By Adetutu Audu
Few months ago, Henry Nwosu, a famous, former Nigerian football hero and legend, an Olympian, and distinguished Member of the Order of the Niger, MON, was at the mercy of death.
However, God sent an Angel to rescue him and return him back to the world. The Angel was none other than the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwoolu. The Governor rose to his aid and brought him to Lagos from Asaba for medical care.
For the uninitiated, Henry Nwosu was one of Nigeria’s greatest footballers. He came into the national team as a school boy while still a student of the famous St Finbarrs’ College, Akoka, Yaba.
Nwosu was a product of school football and he was the youngest member of the historic Nigerian football team that won the maiden African Cup of Nations in 1980.
Nwosu was also part of the team that played in the final of the AFCON in 1984 and 1988, scoring a beautifully headed goal that was controversially disallowed by the referee in the 1988 final. Both final matches were lost to Cameroun.
Nwosu was part of the Nigerian team to Moscow Olympic Games in 1980 and the Seoul Olympic Games in 1988.
Prior to all these achievements, Nwosu was a member of the Flying Eagles captained by his school mate, Franklin Howard. The team was beaten in the last hurdle of qualifying for the 1981 World Youth Championship by Cameroun but many still remember the two goals scored by Nwosu in the first leg of the two-legged encounter, the second, a beautiful overhead kick to level scores at 2-2.
At club level, Nwosu had a chequered club career, playing first, for the defunct ACB Football Club of Lagos before acquiring iconic status with the New Nigeria Bank Football Club of Benin where he propelled the team to the League title and the WAFU Cup twice in succession becoming the first Nigerian club side that will win the WAFU Cup.
Recently, Nwosu fell to a delibitating disease which required being transported back home to Asaba but instead of getting better, his health condition deteriorated.
Nwosu was dying by instalment and nobody seem to be willing to assist except few friends and family members whose contributions were not enough to provide the needed succour, not until an Angel came down from Heaven in the person of the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
Like many Nigerians, Sanwo-Olu read about the illness online and decided to act immediately before Nigeria loses one of its iconic sports figures to an avoidable death.
He ordered that Nwosu be transported back to Lagos for immediate medical care.
Henry Nwosu arrived in Lagos, a walking- dead. Since then, things have taken a new turn with the best health facility and the best medical specialists in the state deployed to handle his delicate heath situation.
And Sanwo-Olu was doing all these without single mention in the media. And wait for it, he was personally paying for Nwosu’s medical expenses from his pocket. Not a single Kobo from the state Treasury.
Anonymously, the Governor has been taking care of Nwosu and not for one day sought a single publicity. He insisted that everything to be done for Henry will be paid for from his personal purse and without recourse to public funds. He insisted also that no credit should come to him for anything done.
The benevolence of the Governor, thegazellenews.com learnt, was facilitated by two gentlemen: Bestman Jumbo-Nze, Special Assistant on Youth Matters to the Governor of Lagos State; and Patrick Doyle, President of St. Finbarr’s College Old Students Association, Lagos.
Not only did Sanwo-Olu paid for Nwosu’s medical expenses, he also rehabilitated him fully getting a new apartment for him and has been paying for his welfare and upkeep.
Sanwo-Olu is indeed the merciful Angel God sent to rescue Henry Nwosu from the claws of death.
He never wanted media report of this particular good deed but Nwosu’s colleague in the National Team and his captain, mercurial Mathematical Patrick Olusegun Odegbami could not help but blow the Governor’s trumpet when he met Nwosu in Lagos recently.
Odegbami, it was, who called attention of the world to the plight of Nwosu through his weekly column in the Complete Sports newspaper.
Thegazellenews.com below reproduced Odegbami’s report of the transformation of Nwosu from a walking corpse to lively human being, back to his old boisterous self.
Henry Nwosu – Touched by an angel!
By Segun Odegbami
This is an update, a responsibility I owe the world after my announcement of Henry Nwosu’s plight some months ago, and the developments thereafter.
Henry Nwosu – Touched by an angel!
By Segun Odegbami
This is an update, a responsibility I owe the world after my announcement of Henry Nwosu’s plight some months ago, and the developments thereafter.
Permit me a little philosophy.
In my humble understanding, the Creator stopped interfering in the affairs of His Universe following the completion of his work at the beginning of time.
Thereafter, he gave his creations the free will to creat their own future in accordance to their choices, with consequences in the eternal nature of ‘action and reaction’.
All humans are Messengers, each with varied ‘gifts’ to impact their world for good or bad.
A few Messengers become special when they choose to positively touch and impact other’s lives, soothe their pain, nurse the sick, help the poor, feed the hungry, heal the environment, in short, make the world a better place for all to live.
Those that do these things assume the status of an Angel when they do not demand anything in return – not even an acknowledgement of their act.
A few months ago, Henry Nwosu, a famous, former Nigerian football hero and legend, an Olympian, and distinguished Member of the Order of the Niger, MON, was at the gates of death. A man blessed by the elements to be in a position to help him, rose to the challenge, took up the responsibility and brought him to Lagos from Asaba for medical care.
Henry Nwosu arrived in Lagos, a walking- dead. Since then, things have taken a new turn with the best health facility and the best medical specialists in the State deployed to handle his delicate heath situation.
It’s been a few months.
Not for one day has this benefactor sought a single publicity (infact he has avoided it like a plague) or even gratitude for his actions. He insisted that everything to be done for Henry will be paid for from his personal purse and without recourse to public funds. He insisted also that no credit should come to him for anything done.
This morning, the two gentlemen that have piloted this whole matter since Henry landed in Lagos, Bestman Jumbo-Nze (Special Assistant on Youth Matters to the Governor of Lagos State) and Patrick Doyle (President of St. Finbarr’s College Old Students Association, Lagos) and I, met at Henry Nwosu’s new apartment in Lagos to review the situation.
We were so excited about his progress that we decided to breàk our unwritten ‘promise’ and grant Henry’s request to publicly acknowledge and thank his benefactor.
Henry described him as the angel sent from heaven to grant him another chance at life.
Indeed, watching Henry closely this morning, although with still some ways to go, his recovery can only be attributed to the touch of an angel.
*That angel is Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu,* and not in his exalted position as Governor of Lagos State, but as a human being with the blood of ‘humanity’ flowing in his veins.
Mr. Sanwo-Olu has personally funded ALL of Henry’s medical expenses, a fully-furnished rented apartment in Lagos, and the cost of his welfare during the undated period of his recuperation.
Meanwhile, this is not intended to diminish in any way the size of support of several individuals, friends and family members that have also helped Henry in their own ways.
Today, Henry Nwosu is healing fast and well, making slow but steady progress. He is improving with every breathe and every stride.
In his new apartment this morning, through emotions, Henry’s voice came alive again, with his pains mostly gone.
Throughout our stay, the words coming out of his mouth were of gratitude to Mr. Sanwo Olu. Since we could not stop him, I captured them for the world to hear.
