In a match that could only be described as a perfect metaphor for the political climate of Imo and Rivers States, NBA Owerri and NBA Port Harcourt played out a pulsating 0-0 draw in the ongoing NBA Annual General Conference (AGC) Male Football Tournament at Enugu, leaving Owerri smiling at the top of Group E on superior goal difference.
But let’s not be deceived by the scoreline. For those familiar with the recent democratic experiments, or rather, exhibitions in both States, this result was more than a game of football. It was a live-action parable!
Like the political theatre that has played out in Imo and Rivers, this match had all the trappings of drama, confusion, moments of brilliance, and most importantly, a final outcome that left one side claiming the spoils not necessarily by merit of victory, but by technicality – a draw that rewards one side over another? Sounds familiar. He who holds the staff of justice wins the case—even if he’s the accused.
Both teams came into the match with six points apiece, evenly matched in ambition, if not in fate. Owerri, with a slightly better goal difference (+6), needed only a draw to clinch top spot of Group E. Port Harcourt, on the other hand, had the harder job, victory or bust. In the end, it was neither victory nor bust, but something in-between.
It was end-to-end football: Owerri struck the first shot on target, an audacious free-kick that the Port Harcourt goalie tipped over the crossbar.
“We deserve to lead,” screamed the Owerri coach during the halftime prep talk, much like the reaction of the PDP in Imo State, stunned by the legal gymnastics that landed a governor in Douglas House who didn’t win at the polls.
But Port Harcourt, not to be undone, had its own moment of high drama in the dying minutes of the match. Their first real shot on target came late—very late—forcing a sharp reflex save from Chinedu Agu, the Owerri goalkeeper, to deny what could have been a spectacular winner. It was a moment eerily reminiscent of the situation in Rivers State, where governance now hangs on the reflexes of a certain sole administrator rather than on the mandate of the ballot box.
In fact, that last-minute shot could well symbolize the resistance of the Rivers PDP, which, after winning the governorship “on paper,” watched helplessly as political fate snatched the steering wheel through midnight negotiations, musical chairs in the State Assembly, and the magical appearance of “loyalty” as the new constitutional qualification for office. As a dead maiden does not become a queen, the elected found themselves de-elected, while the anointed assumed the throne.
Like Port Harcourt’s late strike, it was a valiant attempt, but ultimately, the decision had already been made elsewhere.
So in both States, as on this field, what matters is not who had the better claim, or even who played better, but who held the keys to the outcome. Whether it was a goal difference on the pitch or a difference in political alignment off it, the result was the same: technical victory.
And so, just as Rivers State now watches a government not voted in but politically curated, Port Harcourt must now watch Group E slip out of reach, not because they didn’t try, but because the game was, perhaps, never in their control to begin with.
As the Igbo say, He who brings the kola brings life, in this match, and in these politics, the ones holding the kola weren’t necessarily the ones holding the mandate.
When the final whistle blew, the referee, that neutral arbiter of outcomes, signaled the end of a spirited contest, much like the judicial arbiter signaled the end of democratic rule in Imo State in January 2020. Owerri, with its numerical edge, topped the group, not because it won the day, but because mathematics favoured them.
The match was watched by an enthusiastic crowd of lawyers who know a thing or two about technicalities.
Indeed, just as in the political field where courts, not voters, determine leadership, so too here, where mathematics, not goals alone, decides supremacy. The selectorates [in this case organisers of the competition] rule again!
Borrowing the sharp lens of Prof. Chidi Odinkalu’s latest offering, “The Selectorates: When Judges Topple the People,” the draw between Owerri and Port Harcourt was not just a football result, it was an allegory; a parable of how outcomes can be decided not by the will of the people [or the ball, in this case], but by the calculations of those behind the curtain.
In both States, as on this football pitch, the verdict is clear: it’s not just how you play; it’s who gets to interpret the rules.
As one Owerri player joked after the match: “We didn’t win, but we advanced. Hope springs eternal.” No pun intended, but with Hope at the helm in Imo, and a Sole Administrator ruling in Rivers like a character from Animal Farm, maybe the pitch is indeed more level than the political terrain.
In the end, this match proved what every Nigerian already knows: in this country, you don’t always need to win to come out on top. Sometimes, you just need to survive the game, and leave the rest to the selectorates.
For now, Owerri marches on, not with a roar, but with the quiet efficiency of one who knows the game behind the game.
And Port Harcourt? Well, like democracy in Rivers State, it might have to sit this one out, until the rules are rewritten, or at least re-interpreted.
Meanwhile, as the male teams were locking horns in a metaphorical dance of democracy and judicial theatre, the female sides of Owerri and Port Harcourt were simultaneously engaged in their own showdown at Rangers Training Ground, one that mirrored yet another layer of the institutional reality in both States.
This time, the scoreboard didn’t end in a diplomatic stalemate.
NBA Port Harcourt Women thumped NBA Owerri Women 3 goals to 1, in a game as symbolic as it was clinical. Where the men played to a deadlock symbolic of elite capture, the women made their statement loud and clear: Justice, when it functions, is unmistakably effective.
Port Harcourt’s commanding win reflected something else entirely: the health of justice delivery in Rivers State. Unlike its male democratic counterpart, here the institutions remain intact: a functioning judiciary, a sitting Attorney-General, and even a vacation courts.
Owerri, on the other hand, conceded not just goals but symbolism. Losing by a two-goal margin, the defeat perfectly mirrors a State without a Chief Judge, without an Attorney-General, and—most alarmingly—without vacation courts. In the face of widespread police brutality and routine human rights abuses, the judiciary in Imo is, quite literally, missing in action.
But nothing captured the tragicomic irony more than the final goal, an own goal by Owerri.
Yes. Owerri scored against itself. And if that doesn’t tell the whole story, what does?
It was a goal that didn’t just end the contest but nailed the moral coffin. It mirrored how the very people in Imo—those who should speak up, act, resist—have instead become complicit through silence, inaction, or the small comforts of patronage.
So while Port Harcourt flourishes in the arena of justice delivery, Owerri stumbles—not just because of external forces, but due to the internal collapse of will and accountability.
As the final whistle blew on both fields, it was clear: this was not just a tournament. It was an audit. An audit of our politics, our institutions, and of ourselves.
Football may have been the game. But the message? That was national service.
Chinedu Agu is a Sport Enthusiast, Solicitor & Notary Public, and holds a Masters in Sports Law from Nottingham Trent University, United Kingdom, and can be reached on ezeomeaku@gmail.com or 08032568512.
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