I would never advise my son to play for this country— Ex-Super Eagles Defender, Taribo West says as he Laments Neglect of Late Peter Rufai, Blasts NFF and Lagos State at Funeral.
Former Super Eagles defender, Taribo West, could not hold back his emotions on Friday as he spoke to journalists at the funeral of ex-Nigeria goalkeeper, Peter Rufai. The ex-Inter Milan star, visibly shaken, expressed deep grief over the treatment meted out to Rufai after retirement, describing it as a shameful reflection of how Nigeria handles its football heroes.
“I share the pains and burdens with the Rufai family,” West said. “It is disheartening that Lagos State and the Nigerian Football Federation dropped the buck on them. This is not how a nation should treat those who gave everything on the field.”
Struggling to keep his emotions in check, West recounted how the news of Rufai’s death hit him harder than the loss of his own parents. “When my mother passed, I didn’t shed tears. When my father died in my hands, I didn’t cry.
But when Rufai died, I had goosebumps and tears rolled down my cheeks. What kind of nation treats its heroes like this?” The former defender accused football authorities of neglect, pointing to similar cases of late Nigerian stars Stephen Keshi, Rashidi Yekini, and Thompson Oliha, all of whom, he said, were abandoned in their final years.
“Imagine a family crying and begging among themselves just to raise money to bury a national hero. That is madness,” West fumed. “With this kind of example, I would never advise my son to play for this country.
Do we even have a football federation in this Nigeria?” Taribo West ended his remarks by urging authorities to wake up to their responsibilities in honoring and supporting retired players who sacrificed for the country.
It’s a sort of a warning that we really need to have a long-term plan. It is not something that we just wish it away,” he said. Drawing comparisons with the fight against COVID-19, Buratai highlighted the massive investments that went into information campaigns, communication, palliatives, and preventive measures during the pandemic, which eventually saw the entire country shut down.
“The whole nation was locked down because of COVID-19. But we can do the same thing. We can lock down this country to make sure that everybody concentrates and deals with this crisis of so-called terrorists and bandits and kidnappers,” he noted.
He stressed that insecurity, like a pandemic or natural disaster, requires nationwide mobilization and shared responsibility, not just the efforts of security forces. Buratai also cited last year’s Maiduguri flood as an example of how the country rallied together to provide relief and rehabilitation, urging that the same level of urgency should be applied to the fight against insecurity.
I would never advise my son to play for this country— Ex-Super Eagles Defender, Taribo West says as he Laments Neglect of Late Peter Rufai, Blasts NFF and Lagos State at Funeral.
Former Super Eagles defender, Taribo West, could not hold back his emotions on Friday as he spoke to journalists at the funeral of ex-Nigeria goalkeeper, Peter Rufai. The ex-Inter Milan star, visibly shaken, expressed deep grief over the treatment meted out to Rufai after retirement, describing it as a shameful reflection of how Nigeria handles its football heroes.
“I share the pains and burdens with the Rufai family,” West said. “It is disheartening that Lagos State and the Nigerian Football Federation dropped the buck on them. This is not how a nation should treat those who gave everything on the field.”
Struggling to keep his emotions in check, West recounted how the news of Rufai’s death hit him harder than the loss of his own parents. “When my mother passed, I didn’t shed tears. When my father died in my hands, I didn’t cry.
But when Rufai died, I had goosebumps and tears rolled down my cheeks. What kind of nation treats its heroes like this?” The former defender accused football authorities of neglect, pointing to similar cases of late Nigerian stars Stephen Keshi, Rashidi Yekini, and Thompson Oliha, all of whom, he said, were abandoned in their final years.
“Imagine a family crying and begging among themselves just to raise money to bury a national hero. That is madness,” West fumed. “With this kind of example, I would never advise my son to play for this country.
Do we even have a football federation in this Nigeria?” Taribo West ended his remarks by urging authorities to wake up to their responsibilities in honoring and supporting retired players who sacrificed for the country.
It’s a sort of a warning that we really need to have a long-term plan. It is not something that we just wish it away,” he said. Drawing comparisons with the fight against COVID-19, Buratai highlighted the massive investments that went into information campaigns, communication, palliatives, and preventive measures during the pandemic, which eventually saw the entire country shut down.
“The whole nation was locked down because of COVID-19. But we can do the same thing. We can lock down this country to make sure that everybody concentrates and deals with this crisis of so-called terrorists and bandits and kidnappers,” he noted.
He stressed that insecurity, like a pandemic or natural disaster, requires nationwide mobilization and shared responsibility, not just the efforts of security forces. Buratai also cited last year’s Maiduguri flood as an example of how the country rallied together to provide relief and rehabilitation, urging that the same level of urgency should be applied to the fight against insecurity.
