Yekini: How Nigeria failed a Hero - Sunday Olisey

This is the most shocking and sad news I have heard in a long time. Rashidi Yekini, Nigeria's best ever striker, my ex colleague and, God bless him, our match winner, is dead at 48!

 The cause of death is not known, other than that he was reportedly sick for a while before passing away in a hospital yesterday night. He is said to have suffered mental illness for the past two years. Some said he had been walking the streets of Ibadan barefoot and suffered delusions at times.

When my Friend Dosu Joseph broke the news to me yesterday night I hoped I was having a nightmare and that I was going to wake up. Unfortunately it was not a nightmare.

Rashidi Yekini was one of the best African players and legends to ever walk this earth; he (almost) single-handedly qualified Nigeria for its first ever World Cup (1994 in America).

Late Yekini Celebrates Nigeria's 1st World Cup goal

He scored all the decisive goals short of one in Algeria, when Finidi George helped us qualify. He rightfully went down in the history books for having scored Nigeria's first ever World Cup goal. He was our marksman in 1994 as Nigeria's Super Eagles won the 1994 Nation's Cup in Tunisia. In 1993 he was Nigeria's first voted African Player of the Year – an award he won twice.

He averaged a goal per two games he played for Nigeria and, having played with him for years and other Nigerian Strikers, I can confirm that he was miles away the best and only pure striker we ever had. Incidentally, our free flowing attack weakened once he stopped playing.

At club level he was notably very prolific at Portugal's Victoria Setubal, where he won, on several occasions, the Highest Goal Scorer Award. He averaged a goal per match for Setubal.

Sadly this is one more national hero our Nigerian system has let down badly. It is a shame that this great player's last game in Nigeria in a World Cup qualifier ended with boos from fans due to the fact that they were wrongly informed by a small group of detractors who felt Nigeria's fortunes in USA '94 were due to his form or lack of it.

Yekini felt betrayed and this haunted him till his death. How could one give so much and receive so little in return from his own kind?

No wonder he became a recluse and kept to himself in his latter days. In 1998, in the France World Cup, he started the attack action that led to our equaliser by Garba Lawal.

Rashidi was full of pace, had a superb shot (ask the Gabon goalkeeper in our opener in the 1994 African Nations), could jump high and, instead of heading the ball, would chest it down to eventually crucify the goalkeeper. He was calm in front of goal and was a very loveable person once you got to know and understand him.

I am ashamed to see how this asset to our nation was treated by our football federation and our government. When you see how a legend like this was ignored time and time again by our federation and the lack of recognition to add value to his self-esteem – and at the same time show the upcoming youths the benefits of serving and performing for their country, thereby encouraging them to want to do their part – you will understand why the generation of today neglects or blatantly refuses to wear the colours of the national team.

We lost a brother, a friend, a human being, a legend and a compatriot. We also lost a great opportunity to find out his unique secret of how to score goals easily. This and more he has taken with him to heaven. What a monumental loss.

On a personal note, I shed tears last night because I never got a chance to say thank you to Rashidi Yekini. Some will say why? “After all you helped make him by your passes.” It is actually the contrary. If Rashidi Yekini had not converted the passes I gave him into goals I probably would not have gained as much recognition as I did.

There is one particular Rashidi Yekini goal I will always remember. It was our quarterfinal match in Tunisia's 1994 Cup of Nations vs Zaire (now Democratic republic of Congo). I stole the ball from a Zairian on the flanks and immediately threw Yekini the pass at the waist level.

Instead of controlling it with his knee, in order not to lose forward momentum, he took it with the exterior part of his right foot in the air and, almost simultaneously, struck it with that same exterior part of the right foot into the roof of the net. The goalkeeper and the Zaire defense stood no chance and Yekini once again won us the match and shot us into the semifinals.

Almost 20 years after this major conquest, Yekini is yet to receive the house the Nigerian government promised him. In other words he died not being rewarded for his efforts to make Nigeria great.

Rashidi, on behalf of well-meaning millions of Nigerians and Africans, we wish you a safe journey into God's paradise and may your beautiful soul rest in peace.

We will always love you.