“T’ómódé o ba b’átàn, yoo b’àróbá; àróbá si ree ohun ni baba itan.”
“A child that misses the beginning of a tale, deserves a quick recount; hoping that such act placates the agony of the missed antecedent of a tale!”
…remember sometimes last year that you challenged me to tell you about that old soccer club once based in Lagos- The Stationary Stores FC otherwise known as the ‘Adebajo Babes’ so named in the honor of its founder, the late businessman Mr. Isreal Adebajo. They were known by other names as well e.g ‘The Super Stores’ or ‘The Flamin’ Flamingoes’ but in Ibadan, we spitefully called them “The Stores”, in the underhanded manner a finicky person belittles a Cockroach and called it a damn “Roach!”
A book of a thousand pages wouldn’t leave enough room to vent on the pros, cons and the equilibrium of this storied team in its unique contribution- good or bad, to the development of soccer in modern day Nigeria. In Ibadan where I grew up, the Babes was the onerous yardstick we employed- (and it was long enough to psyche us) in detesting somethings Made In Lagos, one of which was the Stores FC! Years after the fact, even when Lagos State became ultimately my primary residence- it was still not easy for me to give her my whole heart! Where I couldn’t give her- that’s City a a chokehold- I constantly, mindfully, vilify her so-called excellence! And because it was easier for me to hate The Stores FC, I made it imperative to like all other teams sharing the city with the Team. Julius Berger, ACB, First Bank, or any other team but the damn ‘Bajo Babes!’ The chip on our shoulder in Ibadan paralleled that of the Indiana Pacers each time they faced the NY Knicks, usually in the NBA post season. Reggie Miller made the Knicks pay one time too many for calling the Pacers “The Hicks From Indiana.” They called us worse. They called us “ARA OKO ABEDO LANTI!”
I must confess to you that I risk been seen to be twisted pathologically in the way I pick my preferences- the manner at which I choose things to Like, Dislike or Love or Hate, anything at all! For example, I hated every other soccer teams from Ibadan that wasn’t the IICC Shooting Stars. Suffice to say it’s hard for me to form an alliance, but whenever I manage to form one- dammit I am stuck with it! Not a surprise that I am still crazily in love with the Shooting Stars after all these years and I still crazily hate the Stores- after all these years too!
It’s easier for me to hate that team- because of its legendary, very rowdy fan base which at that time counted amongst its members, some of the most irredeemable recidivists found throughout the land! With the self-evocative analysis of my own peculiar idiosyncrasies above, you ought to be clued into why I stand apart from the crowd of Fayose supporters! For what I’ve seen so far, I can’t be too sure more so with his uncoordinated ‘gragra’ if he wasn’t a Stores fan in the days of yore! And whenever his name floats into my consciousness I can’t seem to shake the fact that he fits that mode to a damn ‘T!’
For the team’s excellent flair for ‘Jogo Bonito’, it’s captivating colorfulness, the team’s collective charisma, the intimidating draw-power, the sexy Lagos factor and the fantastic legend built around that team; a notable cash-cow for the then NFA- they knew that fact well enough to frequently exploit it. Many flagrant infringements committed were overlooked because of its bankable ability. It was however the nasty baggage (hooliganism) of its teeming supporters- the *rowdiest* in the then national league that eventually killed its fervent glow!
Before Olajumoke was ever born or destined to hawk Agege Bread or ever photobombed a photoshoot, I was a champion egg-hawker at Ibadan. And in those days, many years pre-internet, you were a star just walking around with the National League schedule folded neatly in your back pocket. A superstar if you had the Stores/Stars Ibadan home games dates filed away at the back of the head. Olumide Kayode Labeodan was that kid with the magical brain! He was the go-to-guy for any clarification on the asterisk dates!
The Ibadan Stores/Stars matches were like Military War Games! And I kid you not! The tailgate party of Molue buses and Lagos colored Taxi Cabs (Oko Aséwó) filled to the brim with ‘warriors’ (actually thugs and area boys) usually commenced right at the now demolished Ibadan end of the then Lagos-Ibadan tollgate. They shut down the traffic from there on. The mayhem starts from intimidating any individual with the closest affinity to Ibadan- worse for those with tribal marks, or those driving around with plate numbers registered to the city. It was legendary in Ibadan how smart folks wore turban around when this devilish team visited! They’ve been known to ‘surgically’ with boxcutters, broken bottles or knives carved either a “plus or a minus” onto the faces of Ibadan supporters- like those high-spirited kids carve personalities out of fat watermelons during Halloween in the USA!
From the tollgate through Orita-Challenge, Ring-Road, Liberty Road, all around to Scout Camp, Molete, Bode all around through Oke-Ado and Oke-Bola they left evidences of their usual carnage and mayhem. Broken bottles littered the street, dented vehicles strewn about and bloodstains on walls, on street roads if you look hard and well enough. It was the best of time for vulcanizers, mechanics and body shop and certainly the Emergency rooms of local hospitals and clinics were unusually filled too! The teams met usually about 4 times a year and those days were highlighted in bold asterisks on the schedule. The Oyo State Police Force worked overtime, with more officers from outside states pooled in for possible reinforcement.
The referees and linesmen were never spared the wrath of this team if a call never went their way. The team, emboldened by its massive fan base at any given time could designate any of its player to do bodily harm to any zealous officiating staff. Some players once chased a Referee around the Liberty Stadium field at Ibadan one game, when they caught up with the poor fella, he was dealt serious slaps as his team mates and the supporters cheered the assaulters on. They stripped the man and took his whistle as a souvenir. It took the intervention of a full battalion of MOPOL officers, fiercely armed to save the naked referee from further punishments from these players.
The Stores Supporters were brutal again in dominating the stands where their team underperformed on the field of play. Every cities they traveled, they made sure to demystify the tradition and nuances of such cities with their unique brand of hooliganism, typically leveled with such intimidation that can be weirdly hilarious. A case in point: one year, rumor persisted after they visited Enugu. Upon losing to the Rangers, they supposedly ‘abducted’ an Idemili Masquerade- one out of the bunch of the team’s official mascot. He was said to have been ‘de-mask, seriously taunted’ in one of the Molue buses on their way to Lagos. The poor, spirited fellow according to legend “was made to sing of Stores greatness in Yoruba language”. That was truly weird to imagine. After so much torture, the Masquerade got dropped off at Sagamu all naked save for his waist-covered only in raffia to find his way back home to Enugu!
In 1985, the team was banned from the league for about a year when they visited Ibadan and in their usual storm-trooping manner destroyed the Premier Stadium, which had to be closed for over a year to all soccer activities. For the time, it cost the OYO FA/NFA the staggering amount of about 5 million Naira in renovation cost. In the previous years (83-84) when the Stars was the hottest team in the nation, they poached one lethal striker from the Stores stable- WAKILU OYENUGA (He was so good I named my son after him). This guy was the original Headmaster! Mutiu Adepoju, Seun Asagidigbi and Samson Ozugula were perhaps still playing in the streets when Wakilu was banging in goals with his head. Odegbami could drop a floater on Wakilu’s head right from his bathroom at his then house in Elewura! He had a patent flying header that no player has since duplicated. With Wakilu’s help, the Stars won the league in 83. The Stores Supporters never forgot that act of soccer “treason” committed by Waki. I remember he was constantly given a full ‘4-point’ security detail in Ibadan and Lagos for his personal safety. In the same manner the press loves to amplify the nonsensical rants of the Oniponmo of Kponmo-Republic, was the same way the NFA turned a blind-eye to the antics of this team and its Supporters Club back then. They sold papers, they packed the stadiums and it helped further that the Stationary Stores Of Lagos was perhaps the only team one could regard as “All-Nigerian”, as it stupendously mimicked the “Melting-Pot” imagery of its home base.
Eventually that notorious image became a huge problem as player recruitment which was for a long time a breeze, became laborious. Their players, who were up to that point signed for “nickels and dimes” and more for street credibility from the many playgrounds around the city grew all wiser! News of players being slapped around by members of the Supporters Club was rife around the league. The handlers were made to sign ironclad undertakings for detrimental conducts of its players and members of its Supporters Club and mostly to stand responsible for any damages incur on away or home grounds. Then the team started slipping. It fell hard and in a free fall. It was the consequential denial of a raging blaze its needed air support, and that spelled the end of the blaze. It altogether seemed the notoriety fed this team by its very crazy fan base was the gust of wind flying its kite all these years!
Though the team is all tethered hard to history now. My Stars are still performing on in uncoordinated spurts or even if at the very least shadowy. I still cannot forget nor forgive the fact that my tray of about two dozen boiled eggs was seized and emptied by some criminal elements amidst the Stores Supporters Club at New Garage in 1982. They worked me hard on top of traumatizing me . They made me peel an egg one after the other. They cared less of my very wet brown khaki shorts as I frightfully peed on myself. They ate all- but one! They did same thing to Kafaya Adio, I mean the girl selling cold water and soda or ‘minerals’ as we called it then. They drank all and kept the bottles- which I supposed would be used as weapons against the Stars Supporters in the event they lost- which they did anyway! I cried all the way home! I was several Naira short and many Kobos lost.
I don’t like that team then. I sure don’t like them even now! Take it from me when I tell you that I am funny just like that!” –
Odolaye Saburi Gabriel Aremu to Adurosakin Olajide B
