Artist, Actor and Member of a Traveling Yoruba Theatre Group, Secondary School Teacher and Games Master: The Onigbinde That I Knew

By Segun Odegbami                                                                                                                                                      I was one of many who did not like Chief Festus Onigbinde (as he was referred to at the time) when I first encountered him half a century ago, around 1976.

He came in from the blue.

He was not known in the football circles of the old Western Region, or in any football circle anywhere for that matter. He had no pedigree either in playing the game or in coaching it.

He did not ‘exist’ in the football firmament until he was recruited by the Oyo State Sports Council as one of several coaches to drive grassroots football development in the ambitious new Oyo State in 1976.

He was the least known of that generation of coaches, most of whom emerged from the cadre of former national team players, Ayo Adeniji, Jide Johnson, Olu Onagoruwa, Bayo Alli. These were all renowned ex-internationals.

Chief Festus Onigbinde began to attract attention in Ibadan when he was posted to coach Water Corporation FC, a team made up mostly of players from the academic cadre.

They had been a constant threat to IICC Shooting Stars FC, the club promoted as the counter ‘movement’ of the Yoruba people to Rangers FC of Enugu, the team from east of the River Niger that emerged following the Civil War.

It was a deliberate, well-planned strategy by the Igbo to use football as a soft power tool to lead ‘defeated’ Biafrans back into the mainstream of Nigerian life by rising to the apex of the only sport that occupied a special place in the hearts of all Nigerians.

Chief Onigbinde was disliked only because the threat posed by Water Corporation FC under him was real and serious. Matches between the two clubs in Ibadan were wars. His posting to Water Corporation was not intended to make life difficult for Shooting Stars FC or to produce another champion.

The city could not accommodate two champions without affecting the sponsoring spirit behind ‘Sooting Star’.

All the other clubs in Oyo State were unofficially considered ‘feeder’ teams, their best players always gravitating to ‘Sooting’.

Despite the acute rivalry, however, I cannot recall Water Corporation FC defeating IICC Shooting Stars FC more than once in their encounters, even with Onigbinde as coach. It took a twist of fate for his fortunes and his relationship with Ibadan to change, moving him from the shadows into the sunlight of coaching.

It all started in 1976.

IICC Shooting Stars won the league as well as the African Cup Winners Cup that year. Rangers of Enugu were FA Cup winners and qualified to play in the 1977 Africa Cup Winners Cup.

IICC had to choose between representing Nigeria in the Champions League or defending their continental title. They chose to forfeit the Champions League opportunity, surrendering it to ‘sister’ club Water Corporation FC from Oyo State, third-placed on the league table.

That’s how Water Corporation FC came from ‘nowhere’ to play in the African Club Championship of 1977.

The responsibility fell on Chief Onigbinde to coach the team. He had great young players in the squad. Under his guidance, the Ibadan club reached the quarter-finals of the championship, an awesome performance that made Nigerians take note of the ‘pilot’, Chief Onigbinde.

In 1982, when Nigerian football was in crisis following the abysmal performance of the Green Eagles at the AFCON in Libya, the position of Chief Coach of the national team was advertised. Chief Onigbinde, along with many others, applied.

The interviews became the platform for him to display his intellectual skills and depth. His eloquence, presentation, and the quality of his responses blew away all competition. The Technical Committee had no choice but to hand over the exalted position to a deserving Festus Onigbinde.

The big question on the lips of most football followers in the country was: ‘Who is Onigbinde?’

The man answered by changing his name.

‘It was a big transformation from ‘Festus’ Onigbinde, the man from Modakeke, a former artist, an actor and a member of a traveling Yoruba theatre group in the old Western Nigeria, a secondary school teacher and games master, a coach that took Water Corporation FC to the fringes of Africa’s most coveted Club Championship trophy in his first attempt, to a new man, a new coach to handle Nigeria’s national football team.

The man declared that thenceforth he should be called and addressed with his new and full Cultural identity: Chief Adegboye Onigbinde.

That’s how he was reborn and his meteoric rise in football coaching began. The rest of his story is in well-documented history.

He took the national team, the Green Eagles, to the African Cup of Nations in 1984 in Cote D’Ivoire, gave many youngsters a chance in his team, and returned in second place, the first Nigerian coach to achieve that feat.’

When he returned to Oyo State after his two-year stint with the national team, he had become a national hero and a toast of the Ibadan people.

His ‘sins’ of coaching Water Corporation were quickly forgotten, and the fans had no difficulty handing over the coaching of Shooting Stars FC, league champions of 1983 and qualifiers for the 1984 African Club Championship, to him.

He accepted the challenge to lead Shooting Stars FC to its biggest test. He coached the team all the way to the finals of the 1984 Champions Cup.

The team lost to Zamalek FC of Egypt in a match destined by fate not to be won by IICC Shooting Stars FC. He later became the club’s General Manager and changed its name to Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC), a name I believe robbed the original Shooting Stars FC of ‘something’.

Almost two decades later, in 2002, he was recalled again to lead Nigeria’s national team to the Korea/Japan World Cup.

That assignment was an adventure for Chief Onigbinde. It revealed many other sides and skills of the man. I was in close alliance with him through that period before and after the World Cup.

That he became an instructor and member of several study groups for both CAF and FIFA was no surprise. When he talked football, everyone listened with attention. On the field of training or play, Chief Adegboye Onigbinde was not your usual coach. There was something different about his style, methodology, team tactics, and training sessions.

From watching him at work, many doubted the high quality of his coaching. Yet beneath the ordinary exterior of his methods are records of accomplishments that cannot be denied or diminished.

Until his passage this past week, he remained one of Nigeria’s most resourceful football personalities.

His views on football development were always indisputable. His conduct was impeccable. His self-confidence was uncanny and infectious. He had a way of transferring this confidence to his players, taking them to new heights in self-belief and performance.

Chief Adegboye Onigbinde lived a long, fruitful, and mostly fulfilled life. He always wanted to focus on football development rather than competitions, a wish that never fully manifested before his passing last week. Too bad.

As he returns to our Creator, on behalf of all of us players who went through him, I wish him a peaceful journey Home!

Culled from Segun Odegbami’s Piece in Major Nigerian Newspapers