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(L) FA Cup legend, Peter
Fregene…still comes to relish is young old days, 2014; (R) Very ill: Former
goalkeeper Peter Fregene, Now
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Alexander Okere writes
on the life of pain, poverty and dejection of a former Nigeria goalkeeper,
Peter Fregene, who represented contry at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico and Libya
’82 Africa Cup of Nations
He was regarded as
one of the safest hands in Nigeria’s football history and was nicknamed the
Flying Cat by his colleagues and fans, due to his quality as a goalkeeper when
he manned the post for the Green Eagles in the late 1960s, 70s and early 1980s. But that Flying Cat,
Peter Fregene, has become a shadow of himself and may be living his proverbial
‘ninth life’.
The Punch report continues:
Fregene
started his football career with Leventis Football Club and ECN, after winning
the Mar Anthony Gold Cup with the Midwest team in the 1960s. But he began his
professional career and came into limelight when he joined the national team as
the first-choice goalkeeper and participated in the 1968 Olympics in Mexico.
He
featured in the national team till 1971 and later joined Stationery Stores of
Lagos before he was recalled in 1982 for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Fregene,
now 68, revealed with despair on his sick bed, which he had been pinned to
since he suffered a stroke five years ago, how his passion and joy were cut
short and replaced with unending pain by the seemingly mysterious sickness.
He
said, “I did not have any accident. In October, 2002, one of my cousins had a
similar problem so I decided to bring him in. Some people asked why I took
responsibility of him, since they perceived him as not being a good man but I
decided to give him a chance. During the period in which I nursed him, I took
him to the bathroom, bathed him and brought him back to the room where he was
staying then I went in to take my bath. But after my bath, I realised I could
not come out of the bathroom.
“When
I called out to my wife for help, she initially thought I was joking. But when
she saw that I really could not move my legs, she aided me to the sitting room.
I was taken to Aragba, a village in Delta, and later moved to the University
College Hospital, Ibadan, but its workers were on strike. One Dr. Griffield,
who was a consultant at the hospital, took me to his clinic. However, after
spending seven months in the clinic, undergoing several scans, I was admitted
to the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Edo State, based on the response
to a letter written by my daughter to the Delta State Government.”
But
despite several interventions by well-meaning Nigerians, including the
immediate past Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola, whom he said had
sponsored a surgical operation for a diagnosed spinal cord injury in 2009, he
has remained paralysed from the waist to his feet, and bedridden ever since.
He
said that he feels recurring “peppery sensation” in his legs and back after a
fall that caused one of his ribs to protrude from his stomach. He also
experiences difficulty in breathing, speaking and excretion.
He
said, “Governor Fashola, being a man who has the good spirit and passion for
sports, instructed that I should be taken to Lagos. I was taken straight to
Reddington Hospital, Victoria Island, where they diagnosed that my spinal cord
was broken and I did a major operation. I was later placed in intensive care in
his guest house where I was attended to by nurses and physiotherapists, from
February to October 2009.
“Although
I was not better after the surgery, I was just discharged by one Dr.
Aleshinloye, who was the Chief Medical Director then, with many drugs that I
could not afford. When I asked them to allow me to thank the Governor for his
hospitality, he refused, saying that he would relay the message to him. But
Segun Odegbami came with the doctor and gave me N500,000 and that was all.”
Although
Fregene featured in one of the episodes of the Who Wants to be a Millionaire
television game show, he only managed to win a N500,000 prize on compassionate
ground, which he said was spent on the payment of huge debts and medical bills.
In
fact, the family had sold some of their household property just to make ends
meet. One of them, an indoor device which was donated by the former Lagos State
Governor to aid the former goalkeeper’s rehabilitation and valued at N100,000
was sold at a paltry sum of N15,000.
He
explained that he spends almost a whole day lying on his back with a whistle,
which he had used as a coach but now served as a means of calling the attention
of his wife and children.
“Are
you asking about that whistle? It used to be my coaching tool. But because of
my condition, when I cannot do anything, I blow it once to call my son and
three times to call my wife when I need their help to use the toilet or other
things,” he said with tearful eyes, glancing at the whistle hanging by a window
very close to his bedside.
His
condition had also subjected his family to a life of hardship and penury. He
had been evicted from his former residence by the landlord in 2013, when he
could no longer pay his rent, before a relative assisted him with a two-bedroom
apartment in a suburb where many of his documents have been destroyed due to
flooding during the rainy season.
While
his 48-year-old wife, Tina, goes from house to house in search of food, his
16-year-old son engages in any menial work, such as being a labourer at
building sites, where he carries bags of cement and blocks, in order to assist
the family.
Mrs.
Fregene said that they survive from hand to mouth on a daily basis, through
donations from few friends and church members.
She
said that she sees parties and social events organized in the neighbourhood as
opportunities to beg for food for the family, even as an uninvited guest, a
situation she said gives her sorrow.
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