By Victor Kwame Sampong
Life comes at you so fast and most times, you forget to take a break and enjoy some of the good things of life.
This is no about me though; because I try to find the right balance between work and leisure.
And that’s what the Rivers State chapter of the Amalgamated Union of App-Based Transporters Of Nigeria (AUATON) aimed to achieve when they conceived the idea of a city-wide football tournament to unite the various e-hailing groups within Port Harcourt.
The month-long tournament reached its twilight last week Thursday with Noble Pilots and Golden Stars vying for the inaugural title. Despite nursing a niggling groin injury on my right leg, yours truly was thrust into the deep by coach Lumi as a Defensive Midfielder, a position I had excelled in for Golden Stars during the tournament.
However, the final proved too difficult for me and my guys as we were soundly beaten 4-0 by Noble Pilots, with two goals in either half. Not making our early dominance in the game count was our biggest undoing, seeing that we missed glittering chances to put our noses in front. Add to the fact that we had next to no one in goal because our coach decided on the final day to change our regular goalkeeper, a move that backfired.
I couldn’t protect the defense enough as I had done in previous matches, and setting up the team to attack was also lacking. I was playing through pains on one leg. The opposition took good advantage of our lapses and punished us 4 times.
After the game, we went to the high table to receive our silver medals, with disappointment written on our faces. We knew we could have done better, as the other teams tagged us the favourites based on our previous exploits. We fell short on the day.
I couldn’t stay for the closing ceremony. I had to rush home to rest because, in about 2 hours, I had another football engagement with my boys, Ghanaman & Friends, at the Lepusne Bundle League held at the Autograph Mall in GRA. After back-to-back losses (for the first time in 13 years) in that tournament, we needed a positive response.
I managed to get home, bathe, eat and assemble the boys as we drove down to the venue. I opted to sit in the dugout due to my injury and orchestrate things from the sidelines. That’s how I came up with an old-school tactics from the early 90s, long forgotten, but still effective to this modern era. By Half Time, Daniel Moses had scored twice to put us ahead. Midway through the second half, the opposition halved the deficit and put us on the back foot.
Once again, I had to pull the rabbit out of the hat with another tactical alteration. Small Pin went in for Wisdom, while Kogi-born tough tackling midfielder Austin Abutu replaced Azubuike. Within 90 seconds, the Abutu restored our healthy two-goal advantage, as we saw off the game 3-1 vs Pulse FC. Moments like these are what I live for. It’s why the streets refer to me as The Ace Defender & One True Legend Of The Grassroots. The PlayerCoach role is going according to plan.
FUEL WAHALA
I was already shutting down after a hectic night shift. I got home around 2 am, took my bath and was trying to force sleep when I saw a notification on WhatsApp. A colleague informed my group that one of the Petrol Stations in town was dispensing fuel, but only in kegs to mostly black marketers. My tank was red at the time. I needed the product badly. So, I called him up and we both rushed out to the location. Truly the report was true. But the place was very rowdy inside. Brisk business was going on. I told him we should join the short queue outside, hang around till morning and find a way to buy when they start selling by 9 am. Shyne agreed, so we did just that.
We decided to take a stroll inside the facility to observe what was going on. I kept scanning around for any slight opportunity to capitalize on. I wasn’t sure what I was after at the time, but I always knew that, once I find it, I’ll know.
A few meters away from me, I overheard a hefty-looking man asking another where he was parked because he needed to go somewhere immediately. Na so I moved closer and chipped in,”Senior man, my car dey here (pointing towards the direction), come make I carry you go ASAP”. He looked at me well and asked where the car was, I pointed again, and this time, we were both walking out. Two cars were by this time behind me. He quickly ordered that they make way for me to drive out. From the way he carried himself, I knew he was some kind of authority, either within the area or the filling station itself.
We drove to Eagle Island at almost 3 am, where he went to pick up something from a house. I waited for about 10-15 minutes before we made the journey back. While we were getting close, he said he’d tell them to open the gates for me to drive in and buy. That thing sweet me like woman wey just deliver safely and saw the baby healthy afterwards. I didn’t get carried away though, because I told him I was there with someone, a cousin and it was he who informed me of this place. So, if possible, he should also grant my guy safe passage as well. He obliged. I called Shyne immediately and told him to position. As I got to the gate, he came down and ordered the cars at the exit to clear road for me and Shyne to drive in. We got in, filled our tanks, paid and left for our respective houses with joy in our hearts.
Before leaving, I went back to my benefactor and thanked him, collected his number and promised to call him later in the day.
Buying fuel at N591 was a very big deal, seeing that most stations operate at about N980-990 per litre at the time.
Next episode, my second encounter with my connect was even more remarkable.
Stay tuned!
