Renowned Nigerian football icon Segun Odegbami has appealed for financial aid on behalf of former Nigerian goalkeeper Peter Fregene, who is currently facing health challenges.
Fregene, who served as the goalkeeper for the Nigeria national football team for over two decades, is presently hospitalized in Sapele, Delta State, and is in urgent need of both medical attention and financial support.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Odegbami revealed that Fregene is awaiting transfer by ambulance to the Ohara Teaching Hospital, for which additional funds are required, despite initial support from Tony Ojesina to cover the ambulance costs.
Odegbami also expressed concern over the absence of a comprehensive welfare system for retired athletes in Nigeria.
The statement reads in full
I am frustrated because I am publishing this ‘horror’ picture (a picture of Fregene in a hospital bed), wishing I could do what needs to be done for a colleague without having to resort to yet another public appeal to the same few Nigerians that have, through the years, intervened in the matter of ill-health of a few retired, suffering Nigerian football heroes.
By now, we must have exhausted any remnant of ‘goodwill’ we have with Femi Otedola, Mike Adenuga, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, Babatunde Fashola, Benson Ejindu, Allen Onyema, and a few other Nigerians who often came to the aid of a few lucky sports heroes several times in the past.
Even if they have not complained, we are ashamed to go back to them again.
Why don’t we have, or why can’t we set up, even on our own, a simple welfare scheme for active and retired athletes across all sports in the country, to take care of our declining health in old age, long after our sports careers?
Doing so does not require knowledge of rocket science. What is needed are the will, hard work, and a few good and committed people of integrity.
The danger now is that the number of retired aging sports heroes languishing in poverty, neglect, and ill health is legion already and growing. Their stories are ugly and shameful.
The government has demonstrated time and again that sport is not a priority. 64 years after Independence they cannot and will not see it differently, period.
So, Peter Fregene is a reminder to us all again. As I look at him lying comatose on a hospital bed in Sapele and experiencing the suffering he must be going through, my frustration is mounting.
It appears doing something for, and beyond, Peter is a responsibility that ‘fate and metaphysical aid’ seem to have put around my neck. So, we shall see, as our people would say when they do not know what’s coming next.
So, what is the situation with ‘Apo’ now? He is still waiting for help to come to be moved by ambulance to the Ohara Teaching Hospital, Ohara, Delta State. He has been waiting since yesterday.
I hope Globacom, that have been taking care of his every need in the past year, would respond once again and come to his aid.
A friend sitting next to me yesterday as I discussed Peter with his wife on the telephone last night, Tony Ojesina, immediately paid for the cost of the ambulance that would convey him there. But he still has other bills to pay before he can be moved.
Fregene was the first-choice goalkeeper for the Nigeria national football team from 1968 to 1971. He was then recalled for the 1982 African Cup of Nations finals. He also represented Nigeria at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico.
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