When Vincent Enyeama was conferred with honorary Doctor of Philosophy (Honoris Causa) in Human Kinetics and Physical Education by the University of Uyo, the meaning of the award dovetailed instantly to something beyond the denotative essence of the award. Whether the title, Dr., which goes with the award would be prefixed to the name of Enyeama or not, the glorious gesture had been adduced to have given the ex-Nigerian international footballer the real import of his name for the first time in many years....CONTINUE READING
Enyeama was among three prominent Nigerians awarded honorary doctorate degree by the university on November 11, 2023. Udom Inoyo, a lawyer, administrator and former Vice Chairman of Exxon Mobil companies in Nigeria, was also honoured. The other person was Daisy Danjuma, a lawyer and former Nigerian senator.
Unlike what obtains in some other places, the choice of the three persons made further statement that the University of Uyo is not good at making honorary doctorate degree a common commodity.
Explaining the choice of Enyeama for the award, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Prof Nyaudoh Ndaeyo, described the awardee as “an international footballer who rose through sheer determination from a humble background to international stardom as a goalkeeper”. He rationalized that “In approving of his being conferred with the honorary degree of the University of Uyo (UNIUYO), the Senate of the University took into consideration his personal achievements for himself through football and the significance of his rise as a role model for the youths of the country.
On that Saturday afternoon, the citation of the 41-year old retired footballer probably marked the first time in a large audience of diverse groups of people that his name was rightly pronounced since he left Ibom Stars in 2000 for national and international football arena. Enyeama’s citation was read by Prof Effiong Johnson, who is informally accorded recognition as UNIUYO’s orator.
Apart from glowingly chronicling the rich football career of the former goalkeeper of Enyimba Football Club of Aba, which, among others, included Iwuanyanwu Nationale, where he played in 36 matches, and Hapoel Tel Aviv, where he featured in 113 matches between 2007 and 2011, the citation traced his formative years to Uyo, where he attended his primary and secondary schools before moving to the University of Uyo. The reconnection of Enyeama with his childhood and boyhood days in Uyo elicited applause from the mammoth gathering.
The professor of Theatre, Film and Communication Studies brought his alluring drawl to bear while giving a run-down of the resume of the former Nigerian national team goalkeeper, who played for the Super Eagles from 2002 to 2015, during which time he was in the winning team of the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013. Prof Johnson’s manner of slow, superb and smart stressing of each letter and syllable in a word, which could make pupils at the kindergarten level to score distinction in dictation, rubbed well in his pronunciation of Enyeama.
In his native Annang dialect, the footballer’s surname, which many Nigerians used to think is Igbo name, is pronounced “Eyie-ama. Some sections in the locality called it “Ayie-ama”. In English, it means he who owns loves, loved by the owner or the owner loves what he has. The name also means that “people love their own.”
Enyeama is an indigene of Effen Ibom in Ika Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. His native home is a stone-throw to Abia State, an Igbo speaking part of Nigeria.
To Enobong Joshua, a professor of Mathematics at the University of Uyo, “Vincent Enyeama has tried to promote the name of the state (Akwa Ibom) even though some people mis-pronounce his name as if it is an Igbo name.” Even so, SUNDAY INDEPENDENT can authoritatively assert that “some people” mentioned by Joshua also included many people of Akwa Ibom extraction.
Reporting on the United States-based Fullbright Fellow award bestowed on Ephraim Inyangudo, a Physics teacher at the Akwa Ibom State-owned public secondary school, on account of his teaching proficiency, SUNDAY INDEPENDENT in its edition of April 30, 2023, had stated that the multi-award winning and international teacher is “the next person from that local community, after Nigeria’s ex-international, Vincent Enyeama, that have made impressive outings in their careers pursuit at the global arena.”
Notwithstanding being a coincidence, it remains so striking that Enyeama was honoured alongside Inoyo, the founder and Advisor of Inoyo Toro Foundation, to whom Inyangudo traced his teaching distinction and international prominence. The foundation is non-governmental and privately driven for teaching excellence in public secondary schools in Akwa Ibom.
Enyeama won many national and international awards in the course of his over 15 years of professional football career, which saw him playing for no fewer than seven football clubs in Nigeria and overseas. The citation of the Akwa Ibom-born footballer, who, in 2009, was declared Footballer of the Year in Israel, also recalled that “in March 2023, the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) ranked Enyeama as the greatest African goalkeeper in history because of his consistently impressive performance in goalkeeping for the Super Eagles for many years.”
The Uniuyo tribute also stated: “Whatever yardstick used, Enyeama’s accomplishments on the football field are outstanding. They have brought pride and recognition to himself and the nation, and serve as a reminder that success can be achieved through different honourable paths, and true greatness is defined by one’s character and ability to rise above adversity.”
Although the former Super Eagles captain is not the first footballer of Akwa Ibom extraction to have adorned the Nigerian national colours and played at international scenes, Enyeama has broken some sort of jinx of abrupt end in football careers that characterised other footballers from Akwa Ibom. Friday Ekpo, for instance, played for the national team from 1989 to 1993.
Etim Esin, estimated to be one of Nigeria’s most gifted footballer in history and nicknamed Maradona by legendary radio commentator, Ernest Okonkwo, had to draw the curtain prematurely on his dazzling football career. No thanks to self-inflicted controversy and race-induced conspiracy scandal that dotted his rousing football profession.
Being honoured by the University of Uyo has caused ponderings in the minds of some pundits who pointed to the fact that the larger entity of people under the institution of Akwa Ibom State government is yet to roll out the drums for Enyeama almost a decade after he retired from professionally playing the round-leather game.
There are questions on the minds of some people concerning when the petrol-dollar-rich state would replicate what states like Lagos, Rives and Delta had done in honouring their celebrated sportsmen. Respectively, Lagos, Rivers and Delta have named stadia after Teslim Balogun, Adokiye Amiesimaka and former Super Eagles Captain and Coach, Stephen Keshi.
In view of the discouraging role that most parents play in the sporting talents of their wards, the decisive step made by Philip Enyeama, Vincent’s father, in the football development of his then young son could be considered a classical case study of promoting children’s passion, especially on non-scholastic endeavours. The senior Enyeama was the young Enyeama’s first trainer. Fortunately, the older Enyeama was at the time Uniuyo’s football coach.
Apart from facilitating his son’s training with the UNIUYO football team, he bought Vincent’s first pair of boots and gloves – a case of providing the then young boy nets and tutoring to catch fishes on his own – an evidently fulfilled effort crowned with successes and glories!
Some other minds are inclined to establish the appropriateness or otherwise of the spelling of Enyeama. What brought about the Igbonisation, and sometimes Anglicisation of the name? Should the name be spelt Enyiema or Enyeama? May be the University of Uyo has got some work to do in its Efik/ Ibibio department, just as the need for formal incorporation of Annang dialect in the written vernacular of Nigeria’s fourth largest language may have become a desideratum.
Whichever, with the pronunciation that conveys the right identity and meaning of the footballer, it is also guessed that it could prop up genealogical research that would open interesting historical chapters for the Enyeamas of the present and future.
Other thoughts are evaluating that irrespective of whether there are significance in names other than serving as measures for identification, the power inherent in proper pronunciation of a name can hardly be lost on an African, especially within the context of inspirations and etymologies that informed framers of persons’ names.
There is also a poser as to whether UNIUYO’s huge capital in formally ushering Enyeama into the ivory tower’s hall of fame would actually set the ball rolling for the true meaning of the name to be practicalised, to a point that the footballer’s native people in Akwa Ibom and the Nigerian federation will demonstrate more love in tangible and intangible forms that could translate to many more honours for the trailblazing ex-international.
