless one refused to pay the bribe for each category of items or when it is time for the officials to sacrifice you to prove that they are working – that is when they will arrest you in the name of smuggling,” he explained.
A commercial driver simply identified as Sule, who specialised in smuggling, said business had been booming for them because they do convey a bag of rice from Maradi (Niger Republic) to Katsina at the cost of N3,000 each.

“We used to charge rice merchants N3,000 for each bag of rice carried from Maradi to Katsina State. Although, we do follow bush paths and sometimes custom officers do arrest us. But once we give them some monies they allow us to pass even though some of them are very stubborn,” he stated.
He, however, lamented that the border closure has contributed negatively to the socio-economic imbalance of the state and the country in general.

When contacted, the NCS Commander in charge of Sector 4 Command of the National Border Drill Operation, Bashir Abubakar, said about 50 suspected smugglers had so far been apprehended and 14 trucks of contrabands intercepted.
He lamented that Jibia border has always been one of their major flashpoints since the commencement of the operation two months ago because of the “mental behaviour” of the inhabitants of the area.
“We have seen that people of that area are not in good terms with government security agencies and it has been a history,” he added.

On the allegation that his officers were extorting money from smugglers, Abubakar said: “I will not say yes, it is true but at the same time I will not deny because we are all human beings and there is no Nigerian that changes name in terms of issues of integrity and character.

“Think of anywhere in the world, there are bag eggs and good eggs. The same thing applies to various agencies in Nigeria – both government and private agencies but anyone found wanting will be punished.”
He added that lack of adequate operational vehicles and banditry has affected their ability to carry out the operation in all the villages in the state.

The Sector 4 Command of the National Border Drill Operation covers Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States.
Officers on the joint exercise were drawn from the Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Army, Nigeria Immigration Service, DSS and Nigerian Air Force.

We Need Video Evidence, Says Customs

When contacted, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Nigeria Customs Service, Joseph Attah said it would be impossible for smugglers to move around easily in any Nigerian border because of the security presence at the borders.
He said officers manning the borders were drawn from security services, which include the police, air force, army, Customs and the Department of State Services (DSS).

“This information is important to me. If you have evidence kindly make it available so I can challenge the Sector 4 Commander. This is something that nationwide, whoever gives that information should give us photographs or video evidence.
“The NCS is very interested in this information. What I can tell you is that this joint border exercise is coordinated by the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA) and there are joint forces, not only Customs officers and they are in all the borders, divided into four sectors. If I have an evidence to back up this information, I will quickly take it up with the Sector Commander and report the matter to the Office of the National Security Adviser.

“This is not Customs alone; the police are there, air force and the army are there; so, if somebody goes to Jibia and is saying that is what is happening in Idi-Iroko is not happening at Jibia, then, I will be interested. This is not Customs affair; it is all security agencies that are there. Your reporter should tell me where he is there so I can connect him with the people on ground to help.

When asked if there is possibility smuggling is still going on in Jibia, he said, “I can tell you that whatever you see happening in Seme, Idi-Iroko and other land borders around the country is what is happening in Jibia, Umfun, Cross Rivers, and Migatiri in Sokoto State.”

This Day