Peter Rufai: Jaja from Opobo who defied the odds

BY OPEYEMI AJALA

The seventh month in the Gregorian calendar that precedes August was named July by the Roman Senate in honour of the fabled Roman general Julius Caesar, who was born in the month.

In 2025, the month accounted for the exit of notable patriots like the pre-independence Ijebu monarch, the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona GCON (91), the two-time military and civilian head of government, General Muhammadu Buhari GCFR (Mai Gaskiya) at 82, who, like the Awujale, exited on July 13, and the last man in our national defence – Peter Rufai, whose death at 61 on July 3 sent shockwaves round the nation he saved from several shocks in his prime.

While the nations mourn and celebrate the incredible feats of these three iconic men, this piece is on the Oshodi-born Peter Rufai, a Jaja from Opobo who defied the odds like the cat with nine lives in his quest to bring sporting glory to himself and the nation-state.

Initially known as Dodo, a sobriquet he inherited from the ‘Flying Cat’ Peter Fregene, his national team predecessor and a Stationery Stores legend who took the Flaming Flamingos to Challenge Cup glory, a feat replicated by Rufai in 1982.

Mayana (shortened from AMAYANA) was a later date addition from the appreciating Portugese fans who were thrilled by his alertness and agility in a training session with the then Green Eagles, and ever since the nickname “Dodo Mayana” (sweeter tomorrow) cojoined alias has prophetically stuck on him the lines on his palms that earned him fame, honour and livelihood. All through his sporting career, Rufai mastered the art of defying the odds and emerging victorious.

From his birth in Lagos to the sojourn in Kaduna and the civil war pre-adulthood years in Port Harcourt responsible for the adoption of the popular Jaja maternal surname, and his nocturnal return to Lagos at the instance of Stationery Stores Football Club, the darling football team of the city that enjoyed a wonderful and Cinderella relationship between players and fans who were more famous as scouts anywhere they are based.

Like Bobby Moore, the venerated English World Cup winning captain who played three successive finals in Wembley from 1964-1966 (1964 FA Cup and 1965 Cup Winners Cup with West Ham and the 1966 World Cup with the national team), the teenaged Rufai featured in three successive finals at the National Stadium Lagos beginning with the 1980 Challenge Cup final losing to Bendel Insurance, the 1981 Continental Cup Winners Cup losing to Cameroonian side Union Douala after remarkably saving a penalty in the goalless first leg before losing the home second leg in a match he was stretchered off injured.

Dodo Mayana was prominent as the team thrashed Niger Tornadoes 4-1 in that memorable final that birthed the musical album titled Challenge Cup ‘82, released by Queen Salawa Abeni of the Waka genre in commemoration of the victory, cementing Rufai’s status as a legend in the annals of Stationery Stores folklore.

A confident Rufai, who had become the national team goalkeeper and was outstanding in the 1984 AFCON, stunned the football world by joining Femo Scorpion of Eruwa, a club owned by the then industrialist and ex-UPN financier Femi Ogundoyin, a move that in today’s terms is prime Bayern Munich’s Neuer moving to KSV Holstein.

From Eruwa, he crossed the border in 1986 to join with Benin Republic’s Dragons de l’Ouémé, a team with which he repeated his penalty saving heroics and helped bundle Abiola Babes, Nigerian opponents, out of the 1986 Cup Winners Cup after the second leg of the first round could not be played.

Coincidentally, both teams made it to the semi-finals of the next edition in 1987, where Gor Mahia, the eventual winners, stopped the dream of Rufai’s Beninoise side, and Abiola Babes lost to Tunisian side Esperance, the other finalist.

Geographical mobility of labour is as ancient as mankind. Dr Orlando Owoh in ‘Money Palaver’ opined that the Europeans left the comfort of Europe for the wealth in Africa, and Africans also embarked on an exodus out of Africa in search of livelihood. Rufai crossed the oceans in 1987 to Lokeren in Belgium to team up with national teammate Samson Siasia and the Moroccan Mohammed Timoumi, the 1985 CAF Footballer of the Year and the last Africa-based player to win the award.

He crossed the border again to Holland from Beveren before settling with Farense in Portugal, the country that gave him ‘Mayana’ to the Dodo prefix from his mentor Fregene.

Rufai also repaid Farense by helping the team qualify for European competition for the first time in 1995 and attain their highest league ranking of 5th position, a feat yet to be surpassed to date for the football club founded on April 1, 1910 (no fooling).

A stopover in Spain with Deportivo La Coruna and Hercules before Rufai’s final stop with Gil Vicente in Portugal, a country that sadly lost the Liverpool star striker Diogo Jota and his sibling Andre Silva on the same day Dodo Mayana departed.

While his club performances delighted his club supporters, it was his heroics for the National team, from his first invitation in 1981 to his last match in 1998, that elicited joy across the length and breadth of Nigeria, a country spanning 923,768 km².

From 1983 to 1998, he was the first-choice goalkeeper in the national team, known as the Green Eagles, Papa Eagles, or Super Eagles.  Due to a combination of reasons, he was always defying the odds and bouncing back as the first choice of the national team.

He played in three AFCONs and ensured the nation survived the heartaches and heartbreaks synonymous with penalty shootouts by saving kicks against Egypt in 1984, Algeria in 1988, and Côte d’Ivoire in 1994, when he emerged victorious after losing the 1984 and 1988 finals to Cameroon.

Initially frozen out of Clemens Westerhof plans at the start of his reign in 1989 and missed out of the 1990 and 1992 AFCON selections, he was 3rd time lucky as sustained playing and fan pressure ensured he was selected for the dead rubber first group stage World Cup qualifiers against Congo Brazzaville in Enugu in a match that featured predominantly home based players.

He also played in the last AFCON 94 qualifier against the Ethiopians, where he scored a goal in the 6-nil drubbing.

He was a late addition to the 1994 squad, as the young Ike Shorunmu was dropped due to his inclusion.

This late indecision cost the country some US Dollars as a fine from CAF, as Rufai’s jersey in the first AFCON match against Gabon was not up to standard due to the manual adjustment of the jersey and pants with unidentical numbers.

Unperturbed by these administrative issues, Rufai was instrumental to the 1994 AFCON triumph and, from being the outcast and rejected stone, led the nation to our first ever World Cup match as captain in the absence of the non-playing Keshi.

At the World Cup, he was only beaten by the combination of Maradona’s assist, Cannigia’s guile, and Roberto Baggio’s precision, conceding four goals in four matches scored by two players.

The rash and brash decision of the Abacha-led military government thwarted further AFCON participation for him and his teammates as the 1996 defence was boycotted, and the CAF ban excluded the prime Eagles from the 1998 team. After a round of goalkeeping crisis enroute France 1998 World Cup, a late invitation was extended to an off-season Rufai on vacation and unlike the Danes in 1992 that emerged European Champions after a late invitation as replacement for the banned Yugoslavs, this time the same Danes dazed Rufai and the team in 4-1 thrashing that ended a consecutive round of 16 exit for the Eagles drawing a curtain of Rufai’s magnificent run as the nation’s last line of defence.

Out of national duty in retirement, the National Institute for Sports-trained Dodo Mayana, who was never out of touch as a grassroots talent hunter and nurturer, had a stint as the technical director of Ikorodu United. We can only be grateful for the life and times of the man who gave every future goalkeeper the name Dodo Mayana, so good that many kids thought his name was Keeper (instead of Peter) Rufai, and the APINA, as he was known in Port Harcourt. This Jaja from Opobo, like the legendary Jaja of Opobo, defied the odds to conquer.

It is heartbreaking that the three young lads, Rufai, Keshi and Yekini, who were together in AFCON 84, 88, 94 and USA 94, are no longer with us. Still, there is consolation in the words of Uncle Iroh, a character from Avatar: The Last Airbender, we would always remember that “the good times become great memories. The bad times become great lesson”.

Rufai has pulled off the gloves for the last time, but we owe him the release of the autobiography very dear to his heart.

Adeus Dodo Mayana.

Opeyemi Ajala is a former presenter at Eagle Sports Hour on Eagle Cable Television.