Top NFL Players Who Hail from Nigeria

Nigerians have been leaving an indelible mark on the global sports stage for many years. Consequently, it comes as no surprise that numerous Nigerian athletes have become integral parts of football, basketball, and tennis teams in international clubs and leagues.

American football is no exception, and the National Football League (NFL) consistently welcomes Nigerian players into the beloved sport of the United States.

Let's delve into the achievements of some noteworthy Nigerian players in the NFL.
 

James Ihedigbo

James Ihedigbo was a football safety for the New York Jets, New England Patriots, Baltimore Ravens, Detroit Lions, and Buffalo Bills from 2008 to 2016. He was born to Nigerian parents who immigrated to the United States.


Prior to joining the NFL, he had an impressive football career at the University of Massachusetts. According to Ihedigbo, his love for the sport started when he was just six years old. Although he dabbled in soccer, he found American football to be far more enjoyable.
 

Ositadimma "Osi" Umenyiora

Osi Umenyiora is a former defensive end for the New York Giants and Atlanta Falcons, and no Nigerian NFL player list would be complete without him. Although born in London, Umenyiora spent a significant portion of his early life in Nigeria before moving to Alabama at the age of 14.


He played football at Auburn High School and later for the Troy State Trojans in college. In the NFL, Umenyiora secured two Super Bowl victories and broke a record for fumbles. Post-retirement, he initiated efforts to facilitate more Nigerians' direct entry into the NFL.
 

Kenneth Odumegwu

Odumegwu's football journey jump-started with the help of Osi Umenyiora, who encouraged him to make the move from Nigeria to the U.S. to join the NFL at the age of 22. As part of Umenyiora’s program, The Uprise, designed to give African athletes opportunities to be drafted by major NFL teams, Odumegwu signed with the Green Bay Packers as a defensive lineman in 2023.


Prior to that, he spent time as a soccer player, and then a basketball player when he was told his height would make him useful in that sport. However, he is now known as the first player from the International Player Pathway program to ever join the Packers.
 

Amobi Okoye

Nigerian-born Amobi Okoye is the youngest player to ever be drafted in the first round of the NFL draft, and he was first picked by the Houston Texans in 2007 at the age of 19. After playing with the Texans, he went on to play with the Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers through 2012.


However, in March of 2013, he suffered a seizure due to anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, a relatively new disease that affects the areas of the brain that control memories and judgments. Since his diagnosis, Okoye has retired from the NFL and made a full recovery for his health.
 

Haggai Chisom Ndubuisi

Haggai Chisom Ndubuisi didn’t start playing American football until he was 18 years old, while he was still living in Nigeria. He claims to have started playing after just watching a YouTube video of the sport.


In 2023, he was drafted by the Denver Broncos as a defensive lineman. Before his draft, Ndubuisi was an offensive lineman who competed in the Cardinals’ training camp.
 

Chukwuebuka Jason Godrick

Chukwuebuka Jason Godrick is an offensive lineman for the Kansas City Chiefs, working alongside players like Patrick Mahomes and Prince Tega Wanogho. After being drafted in 2023 at the age of 22, he joined the Chiefs’ training camp with little knowledge of the sport.


Like other fresh international players, he was a basketball player back home in Nigeria.
 

Summary

Nigerian players have undeniably altered the landscape of the NFL, contributing to Super Bowl victories and setting numerous records. Both retired and current players continue to showcase their athletic prowess, serving as inspirations for future generations of Nigerians venturing into American football.

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Mikel John Obi recalls his dad’s harrowing kidnappings

Mikel John Obi vividly remembers the moment he was told his father, Pa Michael Obi, had been kidnapped for a second time.

Kidnappings for ransom targeting wealthy family members has become common in Africa’s most populous country and is seen by some criminal gangs as a lucrative endeavour.

The Nigeria and Chelsea soccer player told CNN Sport that he heard the news just two hours before he was set to play a World Cup game against Lionel Messi and Argentina at Russia 2018.

“Just like everybody else, I was excited going into one of the biggest games of my life, playing against [Lionel] Messi and Argentina,” Obi told CNN Senior Sports Analyst Darren Lewis in a recent interview.

“I was in my room getting ready, and all of a sudden, my phone started ringing and it was my brother calling … to say that dad has been kidnapped. I was like, ‘What, again?’”

Obi said it was “heart-breaking” to hear his father was undergoing such an ordeal for a second time in his life.

As Obi tried to process the news, he said he began “shivering” even though it was hot summer’s day in St Petersburg.

“I was sitting there thinking, ‘What am I going to do? Shall I tell the team? Shall I tell the players, tell the manager, tell the [Nigerian] FA?’” said Obi.

“‘What shall I do?’ Because this is the biggest game of our lives. So, I thought to myself, ‘You know what? I’m going to go out there and perform. I don’t want to let these guys [the kidnappers] win.’

“I am the captain. I’m the leader of this team and I have to go out there and be strong for the team and for the country. I decided not to tell anyone,” added Obi.

Despite pushing the Albiceleste to the limit, with a Marcos Rojo 86th-minute goal making the difference, Nigeria went on to lose 2-1 and Obi said that he felt like he “was going to fall down and probably collapse” during the game.

“I went out and performed. I remember in the game, a few times, I thought I was going to throw up. Emotions were running here and there.

“I didn’t know what I was thinking … about the game … about my dad … about my mom who was in tears … my family, my brothers, my sisters. Everybody was in tears.”

After the game, Obi says he told his teammates, the Nigerian Football Federation and the world’s media about the kidnapping, before negotiations began to get his father returned safely.

“I remember my dad saying to me, ‘They’ve got the gun on my head, son,’” said Obi.

“‘I’m an old man. I’m your dad, but you have to decide what you have to do.
It’s the second time it’s happened. I know you could pay a huge amount of money to get me out and to make sure that I come home safely.’

“Of course, I want my dad back. It doesn’t matter what. I want my dad to be home,” added Obi, who in 2018 said the kidnappers had demanded 10 million naira (around $30,000) to release his father.

Through the help of the Nigeria Police Force, Obi’s father was eventually rescued. The Nigeria Police Force did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for more details about the 2018 kidnapping.

The first time Obi’s father had been abducted was in 2011 in Jos, the main city in Plateau State in central Nigeria, when he was on his way back home after work.

“It was a massive shock for me, for the family,” recalled Obi of that first kidnapping.

“I think he was taken for about 10 days. And that’s when we tried to start making phone calls and they got in touch with us.

“Obviously, they wanted to speak with me, so I spoke with them. They made their demands. I spoke to the club [Chelsea]. I spoke to Roman [Abramovich],” added Obi, referring to the Russian oligarch and former Chelsea FC owner.

According to Obi, Abramovich told the Nigerian international he was willing to support him and said: “’If you need me to do anything, if you need me to send my people over to Nigeria to find your dad, I’d be willing to do that.

“You know, you have that option. But if you think you pay the money, then you do it. So I finally had to pay the money. And then my dad got released.”

As in 2018, Obi opted to continue playing despite receiving devastating news. He was scheduled to play in a Premier League match for Chelsea against Stoke City.

“I remember Andre Villas-Boas was the [Chelsea] manager back then,” recalled Obi.

“He [Villas-Boas] spoke to me and said, ‘Listen, you are a very important player for me. I would like you to play the game if you feel like you want to.
If not, I can understand if you don’t want to travel with the team if you don’t want to play.’

“I said: ‘I don’t want these people to win. I don’t want to show them that I’m weak. I have to go out and perform,’ which is what I did. I travel with the team. I went out and I played the game and then, yeah, so that was really, really tough.”

Obi made 372 appearances for Chelsea, winning the Premier League (twice), the FA Cup (four times), the League Cup (twice), and the Champions League and Europa League during his time at the club.

After the first kidnapping, Obi remembers being reunited with his dad who had been beaten up by the kidnappers and dumped in the street like “trash.”

Describing the moment they met, Obi said his father was “bruised, beaten up” and had his “lips broken, head swollen, he can’t walk, can’t move. It was a very heart-breaking moment for me and my family. We suffered a lot.”

CNN has also asked the Nigeria Police Force for more details about the 2011 kidnapping.

When Obi saw from afar what happened to the father of Liverpool star Luis Díaz’s father, who was abducted in October and eventually released by Colombia’s National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group in November, the former Chelsea star reached out to the Colombian international on social media to offer his support.

“I have to commend him and Liverpool. I always say, when you’re in these situations, you need people around you. You need people who care about you. And Liverpool showed that support,” said Obi.

“Liverpool did show him that support, the fans, the players showed him that he is not alone.

“And I’m happy to see that that’s what he got with Liverpool. And eventually his father finally got released.”

By Zayn Nabbi and Darren Lewis, CNN

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ECOWAS Court rejects US prisoner’s request for transfer to Nigeria

The ECOWAS Court of Justice in Abuja has rejected a request to order the transfer of a Nigerian convicted of fraud in the United States to complete his jail time in Nigeria.

The court, in a judgement delivered on Thursday, said it lacked jurisdiction to grant Richard Ugbah’s request.

Mr Ughah had told the court he had already served eight years of the 12 years jail time imposed on him, and that he was due for release in May 2026, according to a statement by the court’s communication unit highlighting the key issues decided in Thursday’s judgement.

He approached West Africa’s regional court to order for his transfer to Nigeria, claiming to have satisfied the requirements for such a transfer.

But delivering judgement, a member of the court’s three-member panel, Sengu Koroma, the Judge Rapporteur of the panel, declared that the court lacked jurisdiction to hear the matter.

The court upheld the preliminary objection raised by the Federal Republic of Nigeria, sued as the first respondent, declaring the applicant’s claims as “unfounded and without legal basis”.

The judge also ruled that Nigeria’s Ministry of Justice sued as the second in the case, was not a proper party before it.

The court consequently dismissed all the prayers of the applicant.
 

The suit

The applicant, a Nigerian citizen and resident in the US, was convicted by the District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin after he pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud on 14 February 2017.

He was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment.

The ECOWAS Court’s statement said, he additionally, pleaded guilty to another count of conspiracy to commit fraud on 15 November 2017, and judgment was entered on 22 November 2017.

The applicant further told the ECOWAS Court that having served eight years of the sentence, he was due for release on 8 May 2026.

He urged the court to issue the orders for his transfer to Nigeria to complete his jail time, having, according to him, satisfied the necessary conditions in line with the provision of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Handbook on the International Transfer of Sentenced Persons.

He also maintained that the transfer of sentenced persons is considered to be an important means of cooperation to prevent and combat crimes.

He said crimes combatting and preventing crimes are the main purposes of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotic Substances of 1998, the United Nations Convention against Corruption and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime.


The applicant further argued that all three conventions cited refer to the possibility of concluding agreements to facilitate the transfer of persons convicted abroad for the offences covered by the conventions to another state to complete their sentence.
 

Nigeria opposes suit

The Nigerian government sued as the first respondent in the suit opposed the suit. It filed a preliminary objection contending that the applicant’s initiating application was incompetent by virtue of Articles 9 and 10 of the Supplementary Protocol (A/SP./01/05).

It added that its Ministry of Justice sued as the second respondent, is neither a Community Institution nor a signatory to the Economic Community of the West African States Treaty to be competent to be sued before the court.

The government further claimed that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain this suit. It, therefore, urged the court to strike out the notice of registration for want of jurisdiction and lack of cause of action.
 

Decision

In its decision, the court struck out the second respondent’s name as a party in the suit, based on the agreement reached by both sides in the suit.

The court went on to rule that the applicant failed to show a valid reason for his complaint against the respondent.

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