Friday, December 24, 2010

The Death of Lion Man, the failure of NWF

A professional heavyweight wrestler Lion Man died last Sunday shortly after his fight was called off Three Minutes into his Fight at the National Stadium, Lagos. I do not think that the reason for his death has being established up till now. Lion Man, Christopher Okechukwu whose wife is due for delivery soon, had his fight called off when he was noticed not to be fit for the fight. I wonder why there was no test for fitness in the first place before Lion Man went up to the ring. The Blessed put it this way on Nairaland " These wrestlers, if at all, were not medically/physcially and pyschologically assessed and certified fit to fight..." This is really the truth. This neglect is unacceptable.


There were lots of sad drama surrounding Lion Man's passing as was captured and reported by the PM News. Lion man whose fight was stopped and nearly collapsed when he stepped outside the ring as I saw on TV, was not attended to by any medical personnel but his friend who supported him and led him out of the Stadium. The organisers Wrestling and Charity Organisation of Nigeria in conjunction with DAAR Communications, Accolades and Ratinwa Communications obviously did not think of any complication even from the fight that might require any medical attention or first aid. The Nigerian Wrestling Federation too, did not seem to think it is important to have a team of medical personnel and first aid providers standing by.




Lion Man was taking in a Pick Up Van to an hospital where he was rejected for lack of money for his medical care. The same pick up took him back to the Stadium and they left him there lying unconscious. If any necessary measure has been taken Lion Man would not have died. So, the question is, who provides medical facilities and treatment for our sport persons in Nigeria? My hubby who is into Taekwando, told me how so many times they were responsible for themselves when they go for orgnised, supported and sponsored sports. A case in point was a fight they went for in Abuja, where one of thier colleagues fainted while fighting. They not the sport organisers did all they could to wake up the fainted sport man while the whole stadium watched. What happened after was the organisers asking them to write and sign that if anything happens to them, they choose to fight by their own freewill. Where then is safety? Where then is care? Where then is responsibility and the protection of human rights?


RIP Lion Man! I hope things will change, I hope NWF will get sued for this and I hope a big lesson is learnt from this.

4 comments:

Molara Brown said...

This is so sad...The only sport inportant to Nigerians is Football. It is just too sad and we just have to pray that things improve.

LG said...

:(
may his soul rest in peace (ami

Tigeress said...

This is a very sad story. And i'm sure he got into this fight becos of financial reasons. May his soul RIP!!

Na real wa for Naija. Sometime i wonder if its God that has forsaken us or its just our leaders who have.

m1ke said...

This is a very sad piece of tale. Lion man, as an athlete, has found himself in the wrong country and other Nigerian athletes as well.

However, the question you raised about who takes care of these sportsmen and women is a very BIG one to answer. The answer is obvious but who cares to implement the solution in a society filled with individuals who are characterised by self satisfaction. Who takes care of many things not working?

This story is really painful but lessons,I promise you, have not been learnt.

My Passion, my focus, the change that I want to see in the world - is my propellent factor.

Label Cloud

Gender (72) Feminism (46) Interview Thursday (46) Gender Equality (38) Gender and Development (29) Cat lover (24) Poem (24) Cat Tuesday (22) Women's Human Rights (19) Cats World (16) 16 Days of Activism (11) Africa (11) Violence Against Women (8) Information Sharing (7) Music (7) Nigeria Development (7) Women and Leadership (7) Children Rights (6) Exprience (6) Leadership (6) Rest in Peace (6) Change and Development (5) Corruption (5) Day to Day Exprience (5) Events (5) Governance (5) MDGs (5) Peace and Security Fellowship for African Women (5) Relationship (5) Security and Development (5) Women (5) Call for Application (4) Change Maker (4) Dairy (4) Mistake (4) Navy abuse of Uzoma Okere (4) Nigeria in Focus (4) Relationship and Marriage (4) The Feminist Cats (4) BlogHer (3) Chicago July Trip (3) Children (3) Discrimination Against Women (3) Domestic Violence (3) Injustice (3) King;s College Fellowship (3) Lessons (3) Niger Delta Crisis (3) Online Community (3) Religion Matters (3) Travelling (3) Wedding (3) Women Activists (3) Women Empowerment (3) Women in Governance (3) Youth (3) democracy in Nigeria (3) 2009 Edition (2) A girl-Soldier (2) Activism (2) Annivesary (2) BlogHer Conference Scholarship (2) Bloggers for life (2) Democracy and its Struggle (2) Female writers (2) Forced Marriage (2) IAC09 (2) ICT4D (2) International Wome's Rights Day 2008 (2) Journey to London (2) LGBTI (2) Lack of respect for other people's perspectives. (2) Life from Cape Town in South Africa (2) Lovely Cats (2) Male Child Preference (2) Male Child and Domestic Chores (2) Memories (2) My Boss (2) My life in London (2) Nigerian Youth and Development (2) Nigerianstalk (2) No to VAW (2) Rape (2) Sexual Violence and GBV (2) Taking Peace and Security (2) Technology Camp for Girls (2) The Admired Female Bloggers (2) The Changemakers (2) The Future of Nigerian children (2) The Late Kudirat Abiola's Remembrance (2) The Martyr of Democracy (2) The girl child and her chanllenges (2) Untimely death (2) Uzoma Okere court hearing (2) V-Monologues (2) Violation of Human Rights (2) Women making a difference (2) 10 years remembrance for the O.A.U 5. (1) 1in 9 Campaign (1) 2010 self-surfacing resolutions (1) A Ride with my Father (1) A just world with God (1) ALF Program (1) AWID Forum 2008 (1) Activism Scholarship (1) Adaeze Experience (1) African Sexualities (1) Aspiring Filmmaker (1) Bad Leaders (1) Beating by a mad man (1) Becoming my Cats (1) CSDG (1) Career (1) Child Marriage (1) Children without education (1) Children without future (1) Climate Change (1) Conflicts (1) Corrpution and Hooliganism (1) Court System (1) DLTW for Young Female Doctors (1) Democracy Day (1) Divorce and Marriage (1) Dupe In Kenya (1) ECOSAP (1) Evangelist Taye Ajiboye (1) Extreme poverty (1) Female Circumcision (1) Female Film-Makers (1) Girls in Technology (1) Global Warming (1) Government (1) Hafsat Abiola and KIND (1) Human Behaviour and attitudes (1) I didn't do it for you by Michela Wrong (1) ICT and Women (1) Images from Mali (1) Incest (1) Indecent Dressing Bill (1) Info -Activism (1) Internattional Bloggers Community Award (1) Job Search (1) Journey across Africa (1) June 8 and Abacha’s death (1) Kenya July Trip (1) Knowing our continent (1) Lagos State Government (1) MOBILIZATION (1) Mali (1) Marriage (1) Michela Wrong book on Eritrea (1) Mother 6th Remembrance (1) Movement Building. AWID Forum 2008 (1) My first post from London (1) My health (1) NDQ Interview (1) Naija Blogger Awards 2009 (1) Natural Hair (1) Negative quotation on women (1) Newspaper review (1) Nigeria Media (1) Nigerian Sporting Activities (1) Nigerians and Abacha’s death (1) No light (1) No to FGM (1) Obama Prank (1) Outsanding Ore (1) PHCN and Nigeria Government (1) Passing though Ghana (1) Passing through Burkina Security and Development (1) Pastor Kehinde Ajiboye (1) Peace and Secuirty issues in the Horn (1) Police Force (1) Polygamist (1) Pregnancy and child bearing in marriage (1) Punishment of an elderly woman in Saudi (1) Rape Victim (1) Road and Bus Evangelism (1) Road trip to Mali (1) SOLIDARITY WTH WOMEN WHO SPEAK OUT (1) Self Defence for Women (1) Senseless killing by armed robbers (1) Serious Issues (1) Standtall Adevnture (1) Suicide bombing (1) Summit (1) Tactical Tech (1) Take Back the Tech (1) Tell Magazine (1) Terrorist Attack (1) The Uncoventional Clergy woman (1) The Bauchi Killings (1) The EU Summit Report (1) The Eritrea history (1) The July 10 Martyr (1) The Liberian Women peace building effort (1) The O.A.U 5 (1) The PM Tabloid (1) The danger of a single story (1) The late social Crusader (1) The meeting with London Bloggers (1) The rescued kitten (1) This Violence must stop (1) Tips to having a Happy Relationship (1) Traditional Role (1) Transforming Nigeria (1) Travelling through Africa by Road (1) Tribute to Chief Gani Fawehinmi (1) Tyranny (1) Umar Mutallab (1) Understanding Security (1) Uzoma's Justice (1) Verastically Vera (1) WORLD AIDS DAY (1) We need peace in our land (1) Women E-Campaigners` Training (1) Women In Technology. ICT4D (1) Wrong Culture and Belief (1) Yar'adua (1) Youth as agents of Change (1) meeting US bloggers (1) my love (1)