It is often said that unity precedes progress. Football, over the years, has been one of the greatest means to drive unity and with Nigeria marking her 64th year of independence, Aye Pepple organised the 11th edition of the prestigious football festival/ Octoberfest at the Port Harcourt Club, Rivers State.

The one-day tournament which was created in 2013 to foster unity amongst citizens of the nation, saw a good number of sportspersons in attendance for its 11th edition. Beyond the excitement of the tournament, the event gave room for former Sharks of Port Harcourt, Calabar Rovers and Super Eagles player, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze to call attention to the crucial role of grassroots in football development.

” I’ve been clamouring for a lot of stuff like this because I’ve spoken to different people and I’m like since the ex-Sharks are there from Rivers State, why not put them in their local governments for them to bring up players and to help? Instead of to go buy players. I came from secondary school, I was in FGC Federal Government College Port Harcourt when I was playing for Sharks. So bring people from the grassroots, from the youth team… If we can do something like this and bring under 16, under 13 like that, it’ll be a wonderful thing.”

Sharing his views on the state of sports in Nigeria’s 64th year of independence, the former Super Eagles player laid it all bare.

” We are going down, when it comes to sports we are going down, the Olympics we didn’t win any medals, our football team(men) didn’t even qualify.”

He proffered a solution to the apparent decline in the sports sector, laying more emphasis on grassroots, stating that the focus on the development of players as opposed to relying on the use of old players will achieve a whole lot.

Aye Pepple, founder of the event shared its inception.

“We started in 2013, this is our 11th edition, we skipped one year that’s the Covid year 2020. So it just brings people together to celebrate the country’s independence today we are celebrating the 64th Independence of our country Nigeria.”

” I grew up in the old city of Port Harcourt, the old Port Harcourt township. This idea was to gather all the old friends that we used to play with back in the day, so we decided to interact through football and share happy moments together. We interact, that’s what is going on here.”

Ida Peterside, former Super Eagles goalkeeper, was one of the Super Eagles legends to grace the event. He echoed the unifying power of football.

“It’s unbelievable, you can see almost all of the Port Harcourt people are here, especially the sportsmen, you know we are here to just celebrate, it’s a festival, you can hear people playing, we are eating food, people are drinking, and celebrate the unity of Nigeria and that’s the beauty of it, we all come from different tribes, different nations, different people, you know for him to carry us like this every year, nobody said I’m Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, you know football is a factor that just brings us together, and basically that’s what we are doing, enjoying the spirits of the game.”

The Super Eagles legend encouraged the organizers to keep the event rolling in subsequent years, adding that the event has, over the years, gone on smoothly.

“Keep it up, I think it’s going to last for a very long time, the way they are going, the games are just going smoothly, we have not experienced any kind of fracas, being all that we contribute to where people gather so it’s been peaceful so we want to encourage them to keep going in as much as we have life, we will come and support whatever they are doing here.”

As Nigeria strives for sporting progress, Aye Pepple’s Octoberfest serves as a reminder of grassroots football’s importance.