Olusoji Fasuba Bashed!

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SOUNDS REALLY UGLY, PJ, WHAT’S THE TRUTH BEHIND THIS SHOCKING STORY?

Algiers 2007: Fasuba Escapes Lynching
By Duro Ikhazuagbe, 03.12.2007

Olusoji Fasuba, Nigeria’s brightest prospect for gold medal in the 100m event of the 9th All Africa Games scheduled for Algeria this summer, yesterday narrowly escaped body injuries that could have ended that dream.

The Commonwealth Games silver medallist whose new 9.85secs time over 100m ended Frankie Fredricks’ 10-year old African sprint record late last year, was almost turned into a punching bag by one burly body builder at the gym of the National Stadium in Lagos.

Trouble started when Fasuba, who arrived the country two weeks ago went into the gym to work-out but one of the many body builders who have monopolised the place insisted that the athlete “had no right to come into their arena.”

“The body builder who is called Alex and is said to be a policeman attached to Area ‘C’ Police Command in Surulere just kicked Fasuba in the stomach and almost crushed his legs with an iron rod before he was held back by his colleagues who admitted that the sprinter actually sought their permission to use the facilities," narrated one of the stadium staff who witnessed the fracas.

Fasuba’s SOS call to Sunday Bada, the technical/performance director of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) who incidentally is a serving police superintendent prompted the muscle flexing macho-men to scamper from the vicinity of the Sportscity.

Speaking with THISDAYSports shortly after the incident, Bada insisted that it was the most unfortunate thing to happen to an African sprint record holder in a place where he is supposed to be revered.

“I wonder how we have degenerated to the point that miscreants and other fellows with questionable characters now decide who trains at federal government owned facilities,” rued the former quarter-miler.

The AFN chief who is planning alternative private gym for Fasuba to continue his training before returning to his base in Greece, however, promised to take up the assault matter with his colleagues at the Area ‘C’ Command and see that justice is done accordingly.

Meanwhile, Abel Akhigbe an athletics coach with the NITEL Athletics Club has been reported dead.
The Edo-born coach was feared to have died from food poisoning as he was seen hale and hearty just two days back at the Sportscity in Lagos.
Most athletes and athletics writers who heard of his death yesterday expressed shock at the development.

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That sucks ass! Souds like some meathead is just jealous. Fasuba probably accidentally kicked over his body oil or worst- block the meathead’s view of himself in the mirror. Such herasy is never tolerated amongst the mannequins! That guys a D*ckhead!

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nigeria is crazy like that, its one of the main reasons why i havent been back in many years.

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yeah, says a lot for Nigeria. Fasuba, the finest international ambassador for the entire country, would be safer in bloody Zimbabwe - where at least you Know you can expect to be beaten up. It comes as no surprise there … even the opposition leader gets bashed and tortured.

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when my dad first took to me to nigeria, we couldnt even get our bags until we paid the airport people 1000 bucks.

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That shit sounds fake. He walked into the gym and the muscle flexing man started beating his ass. fasuba just stood there and took it?

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Sounds like you know fuck-all about Nigeria.
Maybe you can look up Dele Udo. he was the NCAA champ at 400m. He went on a trip home and two psycho guards shot him dead upon arrival at the airport. When the police discovered who they’d killed, they took the two guards outside and shot them dead in the parking lot. Great place to stay out of!! Unfortunately, Fasuba doesn’t have the choice.

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A bunch of 50cent’s crew was talking on the radio about how they didn’t think they were going to get out of Nigeria alive after their concerts. I guess they really weren’t kidding. damn

I also remember Christian Okoye (Chiefs RB) talking about how he made the Olympic standard in discus (64.72?) but Nigerian officials wouldn’t send him due to some BS issues. Sounds like a wonderful place…

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Did guys like Olapade adenekin and Davidson Ezinwa flee from nigeria to train abroad?

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Yeah, for economic opportunity. But Adenekin still managed to get bashed in the lobby in Zurich (by Dennis Mitchell and some guys, I think)

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Why? There are thousands of Nigerians migrating to Europe every month. Obikwelu and Alozie managed, too. Why should especially Fasuba have no chance to do that, too? Any background info I missed?

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nigeria’s a mad place (some guys i know are from there). Its like the wild west used to be. All guns and knives and no regard for life or law. Money is the ONLY thing that counts

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But to be fair NIG is not the only place so bad. You will find “former” colonies all over the world with similar social structures and behaviour of individuals.
I even talked to Nigerians being shocked by things going on in some Carribbean Nation when they visited.

As you said - human life seems to have no value at all. In some parts of Africa, Middle and South America I found people killing each other for nothing at all.
And the way “socially higher” treat “socially lower” individuals…These places are so hard to make a good life and even to survive - one really has to wonder why people purposefully make life harder for each other…

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The next step is to really think why these former colonies have such a shit life… All these troubled areas have one thing in common they were the former colonies of the UK, Portugal, Spain and in particular Belgium. The Belgians really taught their colonies what brutality is under Emperor Leopald. That brutality has become the fabric of many societies around the world. Their recent history is a lagacy of their colonial past.

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Surely a right point. Especially reading novels like Edgar Mittelholzers novels about the history of Guyana give one the idea how all these behavioural stuctures were “tought” to (native and “forcefully migrated”) people over hundreds of years and formed (or better destroyed) all their values.
But the question is:
On the individual basis: Can people change? How much are individuals free to make a choice? Is a muderer in Nigeria “innocent”? Is he less responsible for his actions than a murderer in Canada or Germany?
How long does it take for a society to change as a whole? What are the factors that work against changes today? Too many open questions to judge so qick.

All I want to say that there is some hypocrisy in bashing Nigeria alone for being “such a bad place”.
On the other hand I do not believe people who do wrong there are free from all responsibility only because of their sad history, the influence “from outside”, the “evil West” (past AND present).

Leads to quite controversial discussion, so I better stop and learn more about sprint training instead :wink:

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Don’t forget the Dutch. The dutch have screwed over most of their previous colonies so bad there is an economic term named after it (“Dutch Disease”). One can argue that the current day middle east is giving itself dutch disease…

However as an aside, it is also interesting to note that pre-colonial Africa was a fairly brutal place as well. (I think the Mali empire was particularly bloodthirsty, but i am probably mixing this up with another one. I took an african history class in undergrad, but i barely remember any of it… :frowning: ).) I think the real issue is when the colonial power left. When this occurred, (it varied depending on the country) the borders were realigned by its former occupiers. (The middle east is a fine example of how well this worked :wink: ). Besides leaving a power vaccuum, this realignment mixed cultural groups that had a history of violence. This is a gross simplication and generalization, but it approximates most of these former colonies well.

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Good points, but then so were many parts of the world even including many European countries, the difference being the efficiency and “clinical” ways of killing people.

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Excellent points. I think its important to talk about ALL issues that arise on this site. It is important for athletes and coaches to understand the backgrounds of fellow competitors, let alone the world we live in. Our sport reflects the world. In case we forget, our sport was used as a battle front during the cold war. Nations withdraw their athletes from olympic competition from time to time to make political points. Lets not forget Munich; or the Moscow withdrawals that cost so many American athletes a chance to shine… In short it is only right and proper to discuss all these issues because they affect many who take part in Track and Field. Thats why its important to not just share sprint training methods but ideas about other issues.

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Olu is not injured, he did received the stomach punch, but managed to avoid the iron bar, he is not the fastest starter for no reason…

AUT_71 : Obikwelu and Alozie have switch nationality several years ago and both just missed 2001 Worlds (they competed at 2000 Olympics and 2002 European Champs). Now the rules have changed since, Olu would have to say no to 2007 World Champs, 2008 Olympics and maybe 2009 Worlds.