You’re not the girl I used to know
You’re a shadow of yourself
I think I lost you long ago
Like a book thats left the shelf….
These words of Darey Art Alade in his 2009 brilliant piece of art were all I could muster when I got back home last night after watching Enyimba in Aba for the first time in ten months. Wifey was startled when I played the song on YT and asked if I was okay? I had to douse her tension; “Fear not, this is about our Enyimba.” She is a Rangers fan being an Enugu babe but she knows Enyimba is for us all.
I have been a regular visitor to the Enyimba International stadium since 2014, an average of seven to ten visits (sometimes more) in a year. So, it can be concluded that I’m a fairly regular visitor to the People’s Elephant.
Afterall, this team are or were the Pride of Nigeria. I still recall with nostalgia, watching most of Enyimba’s matches – from group stage to final – in the 2003 and 2004 historic CAF Champions League campaigns at home in Ilesa, Osun state.
I was a secondary school leaver who was writing Jamb in those two years and I watched with glee and thrill, the Kadiri Ikhana and Okey Emordi led sides representing Nigeria successfully. At that time, I had never left South West Nigeria and never imagined in my wildest dreams that I’d become a known face at this same Aba Stadium a decade after. Life!
One particular game sticks – it was July 2004 and the visitors were Bakili Bullets of Malawi. Like I’ve come to know, May to October in Aba and Port Harcourt are epic rainfall months. On that day, pitch was waterlogged, dirty mattresses were brought out to dry the turf haphazardly, not a beauty to see but the scoreline was beautiful. Enyimba “wayaed” dem six nought.
Twenty two years later, I decided to watch Enyimba in Aba for the first time in 2026 and it was another rain ball, against a newly promoted whipping boys of the league, ball behaviour badly altered, game reduced to some MMA activities sometimes, not an easy sight but this time, Enyimba were beaten by Inter Lagos, a team yet to get a point in Nigeria’s top flight.
This is certainly not the team I loved in 2004. The 2004 team had this ironic beauty of always playing well away from home, because they struggle with the difficult Aba pitch. I can never forget the 1-1 draw away to Esperance in the semi-final, one of the best away performances I’ve ever seen from a Nigerian club.
But in 2026, this team have not won an away game – 9 losses, 3 draws in the calendar year – and do not have a fortress at home anymore. This is not the dreaded and charming Enyimba I knew.
On Sunday, what first struck me was the team’s jersey. When did my Enyimba colour become Blue and White? Who has decided to distort this major piece of history? Since 2003, I have followed Chelsea, Enyimba and Dolphins (now Rivers United) religiously and you’d agree with me that the royal all blue colour is synonymous to these three clubs.
What has happened to the Enyimba I knew?
What I have been reading for a while now is in-house battles. From coach to Sporting Director, to Chairman to state Sports Commissioner. Press releases and rejoinders flying about like a typical Nigerian electioneering season. But this is no politics, this is football! This is Enyimba!
The only Nigerian club my octogenarian Dad knows are Enyimba, although he has only ever been to Port Harcourt once in his life – his only time out of South West, but he still asks me about Enyimba because we watched those games together in 2003 and 2004, on our National Panasonic TV that made David Tyavkase’s bum-bum look like Sarian Martin’s.
How do I tell him now that our Enyimba is now a shadow of itself in all aspects. How do I tell him that Enyimba who were known to be pacesetters and record breakers are bottom of a 20-team league with zero points in its first three games?
The team Uncle Sam Osayuwa of Radio Nigeria Premier FM, Ibadan used to call Aba Millionaires between 2003-2005 have suddenly become a team unworthy of attracting the best legs in the league. “Who be dis ones?” A fan painfully remarked to his friend as the dejected players left the pitch. Unrecognizable, crummy and devoid of substance on the pitch and off it.
Many questions kept running in, with no answers forthcoming. When will the deliverance of this footballing Jerusalem come? Or will it ever come?
