SPECIAL REPORT: Abandoned national hero Maiyegun finds solace in Austrian wife, Fumilayo

Elsewhere pioneers and trailblazers are celebrated like Kings and Queens but in Nigeria, they are more often treated like poor distance cousins.

Nojeem Maiyegun, the first Nigerian to win an Olympics medal is one of the many trailblazers that Nigeria treats with contempt.

Maiyegun who won Nigeria’s first Olympic medal at Tokyo’64 games, over a decade after we joined the modern Olympics Family in Helsinki’52 Games, has been consigned into the dustbin of history by our rulers.

234sportsng.com Central Europe Special Correspondents Olubunmi Akande and Charles Ambrose met Maiyegun in Vienna, Austria January 4, 2022. As he marks his 82nd birthday today, we celebrate the living legend in our own little way, we hope our leaders will remember him and give him the deserved honour and recognition.

Introduction

When you are down and out, the only way out is God’s intervention and when God intervenes it translates into eternal joy and peace. 

This is the Nojeem Maiyegun, the first Nigeria to win an Olympic medal. Divine intervention came the day he met Ruldofine an Austrian lady he later married.

When they met, many ladies would not consider Maiyegun a suitor, much less think of marrying. 

Then, he was blind and doing menial jobs to eke out a living but even at his lowest level, Ruldofine not only fell in love with him but became his everything from the day they met.

Maiyegun speaks exclusively to 234sports correspondents in Vienna, Austria

Maiyegun changed her name to Funmilayo (Which literally means God gives me joy). How prophetic the name turned out to be because as he turned 82 years old today, life without Funmilayo would probably have been harsh. 

Blind and suffering from dementia (a chronic or persistent disorder of the mental process caused by brain disease or injury and marked by memory disorders, personality changes and impaired reasoning).

When we met Maiyegun at his government flat on a bitterly cold evening in January 2022, he was all smiles, his white teeth shining like crystal.  

Dressed in Yoruba attire: ‘This your welcome smile is infectious sir” we said, “It’s more than a welcome smile my children. I have the ability to perceive young men when they are around me and I smile, their youthfulness, this makes me happy. You people, the younger ones, are the strength of the world, you are the future”

We recalled an encounter with him on the streets of Vienna about eight years ago. It was summer, he was wearing Yoruba Dashiki, when we greeted him ‘Eka san Baba’, and it was the same infectious smile accompanied with prayers.  

Still agile, strong, looking fresh, neatly dressed and ever ready to talk but his challenges are his sight and memory but thank God for Funmilayo who is today Maiyegun’s sight and memory.

His memory fluctuates, for example when we asked about Muhammad Ali he quickly responded, “Yes, I know Mohammed Ali, he was great. “We have met in person and taken pictures together but we never fought each other in the ring.” But he has never heard of Anthony Joshua, the former world boxing champion..

When we asked him where he was born he could hardly remember but thank  God for Funmilayo, Maiyegun’s walking encyclopedia, “He was born in Lagos but his parents hailed from Abeokuta”

Maiyegun could not also remember the name of his mother and his plan for his birthday. Again, it was Funmilayo to the rescue. She told us his mother’s name is Falilat and that his birthday today will be quiet.

Over the years, Maiyegun must have told Funmilayo the story of his life over and over again and being a lady with retentive memory she recalled all the details effortlessly. 

Funmilayo knows all the streets in Lagos Island where Maiyegun used to play as a child and as an adult. She remembered events and dates without checking a diary. 

In fact, calling her Maiyegun’s memory bank will not be inappropriate.

Longing not to be forgotten but long forgotten 

For Funmilayo, the only thing that Maiyegun wants from Nigeria is not to be forgotten, that the country should but do something that will etch his name in stone in the hearts of the unborn generation.

But Nigeria has long forgotten him, in fact a director in the National Sports Commission (NSC)  told a public gathering that he was dead.

 At the Eko 2012 National Sports festival the director  referred to him late Maiyegun while presenting the champions’ trophy to Team Delta, winners of the 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos , said the trophy was “named after late Nojim Maiyegun”, causing many to wonder when the boxing legend died.

In an earlier interview, Maiyegun responded swiftly, “I am not dead as some people think. I’m still living in Austria but as an old man, I take things easy. I cannot afford to travel regularly between Austria and Nigeria because of my age. Besides, I will need assistance in Nigeria because I’m blind. I’ll need a trustworthy person to accompany me all the time. It will be like starting from scratch if I return home, but I really want to come back. I hope the government can be of help in this regard,” 

Early childhood and foray into boxing 

Maiyegun, according to Funmilayo, was born in the Bamgbose area of Lagos Island. He started boxing at 16. He had gone to fetch water at a public tap in Bamgbose. 

There was a boy who bullied other kids whenever he got to the public tap; the boy beat him thoroughly that was why he started learning boxing at Bonny Ade Boxing Gym for six months until he was able to fight the boy.

 His parents were against his foray into boxing while his Uncle named Suarju wanted to learn carpentry because according to him boxing and crime go hand in hand and most boxers are jagunda. 

But the moment he started winning amateur fights, his parents backed down and started supporting him.

With his parents backing, the sky became the limit for Maiyegun. His first international fight was against Ghana’s Joe Blackey in Accra in 1960, which he won. He then made the Nigeria team to the Tokyo ’64 Olympic Games where he won Nigeria’s first medal in the Olympics, a bronze medal, in boxing.

At the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica, he won another bronze medal also in boxing.

Maiyegun, nicknamed Omo Oloja by boxing buffs moved to Austria after turning pro but his dream of winning a world title was cut short by blindness.

He had to struggle to eke out a living after losing his sight. In an earlier interview, Maiyegun said, “I’m not sure what could have caused the blindness but doctors thought it could have been from punches on the head. It started partially, and at one point, I had to fight a world championship title bout with the sight problem. I lost the fight on the decision but it is on record that I am the first blind boxer to fight for a title. I could see with one eye then.”

Maiyegun also loves climbing mountains. He is the first completely blind man in Austria to climb a mountain 1,7meters high and jump with a parachute.

Awards and recognition.

 Apart from the award from Pastor Chris Okotie, Household of God Church at the annual Karis Awards Ceremony, Maiyegun has not got the deserved awards for winning the nation’s first Olympic Games medal and a bronze medal two years later at the Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica.

Said Maiyegun in an earlier interview “I don’t recall getting anything special as a reward when I won the medal at the Olympics but former Head of State Ibrahim Babangida gave me an award in 1989. The award was eventually retrieved by the Sports Ministry the following year for no reason at all. I was thinking the award would belong to me forever but they took it back.”

After spending quality time with the couple we decided to leave but the words of Funmilayo kept resonating in our minds. What will cost Nigeria to give Maiyegun a national honour and name an edifice after him? Which sane society will dump a trailblazer in another part of the world forget when he should be celebrated daily and his story used to inspire the youth.

We always chorus that the labour of our heroes will not be in vain, why don’t we put it into practice? Will Nigeria wait for Maiyegun to die before we start sending a government delegation to his family and give him a ‘befitting burial’. Why not give him a ‘befitting living instead of befitting burial’. So many questions are beyond us. We only hope and pray that the power that be will read this and act on it.