By CLEM OLUWOLE
MY jaw fell to the floor on August 16, 2025, when the news of the passing of Alhaji Isyaku Ibrahim hit the airwaves. Fortunately for me, I was not anywhere close to an abattoir, because a jet-load of green flies would have taken refuge in my mouth!
I first met Alhaji Isyaku way back in the early 1970s when I joined THE NIGERIA STANDARD Newspaper as a pioneer staff member with the mandate to set up its sports desk. The Mighty Jets Football Club of Jos, one of the finest soccer outfits to fly out of Nigeria’s football womb, was already making waves in the country prior to my emergence in Jos, the Tin City. The club had become the first to win the National Football League Trophy in 1971, long before the league was categorised into divisions one, two and three in 1978.
It was the first Military Governor of the defunct Benue-Plateau State, Police Commissioner Joseph Dechi Gomwalk (of blessed memory), who conceived the idea of forming a football club for the state and persuaded his good friend, Alhaji Isyaku, to midwife it. The ebullient philanthropist became its pioneer chairman. The name ‘Mighty Jets’ must have sprung up from Isyaku’s possession of a private jet. He was one of the few successful international business moguls to own one, the first being Barrister Godfrey Jaja Amachree, an indigene of Kalabari in present-day Rivers State.
Sweet memories of a football era
The last time I had an engagement with the deceased was at his Asokoro residence in Abuja more than 15 years ago. My good friend and colleague, Emma Bello, then Editor of Sunday Leadership Newspaper, took me to his house. I was at the time an external member of the Group’s Editorial Board.
It was a happy reunion with the football administrator. We relived the glorious days of the Mighty Jets and recalled the roll call of players who had already departed and those still alive. By then, many had answered their final summons. First to “disemplane” was Sam Garba Okoye, arguably one of the finest attacking midfielders of his generation. Fondly called Sam Garba by admirers, he tragically died in a car crash in July 1978 while on official duty in Lafia as the principal football coach with the old Plateau State Sports Council. I had assured him earlier that, given his rising profile, he would one day end up as the head coach of the Green Eagles. He had starred for the national team as far back as the 1968 Mexico Olympics under the late Chief Coach, Teslim “Thunder” Balogun.
Today, almost all the players that pioneered the Jets some 55 years ago have flown to the great beyond. Field Marshal Ismaila Mabo, the pioneer captain, passed on about two years ago while serving as chairman of the Plateau State Sports Council, of which I was also a member. Others who left before Mabo included penalty expert Sule Kekere, Layi Olagbemiro, and three of the four illustrious Atuegbu brothers – Matthew, Aloysius and Nicholas. Only Andrew, now residing in the United States, survives.
Uba Junior, who paired with Mabo in central defence, has also gone, along with goalkeeper Lawandi Datti, Batande AN, AN Lime, Nda Liman and Kunle Awesu. Winger Babalola Olugbodi and Bayo Adenuga, I believe, are still alive, with the latter maintaining contact with me until recently.
A football dream, its challenges
Alhaji Isyaku’s death shocked me as deeply as that of Sam Garba. I remember vividly that I had just checked into my hotel room in Lagos after returning from Algiers, where I covered the 3rd All-Africa Games. Heading for the washroom, the sad announcement came on radio. I froze in my tracks; the urine ceased. Sam Garba had died young, barely in his early 30s, handsome and admired by many women. Despite his charm, he dribbled his way through life as gracefully as he did on the pitch.
Alhaji Isyaku remained in touch with his pioneer warriors and must have felt great pain each time he learnt of the death of any of them. I have written tributes to many of those departed, extolling their contributions to football’s growth in Plateau and Nigeria as a whole.
Even the pioneer executive members of the club are almost all gone, except my good friend, Alhaji Idris Loko, the club’s former secretary and currently Secretary of the Nasarawa Emirate Council. Alhaji Buba Ahmed, the Team Manager who later became Sports Minister under President Shagari, also passed away a little over a year ago. His death hit me hard too; he was a likeable and humble man.
Though Governor Gomwalk exited the scene after the 1975 coup and was later executed following the 1976 assassination of General Murtala Mohammed, despite his proclaimed innocence, Alhaji Isyaku never abandoned the club. He hired a Brazilian coach, Samuel Lopez, and sponsored three star players (Ismaila Mabo, Sam Garba, and Matthew Atuegbu), to Brazil for coaching training. Of the trio, Mabo rose to prominence at the national level, guiding the Super Falcons to remarkable success. Alhaji Isyaku must have been proud of him.
Honour to a pioneer
Though successful as a businessman and politician, Alhaji Isyaku perhaps died unfulfilled in his footballing dream for the club. Beyond winning the National League title, the Mighty Jets struggled for decades to win the Challenge Cup. Appearing in 10 finals, they lost them all, earning the nickname Throne Seers or SoroyeinYoruba.
The most dramatic was the 1972 final against Bendel Insurance of Benin. The Onikan Stadium, Lagos, overflowed with fans, including Alhaji Isyaku, Governor Gomwalk and Colonel Samuel Ogbemudia of Mid-West State. With Insurance leading 2-0 into the dying minutes, Sam Garba pulled off a miracle, scoring twice within five minutes to restore parity. The stadium erupted in disbelief.
Referee Sunny Badru, poised to blow the final whistle, froze with the whistle at his lips. A replay was ordered at Liberty Stadium, Ibadan, where internal divisions in the Jets squad, fuelled by tribal rivalries, cost them dearly.
However, it is heartening that the club still exists 55 years later, weathering storms and currently competing in the lower league. The greatest honour to the Wamba-born soccer icon would be to rename the club after him -perhaps Isyaku Ibrahim Jets FC of Jos. Retaining ‘Jets’ would satisfy the club’s fanatical supporters who have been condemned to chant “Up Jets” for life.
May Allah grant Alhaji Isyaku Ibrahim Aljannah Firdaus, and may his family and Nigeria’s football fraternity find the fortitude to bear this great loss.