The Pugilist by Ben Uzor.
United Kingdom had been the home he knew since 1989 – a home that had given him the stage to truly excel, one opponent at a time. A series of KOs and a string of boxing athletes biting the canvas, and the the UK media were at his feet, outside his window and around his ringside. But, just like all good things, this too would end, from inside him.
This world came crashing down, to be known as a boxer of no repute.
He has found that all his matches were staged! Secrets including threatened opponents, coaches and stuff he could not bear to hear were done in his behalf.
How would he live with the knowledge that he was not the champ he thought he was? How was he to live with these? How would he be able to spearhead the politics of equitable distribution of resources in his deprived community back home in South Eastern Nigeria? How would he right the wrongs that his father, first –republic senator had stood for, and died for when his Volkswagen beetle was pushed off the cliffs at Okigwe’s hills.
And as if that was not enough, how would he live knowing that the second most powerful politician after the president could be his biological father. It did not make sense.
But, it did make sense after all if Alhaji Danbaba had bet a minimum of 5 million dollars each time he fought, and of course won.
Ben Uzor is a prolific writer and Business Analyst with Fidelity Bank.