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James
Johnson is a young man in need of help. Until a few years ago, he was
part man, part woman having been born with the genitals of both sexes.

However, for years
James operated as a woman called Iyabo. It was in that state that we
met some years ago precisely in the mid 1990s when as Iyabo, he played
club football for Rivers Angels Football Club of Port Harcourt, the
same club my younger sister, Nkiru, played in.

Iyabo was as good
as they come, simply Sui Generis. There was no striker in the women’s
game in Nigeria that could hold a candle to her. So prolific was she
that every season she accounted for half the number of goals Rivers
Angels recorded.

Such a performance
inevitably raised questions and then finally, tired of being in a
woman’s body Iyabo decided it was time to become a new person. About
four years ago, after struggling to raise money, she went to the United
States of America and underwent a sex change operation, emerging from
the surgeon’s knife as James Johnson. The operation was financed by
Nasir El-Rufai, then Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.

That operation
however, was not final. Doctors said Johnson needs to return to the USA
for what they termed completion surgery. Without this, he will struggle
with health concerns all his life. Since then, it has been extremely
difficult for him to raise the $3, 500 dollars needed to go and have
the surgery completed. Early this year, a few kind Nigerians managed to
raise some money for him to go to the USA but it fell far below what
was required for his treatment and he was advised by doctors to return
and raise the full amount.

I have been privy
to the efforts he has made to raise the money. Last year, while on
assignment in Abuja, he visited me in my hotel room and when I asked
how he was faring, he merely shrugged and said, “bros, I don tire for
the whole thing”. When I pressed further, he explained how his efforts
to get the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to come to his assistance
had proved futile. When I asked him why he didn’t approach, Sani Lulu,
then NFF President directly to ask for help, he said he had done so and
the NFF boss had asked him to see the Secretary General. He did that
but after a while his file had gone missing! Anyway, leaving the NFF
behind, he had explored and keeps exploring other options. He remains
without a solution. Sometime this year, Olajide Fashikun, a journalist
and former handball and football player, decided to take up his case.
Fashikun went ahead and created a group on Facebook, which he calls
Join 72,000 Nigerians to SAVE IYABO “JAMES JOHNSON” ABADE. The idea is
to get 72,000 Nigerians to donate a minimum of N1000 to the cause and
so raise N7.2million to assist the young man.

Calloused hearts

It is instructive
to note that before Fashikun resorted to the Facebook strategy, he had
written letters to highly influential Nigerians to assist but had hit a
brick wall:

“We wrote 328 letters to Senators, Members of the House of Representatives, the Governor of Delta State,

ministers and even
the Sports Ministry and Sports Minister. No one was going to respond.
Last month, September. The doctor called and said, THIS IS A LAST
OPPORTUNITY. What date? 11th November 2010. Now, I resorted to begging
people directly. We want 72,000 Nigerians to give us N1, 000:00. I
recruited staffers, trained them and saddled them to go without shame
BEGGING FOR A BROTHER,” Fashikun said.

It is sad
commentary on us a people that we could sit by and allow a fellow human
being to waste away without lifting a finger to help. Even more
annoying is the attitude of the NFF under Lulu. These men who would not
come to the aid of a hapless young man could afford to spend public
funds to ferry family and cronies to international competitions at
public expense.

James Johnson needs
help and I don’t see any reason why he shouldn’t get it in a country
where people spend public funds lavishly on trifles. For those like
Shuaibu Amodu, former Super Eagles coach who Fashikun says have
contributed to the fund, I say thank you.

Sometimes, it’s not the amount that is contributed that counts, it
the desire to help a fellow human that really matters. I hope our
officials in the NFF and the National Sports commission (NSC) will take
a cue from Amodu and the rest who have shown kindness to this young
man. May God bless them.