Football’s triumphant return to Borno

After a while of virtual ‘radio silence’, football has returned to Borno, with the state’s Nigeria Professional Football League side, the El-Kanemi Warriors whipping up fan-frenzy, heralding the return of happiness for many football enthusiasts. Last weekend’s Nigeria Professional Football League match played between El-Kanemi Warriors and resurgent Niger Tornadoes at the El-kanemi stadium Maiduguri […]

After a while of virtual ‘radio silence’, football has returned to Borno, with the state’s Nigeria Professional Football League side, the El-Kanemi Warriors whipping up fan-frenzy, heralding the return of happiness for many football enthusiasts.

Last weekend’s Nigeria Professional Football League match played between El-Kanemi Warriors and resurgent Niger Tornadoes at the El-kanemi stadium Maiduguri was one of the matches that the Warriors entertained their teeming fans as they dazzled the visitors. The week 13 encounter ended 2-0 in favour of El-Kanemi Warriors.

  The victory ensured El-Kanemi Warriors maintain their second position on the league table with 24 points. They are breathing down the necks of leaders Plateau United who hold a slim lead. The match against Niger Tornadoes was their 20th home victory at their ‘real home’ in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, since they returned to the El-Kanemi stadium following relative peace that has returned to the state.

El-Kanemi Warriors first home match this season was against Wikki Tourists of Bauchi on January 18 and it witnessed a huge turn out as over 20,000 enthusiastic football fans thronged to the El-Kanemi stadium to cheer their darling club to victory.

It will be recalled that Borno being the epicentre of the Boko Haram crisis, the El-Kanemi Warriors FC had had their home fixture played in neighbouring Kano and later Katsina State before they were allowed to return home in 2016 when the insurgency had died down reasonably.

Some football fans who spoke to Daily Trust described the return of the league matches as a relief to their post insurgency situation. Many also confirmed that going to the stadium to watch El-Kanemi Warriors’ home matches is a way of reuniting with friends who they’ve been separated from as a result of the crisis in the city.

A die-hard fan of the El-Kanemi Warriors FC, Ali Kashim, also known as Old Boy, told Daily Trust that he has been reunited with dozens of his friends whom he thought were either killed or had left the town as a result of the Boko Haram crises.

“I am happy that super Warriors now play their home matches at home,” said Old Boy. “For instance, in the five home matches played by Warriors so far, I met at least 10 people in each match whom I had earlier thought were either dead or had left the town. And to my surprise, many of them were still alive and had never relocated to anywhere.

“But we could not see,” he lamented, adding, “Had it been that El-Kanemi Warriors home matches were still being played somewhere else, I would never have reunited with those people. Therefore, we are happy over the restoration of our source of fun and reunion,” he said.

Corroborating, the Secretary of the El-Kanemi Warriors FC, Alhaji Tahir Bala, during a chat with Daily Trust in Maiduguri placed the capacity of the stadium at 25,000 seats, saying: “70 percent of spectators are youths. That is to tell you that youths are involved in this football business – both playing and watching.

“The turnout of youths is very encouraging and amazing; amazing in the sense that you would see youths of all ages coming in their numbers to watch El-Kanemi matches. Any day we play our matches in Maiduguri, you’ll get 80 percent of the stadium filled. In some matches you would not have vacant seats,” the team’s Secretary said.

A displaced youth from Bama town, Jidda Alhaji Mukhtar, otherwise known as Jidson, who is currently taking refuge with a relative in Maiduguri, said his romance with El-Kanemi Warriors predates Boko Haram insurgency. “Playing home matches in Maiduguri by Warriors is an indication that peace has been finally restored in the state,” he said, praying that God should make the emerging peace a lasting one.

 Asked how he feels watching the team playing at home, he said: “It’s really comforting watching our home matches. Many of us who fled our respective towns to take refuge in Maiduguri find watching football relaxing. It appears more relaxing whenever we visit the Sports Centre to watch Warriors playing.

“While there, we reunited with a lot of guys, met new friends, and laughed generally. And that makes us forget what happened in order to maintain our sanity,” he said, adding that: “whenever Warriors are playing at home, we go there very early, about three hours before the match kick-starts, so that we can have enough time to chat with friends,” Jidson said.

In a chat with a group of youths who follow the National Premier Football League matches, Daily Trust learnt that ‘Trauma Centre’ was the unofficial name recently given to the El-Kanemi Warriors Sports Centre in Maiduguri by the youths who say that visiting the place helps stabilise their mental states and relieves them of their extremely distressing experiences caused by the Boko Haram insurgency.

“It’s a trauma centre par ser,” the team Secretary explained, depending on which perspective one looks at it from. “Youths from all spheres of life come around to watch these matches. Some people forget the terrible experiences they had in the past once it’s leisure time. It’s a place where you forget your trauma for 90 minutes. You’ll simply be clapping and cheering your team,” he said.

He also added: “It cures not only the traumatized, but even people with high blood pressure (BP). Sometimes they relax there and forget what is happening.

“So, it serves as a kind of treatment if you look at it from that perspective. And if you look at it from the perspective of social services, it is disengaging youths from social vices. So it has so many purposes. Playing football has so many advantages – it can serve as a ground where youths can come together, be unified to support a team, and abstain from vices,” Bala concluded.