What was your upbringing like?
My upbringing wasn’t a sweet, silver and dandy one. My father was a disciplined person. His intension for me was to be a roadside mechanic. As a son, I have no objection than to obey my father’s wish. He and my mother clashed when he said I should go and ‘do’ roadside mechanic. My mother tried to persuade him to allow me finish secondary school so that I could read and write. They clashed and one night, he drove my mother and I out of the house.
That was how my journey into limelight started. We were living in Diobu. Most journalists have literally written my story upside down. They said I was living in Ajegunle, that I grew up in Orile. I didn’t grow up in Ajegunle. I grew up in Port Harcourt, in Diobu community; it is a popular community in Port Harcourt.
I schooled in St Andrew’s Elementary School, Diobu. It is an afternoon school. The reason I had to attend an afternoon school was because in those days, my mother was selling akara, garri, beans. So in the morning, I would hawk these things before classes started at 12noon. I attended a government community secondary school which is a 30 minutes drive from Port Harcourt. In the middle of this, I was taking care of myself.
I went to learn fishing in the fishing ponds; I left home because the only way to learn fishing was to go to the fishing ponds. I learnt how to kill fish, crayfish, crab, cut fire wood and I could paddle and roll a boat. I would sell my own portion and send the money to my mum and also save some. They used to hire me to go fishing with other people.
After my services, they would render me my own portion. I would sell my own portion and whatever profit I made, I would send to my mum. I would also go for firewood. I did a lot of things just to sustain my mum and I. I did all these for one year and saw that there was no life there. I decided that I was going back to Port Harcourt to struggle for living. One day, the boat that used to come from Port Harcourt to the village came.
They used to give us plantain, yam garri and we used to give them snail, fish, crayfish, bush meat, crab. It was like trade by batter but money was changing hands. I know how to set the trap. See this guy, e no know say I don suffer oo. If you see me de pitch like that, when I pitch oyibo man, dem dey know say this African man don suffer. I did all those things, but when I saw that there was no life in it, l just followed the boat.
When I entered Port Harcourt, I had some good money. I went to meet with my old friend who used to play with me in Junior Sharks. Yes, when I was with my father, I was in Junior Sharks team. I was a very regular player. I was also the captain of my primary school. He told me about a friend of his who had spent his school fee.
He said if I could give him his school fee, I could live with him. I did and that was how I started a new life. I started hawking. I would go to slaughter to buy goat meat and sold from door to door and made like N20.00. From there, I learnt brick-laying and later went into panel beating.
One day, one friend came to the garage. He said, ‘What are you doing here?’ It is God that sent that guy to me. He said, ‘Come out of here. This is not your gift, you are a great star; go play football, you will make it. Comot here, you will not end up here’. I will never forget him, Elijah. That thing struck me and I started gathering money.
Any customer that came, I would negotiate and render the service and save some money. One guy came to do his car, his name is Victor, and he said he needed a conductor. I started doing conductor for Victor. I saved enough money from that ‘conducting’ job. A youth football tournament was staged in Port Harcourt and they selected two of my friends and took them to Lagos.
I was not part of the tournament but I wanted to go to Lagos. I met one of my coaches who knew when those boys were selected and where they were. He gave me a recommendation letter to the coach that picked them. He gave an address and said if I did not see the coach, I should go to the National Stadium. I went to the National Stadium and met the coach.
He took me to my friends and promised to feature me in a contest due the next week. I went for the game in Ajegunle, I was good. The coach took me to the owner of the club, Chief Ibukun Oluwa, who asked me if I wanted to play with my friends in the junior team and go to school or go to Ijebu to play in the senior team.
I chose to play in the junior team and go to school with my friends. His wife later enrolled me in a school. I was taken to the senior team in Ijebu when I was in my final year. I left them to play with Union Bank in Lagos. That’s how my football career started. Let’t stop right there. We’ll start from there another time.
No, there is just one important question. Now you are a minister, and ministry is always a family thing, Nigerians want to know about your marital life. Somebody asked, ‘When is Taribo taking another wife?’
Who has taken another wife? Nobody has taken another wife. I had this Nigerian lady some years back, Sister Tinuke. It was a big occasion, everybody knows about that. And that was one of those periods when I was going through this my madness. I did not even come to Nigeria to meet anybody. I just came into Nigeria for one week and flew back to America. I met her at the Embassy when I went for visa. To cut the long story short, I met her there. In less than one week, we planned our marriage.
The relationship lasted only three weeks. She had to write a letter to her boss to release her for her to leave; because of that, she stayed three months in Nigeria and that was the marriage. She came to Italy one week, the next week she took her bags and left. The next thing, she said it was wife battery. You can’t do that in Europe.
They will kill you now. They will even use you to make money. I preach it today. In Europe, you don’t try that or you are gone. I wasn’t in the house when she came. I took her to America for a convention the week she came. After the convention, I brought her back home. Then I was having an issue with the AC Milan team. They said I had a cardiac problem and couldn’t play again.
They wrote in the newspaper that I was having that problem and couldn’t play again. As I was returning with her from America, the driver that picked us from the airport asked, ‘Are you not Taribo West?’ I said, ‘How did you know?’ He said, ‘Ah! Everybody knows you. Didn’t you see yourself in today’s paper?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘They wrote that you can’t play football again’. He showed me the paper and I screamed. I said, ‘It is a lie.
Madam look what they are writing about me oo’, not knowing that when I did that, I was causing trouble for myself. I took her home and called one of my cousins, Christy, to come and meet me in Milan before I left; because Tinuke could not stay alone. My house is big and she is a new person. Christy my sister was already in Millan to meet us in the house. So, I left her with Christy and hit the road with the same man that dropped us.
He took me to the airport. I travelled to England and signed my contract with Derby County. That was the week Tinuke left my house till today. And she said I beat her, that we fought and she was bleeding, that that was why she ran away. You can’t try that in Europe. And one thing about that girl, till tomorrow…until I enter my grave, I never had problem with her, she had never insulted me or did any bad thing to me. I can’t tell you anything that Tinuke did that was bad. None.
A very nice girl. If any misunderstanding, we had it here (Nigeria). That was the night she went to her boss; she said they had a send forth for her. She went around 7pm and came back almost 1am and I asked why she came back so late.
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