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From Food Poisoning In 2004
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SUNDAY ODEBODE, MemberNaija Supporters Club
In 2004, Nigeria’s Under-20 team stood on the brink of disaster in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Unknown to the players and coaches, their pre-match meal had been poisoned. A timely warning, quick thinking, and one man’s courage saved the lives of Samson Siasia, Taiye Taiwo, Chinedu Obasi, goalkeeper Vanseki, Adeneye the defender, and their teammates, ensuring Nigeria’s journey to the 2005 FIFA U20 World Cup remained intact.
That man was Sunday Odebode, a member of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club, Burkina Faso Chapter. Today, more than 20 years later, he is speaking out not to boast, but to beg for help, saying the very sacrifice that saved the team cost him his livelihood, his safety, and his future.
Odebode recalled how he had joined the Supporters Club around 2002, serving passionately across tournaments in Mali, Ghana, Tunisia, and beyond with Dr. Rafiu Ladipo’s international office. His life, however, changed forever in 2004 when Nigeria’s Under-20s came to Burkina Faso for their final qualifying match. Because of his fluency in the local language, the Nigerian Consular asked him to be close to the team for support and security.
It was during that assignment that he received the warning that would alter history. At the hotel where the team lodged, the doctor attached to the squad had been fond of a woman working in the kitchen, and Odebode often served as interpreter between them. One evening, just a day before the crucial match, the woman secretly called him aside.
“She begged me not to allow the team to eat that night’s food,” Odebode recounted, his voice heavy with emotion. “I was shocked and asked her why. She said the food had been poisoned.”
The players who stood to be affected included Taiye Taiwo, Obasi, Adeneye, Vanseki, and others under the guidance of Coach Samson Siasia.
Faced with the terrifying revelation, Odebode rushed to the Nigerian Embassy. The Consular, stunned, asked him if he was sure. When Odebode confirmed, he was instructed to quickly secure a Nigerian-owned restaurant and keep it closed to outsiders until the Nigerian team had eaten safely.
“I went to an Igbo man who owned a restaurant and explained everything,” he said. “At first, people doubted it was possible, but finally he agreed. Then the Consular asked me to go back to the hotel and tell Coach Siasia not to allow the players down to the restaurant or the reception until he arrived.
“When Siasia asked what the problem was, I told him it was a security instruction. Later, when the official team bus came, they were told not to enter it. Instead, we arranged private vehicles to convoy them to the stadium. That night, after training, I took them to the Nigerian restaurant. They refused to touch the hotel’s food. The following morning, on match day, they ate at the restaurant again.”
Only after the game did the truth finally reach the team.
“The Consular told them the information came from me—that the food they were given had been poisoned. After the match, all of them, the players and the coaches, came to thank me. They said if not for me, something terrible would have happened. Even Coach Siasia embraced me.”
Nigeria went on to defeat Burkina Faso, with Taiye Taiwo scoring the decisive goal. That victory sealed their ticket to the 2005 U20 World Cup in the Netherlands, the same tournament where they narrowly lost in the final to Lionel Messi’s Argentina.
Odebode’s look before
“They even told me the plan was to stop Taiwo because they knew he was the danger man,” Odebode explained. “It might not have killed them, but it would have weakened them badly, destroyed their strength, and ruined their determination. But God used me.”
But instead of honor, his brave act brought pain.
“After the qualifier, when the team came to Benin for the Nations Cup, I went to meet Siasia again. He embraced me in front of the whole team, telling them, ‘If not for this man, you wouldn’t be here today.’ They all promised me they would not forget. They said after the match, they would explain everything to the authorities. But that was where it ended. Nobody called me. Nobody reached out.”
Then came threats that forced him out of Burkina Faso.
“When the secret leaked out, people in Burkina Faso began to threaten me. They said I had betrayed them. Even the kitchen woman who leaked the information was sacked. I could not stay in the country anymore. I feared for my life and left. By 2007, I was back in Nigeria, jobless, with nothing.”
Two decades later, the pain of neglect lingers.
“I am calling out because promises were made in 2004,” he pleaded. “Up till now, nobody has reached out to me. My job and businesses disappeared because I revealed the truth to save Nigeria. All I am asking is for them to remember me. I saved the country. I saved those boys. But today, I am roaming about with nothing. Please, let them not forget me.”
His voice cracked as he added, “I even tried to reach out through Facebook or contacts, but I never succeeded. I am not asking for the world. Just help. Because I know that day, if God had not used me, Nigeria would never have made it to that U20 World Cup.”
For Sunday Odebode, the hero of Ouagadougou 2004, the past is a mix of pride and heartbreak. Pride that he saved Nigeria’s U20s from sabotage. Heartbreak that his sacrifice left him abandoned, forgotten, and still pleading for remembrance.
–Benprince Ezeh
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