Para-soccer is helping in rehabilitating polio survivors – Misbahu Didi

You invented the game of para-soccer. When and how did it start?As you rightly said, para-soccer is a game invented by my humble self, Misbahu Lawan Didi with the support six other friends. So I can say I brought the vision and it was supported by Ibrahim Nura, Bala Isah, Shagari, Molide Sule, Abdul Kabiru […]

You invented the game of para-soccer. When and how did it start?
As you rightly said, para-soccer is a game invented by my humble self, Misbahu Lawan Didi with the support six other friends. So I can say I brought the vision and it was supported by Ibrahim Nura, Bala Isah, Shagari, Molide Sule, Abdul Kabiru and one boy who is from Niger Republic, we called him Danmalidi. We founded para-soccer in Lagos in 1988. We started at Marina rehabilitation centre where we were crawling on the ground to play the game. Then we were not using roller skating as we do presently. So playing the game then was a hazardous. Today we have brought in some innovations like roller skating which has helped in reducing tremendously the injuries players used to sustain while crawling on the ground to play.
How did you come about the idea of using roller skating to play the game?
One of us Alhaji Abdullahi Lawal went to Mecca and when he came back he returned with a roller skate shoes. We discovered that with the roller shoes he was moving faster and playing better than the rest of us. While we crawled to get to the ball, he would move faster and get it before us. We saw this as a serious challenge and as the leader, I felt we should be playing at the same level. Moreover, I said the sport is about entertainment so we should be able to play not to induce sympathy in the minds of our teeming fans because we were crawling on ground but entertain them as well. I studied the use of roller skating and decided that it was possible to invent something we could use to play faster and minimise injuries. I then say okay we can manually remove the shoes, put the wood, pad it with leather and foam so that it would be soft in terms of sitting. We started using it and from there everybody copied and since them we have been playing using the roller skating.
Who are the eligible athletes that can participate in game of para-soccer?
Polio survivors are the athletes of para-soccer. If you look at it, it is just few that are amputees maybe through accidents. 90 percent of the players are polio survivors. You see what we are trying to do is to use the game of para-soccer to rehabilitate polio survivors. We are using the growing influence of the sport to assist those who are working towards eradicating polio. I am also the National Chairman of Association of Polio Survivors of Nigeria. I am doing a lot using my position as president of para-soccer to support in the war against polio in Nigeria.
There is this general belief that para-soccer is a sport for northern Nigeria where polio is prevalent. How true is this?
 It is true the rate of polio is quite high in the north and the game is popular among the northern states. However, para-soccer is a national sport. It is played across the country. For now Kano is the defending champions, followed by Plateau and Nasarawa State in that order. Those are the three teams that have won the last competitions we had. The issue is that in the last competition in Abuja, Osun and Imo brought teams. At the last National Sports Festival that featured para-soccer, Rivers won silver. So why would somebody say it is a northern game?.
Looking back, what was the attitude the people of Lagos towards the game of para-soccer when it debuted in 1988?
It did not take long for people of Lagos State to fall in love with para-soccer. Most people would leave whatever they were doing to come and watch us play under the bridge. We were entertaining them and the way they encouraged us motivated us to keep playing. Before you know from seven of us we became 50. When we continued to attract large crowds, our members believed they would make it. Luckily most of us were from various states so whenever anyone of us went back to his original state, he would introduce the sport there and that was how the game continued to spread across the country.
Obviously para-soccer is an indigenous sport. How much support and recognition has it enjoyed from government.
We have been recognised by the government through the National Sports Commission which deemed it necessary to set up a board in 2006 which is called Para-Soccer Federation of Nigeria, PFN. It is the body that takes charge of issues that have to do with the development, promotion, welfare of the athletes, competitions and every other thing that will sustain the growth of the sport. As the founder, I have done my beat. Now government has seen my efforts and our efforts and has intervened by taking over.
Would you say the setting up of the board has impacted positively on the fortunes of the sport?
Well, most importantly, at the 2007 election, I contested an election but lost to a responsible woman Dr. Halima Muritala Nyako, the wife of the Governor of Adamawa State. She was able to steer the leadership for four years but as I am talking to you, by the grace of God, I am once again the president of the federation. She was able to host one national event in her state and we appreciate her contributions. However, it was during her tenure that para-soccer was removed from the National sports Festival. She is still a member of the present board and we are expecting her to continue to support the sport using her high level connections.
You are back in the saddle again. What would you say are the major challenges confronting para-soccer in Nigeria?
One of our challenges is lack of sponsorship. We have been trying to reach out to well meaning Nigerians. We have good programmes but we cannot depend on government alone. Anybody who knows the sport says it is an interesting game but the support we need is not forthcoming. Most of the states where para-soccer is played have been very supportive but because we have been out of the National Sports Festival, some states cut down on the amount of support the athletes enjoyed. We are therefore calling on corporate bodies and individuals to come give support to us. I look forward to when philanthropists like Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Mr. Tony Elemelu and General TY Danjuma would own para-soccer clubs. If given the required support, I see para-soccer being really the second interesting sport to football not only in Nigeria but Africa and the whole world. We would even challenge football for attention. Ours is one of the most entertaining sports.
In concrete terms what is your federation doing to bring back para-soccer into the mainstream of the National Sports Festival?
Since I returned as the president of the federation, I have been able to organise the World Polio day Para-soccer championship, which was a national event. This is to encourage states to give more attention to the sport so that it will develop faster. I have been discussing with the Director General of the National Sports Commission, Gbenga Elegbeleye and other relevant stakeholders in sports. We have formally written for us to be re-absorbed into the sports festival. I have also spoken to the director of hosting state Cross River and I have appealed to him for consideration. Para-soccer now falls under optional sports and there is serious competition. However, we are hoping that having been therefore and considering the uniqueness in our sport, we would be considered. This is a serious struggle but we have started making concerted moves to ensure that government reconsiders its decision by returning para-soccer to the National Sports Festival. In terms of our efforts to promote the sport, we know festival is one of the key ways. We are appealing to the media to help us in talking to the government to reconsider their position on para-soccer. Our dream is to take the sport beyond Nigeria but how can that be if it is not part of the National Sports festival?.
Could you throw more light on what you mean by uniqueness of the game of para-soccer?
What I mean is that this is an indigenous sport and I want them to look at the kind of people participating in it. It is no doubt an interesting sport but those playing it have to pull down physical barriers in order to entertain and also make a living for themselves. In the past 20 years, you also know the story of people with disability. It was believed they would end up begging. Every disabled person was seen as a potential beggar. It was one of the issues that made some of our friends or parents to neglect us. They believed once you have a child with physical disability, sorry it ends in begging. It meant you have no future. You will be a dependant till the end of your life. But now people have seen the changes that para-soccer has brought by changing the perception of people with disabilities from begging to self dependence.  A lot of para-soccer players are now having one thing or the other doing to sustain themselves.
You and your friends founded para-soccer but what has the federation done to ensure that another country does not take the glory for its invention?
This is one area of serious concern. I don’t think we have done enough to let the whole world know that para-soccer is our own invention. We need the support of government and the media in this regard. It will interest you to know that para-soccer is not played only in Nigeria again. It has spread to countries like Ghana, Benin Republic, Cameroon and Niger Republic. I am glad to inform u that para-soccer is being played in Ghana. As I am talking to you, para-soccer in Ghana is always on Supersport and they are already laying claim to its origin. What they are doing is that instead of calling it para-scoccer, they have given it another name. It is a different name but playing the same method, the same way and using our rules. But they have changed the name and they are claiming they invented the sport.  If their government takes it up and pushes it to the international level, it will take us a lot to reclaim our glory.
As a northerner and founder of para-soccer, how much support are you expecting from northern states governors?
I want government of the northern states to give more support to para-soccer and see it as a tool to rehabilitate and empower youths with disability to become self dependant and useful to the society. Let me intimate you that in kano State at least ten of our members are employed as civil servants. They are not just on allowances. Like the best player of kano state Abdullahi Mohammed –alias Ortega is living in Lagos. He is a student of a university in Lagos but is paid salary by Kano State and plays for Kano State para-soccer team. I want to encourage other northern governors to emulate Kano in this respect.
It is very clear that you are so passionate about para-soccer which you invented. How has this sport impacted on your life personally?
Well para-soccer has transformed my life and those of my members who share in my vision. Let me tell you what most people do not know. I went to Lagos as a beggar. My mission was to go and beg in Lagos just like other northerners with disabilities. That was in 1987. I had a lot of challenges after losing my parents. In an interval of 45 days, I lost both parents. So I was totally devastated. So my friends and I decided to go to Lagos to beg. We went there and started with begging but I said this is not the way. We started by helping Hausa traders to sell their wares. Later we developed interest in sports and that was how we started para-soccer. We immediately attracted so much attention that anywhere we went to beg we were recognised. We were told ‘oh! I saw you on television’ and we said no we cannot be on TV and be begging. Even rich people respected me because I was seen on TV. I had to quit begging. From there I started manufacturing tricycles. Then many people knew that the only place they could buy tricycles was in my workshop and that of one Cosmos Okolie. I later re-located to Abuja where I have continued to progress. Today I am happily married and I am blessed with four children who are polio free. By the special grace of Allah, I am a car owner and I wield a lot of influence on my members. Like I told you, I am the National Chairman of Association of Polio Survivors of Nigeria. My greatest joy is that through my support, at least 3,000 disabled people have left begging to engage in more dignifying ventures. Whoever knows me knows that I cannot go to anyone’s office and beg for money. Even ministers who know me know I can only come and discuss issues affecting my members. I cannot come and tell you, oga I am dying of hunger give me money. I have risen above that. When I met Alhaji Aliko Dangote, teh richest African, I did not ask him for money. I asked him for dealership in cement and within two weeks it was proceeds and handed to me. If tomorrow Dangote sees me, he can never look at me as a beggar. When I met with Bill Gates, I discussed the collective good of my people. I am not very rich but very comfortable.