From being the chief drummer for his school's cultural troupe in Warri, Delta State, in the early 1970s, Humphrey Ewhekpore Jebba grew to become one of the most accomplished footballers of his time. He had begun his elementary education at Roman Catholic Mission (RCM) School II in Warri in 1966, but was forced to move to RCM School I, also in Warri, after escaping death when a bomb was thrown into his school compound in 1967 during the Nigerian Civil War. At RCM School I he started his journey in sports but began to glow at Eghosa Grammar School in Benin City, where he captained the school's football team to win the prestigious Principal's Cup on several occasions with the likes of Humphrey Edobor and Lucky Imafidon.The young Jebba was still in secondary school when he joined Macdemoth FC and later the NNPC Football Club - both in Warri. He later featured for such top clubs as Flash Flamingoes, which later became Bendel United, BCC Lions of Gboko, Shooting Stars of Ibadan and Sharks of Port Harcourt, winning the African Cup Winners Cup in 1990 and finishing as runner-up twice. He was part of the Super Eagles team coached by Clemens Westerhof in the build-up to Algiers '90 Africa Cup of Nations. Speaking withGOWON AKPODONOR at his Agbassa residence in Warri, Jebba said the discipline he got in his school days both in Warri and Benin City as well as his foray with various Nigerian club sides shaped his life.FOR a teenager, the trauma of seeing soldiers fighting during a civil war could be hard to overcome not to talk of coming face to face with a bomb in the immediate vicinity, thrown by some blood-tasty soldiers. But that was Jebba's sad experience while he pursued elementary studies at RCM School II in Warri in then Midwest State, now Delta State.His real name is Humphrey Edjeba, but like the case of many Nigerian footballers, it was cut to Jebba for easy pronunciation in the course of his football career. Jebba and his schoolmates were preparing for examination when the war broke out in 1967. As he said, 'it was God that saved us when the soldiers threw a bomb into our school compound during the civil war.'We had to run for our dear lives; some people had to jump through the window, some scaled the fence. Many people, including some teachers, sustained injuries. It was a terrible experience.'The incident led to the closure of the school throughout the period of the war and when it resumed in 1971, Jebba made his way to another primary school, the Roman Catholic Mission School 1. There, the seed of his sporting career was planted: 'I started in primary two at RCM School 1 and was doing sprint events and was in the school's relay team. I was also doing the long jump. At the same time, I was in the school's dance troupe as chief drummer.'At a point, the games master and the cultural mistress had problem struggling for his services. According to him, 'the problem then was that both the games master and the cultural mistress wanted to make use of me at the same time. There was a particular year my school (RCM School I) had to play the final of the Headmaster's Cup against my former school (RCM School II). And in those days, such football finals were preceded by a cultural dance to add glamour to the event.'There were so many cultural troupes from different schools and as the chief drummer for my school's cultural troupe, the cultural mistress wanted me to stay with them. I was also listed to play in the football match. There was a problem. The mistress argued that without Humphrey Jebba beating the drum, the girls would not dance well. But the games master said no way because he felt that allowing me to join the dance troupe would take my energy and I wouldn't be able to play well in the football final.'However, when we got to the Warri Stadium, which was called the Big Field at that time, the headmaster intervened. An agreement was reached that I should be allowed to drum for the cultural troupe for 20 minutes before joining the football team. That was how it was settled.'Then, Jebba was playing alongside Sam Okpodu, Best Akama and Samson Ozogula for RCM School I, but the school lost the Headmaster's Cup final to its counterpart, RCM School II. He explained: 'The likes of Okpodu were ahead of me and I was in primary three. For us to lose that match goes to show that there were so many talented players in the primary school at that time. One factor that contributed to our defeat was the heavy rain that fell that day.'The following year, we got to the final and by this time, the likes of Okpodu had left and I was made captain of the team. I was in primary four and it was the same RCM School II we defeated in the final to lift the trophy. Then, one Richard Ojomo (now late) was captain of RCM School II. The match ended 1-0 in our faovur and it was a sweet revenge.'According to Jebba, the then Governor of the Mid-West Region, Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia, had set up a sports monitoring committee, which moved round the state scouting for young talents. And, 'during the long holiday, the pupils whose names were penciled down by the committee would be invited to camp either at Afuze or Government College, Ughelli. Then, the Mid-West State had U-13, intermediate and senior teams.'The senior team had people like Ojomo, while the likes of Prince Efejukwu belonged to the intermediate class. In the U-13 category were the likes of Bright Omokaro, Humphrey Edobor and myself. Some of these players later played for Benin Vipers, Bendel Insurance and New Nigeria Bank (NNB). What I am trying to point out is that the state had materials in all categories of football at that time. The same thing went for athletics, handball, boxing, table tennis and the rest.'After his elementary education in Warri, Jebba headed to Benin City, where he pitched tent with Eghosa Grammar School after missing an opportunity to join New Era College, a school set up by Ogbemudia to cater for sportsmen and women.Looking back to those days Jebba said: 'In my days at Eghosa Grammar School from 1976 to 80, it was football 'war' anytime we were pitched against New Era College in the Principal's Cup. I was in class four when I became captain of the school's football team, and our principal then was C.I. Diaudu. He was later replaced by Mr. Iyare, who was brought from New Era College.'One Principal's Cup match Jebba would love to remember was the semi-final game between Eghosa Grammar School and Urhobo College. The first match played at Ogbe Stadium had ended goalless when riot broke out between students of both schools.A replay was ordered and, according to Jebba, the match was moved to S&T Barracks at Ugbowo for security reasons. He explained: 'It also ended goalless and was postponed till the next day. We eventually won the match 1-0 to qualify for the final. It was not an easy victory for us because Urhobo College came with a lorry load of supporters from Warri prepared for 'war' with supporters of Eghosa College.'By 1979, Henry Nwosu crossed from St. Finbarrs College in Lagos to Eghosa. By this time, Humphrey Edobor and Lucky Imafidon had joined Eghosa College. I was already team captain. It was from Eghosa that Nwosu was picked for the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations. He came to Eghosa to meet a group of talented young footballers and we dominated the Principal Cup in our days.'Jebba could not make his papers at Eghosa, so he had to move to Warri, where he joined Hussey College in 1981. At Hussey, it was another tug-of-war in the Principal's Cup. Jebba was made captain of the school team and that year, he had an uphill task leading Hussey College back to Benin City to play against his former school, Eghosa, in the Principal's Cup. That was after leading the school to brush aside challenges from Urhobo College, Warri, and Government College, Ughelli, at the earlier stage.'Then one could count up to seven state academicals players in one school team. It is sad that those good old days are gone and I can boldly say that the government contributed to the poor state of school sports in the country today,' he noted.'I am saying this because this idea of allowing a private school to operate in just one small building without provision for football field and playing ground has done so much damage to our school sports. That is where the government got it wrong. With the death of school sports, there is no more room for discovering talents and that is why our coaches continue to parade old men as U-14 and U-17 players.'Jebba was still at Hussey College when he joined Macdemoth Football Club of Warri, playing with Okpodu and Ozogula. The club was disbanded the following year and Jebba went to NNPC FC, also in Warri. His coaches at NNPC FC were Paul Obire and Edokpolo. According to him, 'then there were two clubs at NNPC, the Inspectorate Football Club and NNPC Refinery FC. The two were later merged into NNPC FC. I joined from the Inspectorate Division.'From NNPC FC, the young lad went to Nigeria Rubber Board FC. He spoke further: 'In those days, nearly all the government agencies were having football clubs. There was Government Coastal Agency Football Club, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA FC), NEPA FC, Nigeria Rubber Board FC, Nigeria Research Institute FC, Dumez FC, Bendel Insurance FC and many others. So, there were no dull moments for students who were just coming out from school. There was nothing like unemployment for students then, unless you are the lazy one.'At NigeriaRubber Board, Jebba and Richard Ojomo met the likes of Monday Eguavoen, Osaro Obobiafo, Ndubuisi Okosieme, David Ngodigha and David Aigbovo. The team lost the final of Boyo's Cup to NNB, which had the skilful Henry Nwosu in attack. Then Rubber Board was in the National Division III playing with Leventis United, Abiola Babes and Ranchers Bees of Kaduna.'That particular year, it was Rubber Board and Leventis United that gained promotion to Division II. From there, we gained promotion to Division I. It was in Division I that Rubber Board FC was taken over by Patrick Osakwe and the name was later changed to Flash Flamingoes,' he recalled.Jebba played for Flash Flamingoes and won the state Challenge Cup, which qualified them for the National Challenge Cup final, but the Benin side lost to Iwanyanwu Nationale in the final. While that victory qualified Nationale for the Champion of Champions Cup, Flash Flamingoes picked a ticket to play in the Cup Winners Cup in 1989.He said: 'We played the Cup Winners Cup and that was when the Nigeria Football Association brought in coach Clemens Westerhof to the Super Eagles. Westerhof was going round the country in search of raw talents for the Super Eagles. I was the highest goal scorer in the Cup Winners Cup that year. The name was later changed from Flash Flamingoes to Bendel United and we got to the final of the competition without losing any match, home and away.'In Bendel United, there were players like Isaac Semitoje, Ben Iroha, David Ngodigha, Monday Eguavoen and Osita Aniwekwe, popularly known as Congoman. We defeated a team from Madagascar 4-0 in Benin City to reach the final and I scored two of the goals.'Westerhof watched the match and invited me alongside Iroha and Semitoje to the national team in preparation to Algiers '90 Nations Cup. I couldn't go for that World Cup qualifier against Cameroun because of continental engagement with Bendel United.'In the final of the Cup Winners Cup, we lost 0-1 to El-Merrick of Sudan in Khartoun. In the return leg at Ogbe Stadium in Benin City, the late MKO Abiola promised that he would buy a brand new car for us if we won the match. Unfortunately, it was a Nigerian goalkeeper for El-Merrick that stood between us and victory. The man had left Nigeria to join the Sudanese Army and later became the goalkeeper of El-Merrik. He did everything possible to stop us. The match ended 0-0 and that was how we missed the gold and the car gift from MKO Abiola.'The frustration of losing the Cup Winners Cup trophy in front of home crowd at Ogbe Stadium forced Jebba to move to Gboko, where he joined BCC Lions the following year. The Gboko side had won a continental ticket to play the Cup Winners Cup and it was another opportunity for Jebba to play in the tourney.'I quickly accepted the offer and the sign-on fee was about N3,000, which was big then. At BCC Lions, we won the trophy with the likes of Edema Fuludu, Moses Kpakor and Sam Elijah, with coach Shaibu Amodu in charge. I emerged the highest goal scorer again. We defended the Cup to the final the following year but lost to a team from Zambia. We won the first leg 2-1 at the National Stadium, Lagos and lost 1-3 in the return leg in Zambia. That year (1991), I was voted 13th Best African player. So, in my club football, I had a gold medal and two silver medals in the Africa Cup Winners Cup.'Jebba left BCC for Shooting Stars in 1993, where he played in the Winners Cup again with the likes of Ogbein Fawole, Bright Omokaro, Mojeed Azeez, David Aigbovo and Ademola Bankole, with Taiwo Ogunjobi as manager. He moved to Sharks of Port Harcourt the following year. A knee injury cut short his career in the Super Eagles, though he played some matches against Liberia, Guinea Bissau and The Gambia in preparation for Algiers '90.To revive the nation's school sports, Jebba said the government must be ready to go back to the basics: 'To get things right, players that will feature for our U-17 team must not be above class two in the secondary school. Anything outside JSII, we are deceiving ourselves. Our administrators must do away with this win- at-all-cost syndrome.
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