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Sports Analyst, CHISOM MBONU-EZEOKE
CAF Women’s Football Committee member and popular sports analyst Chisom Mbonu-Ezeoke says that many don’t know that she is also a football agent because she didn’t further as an agent after becoming the first female FIFA licensed agent.
Ezeoke, the first female FIFA football licensed agent in Nigeria, is paving the way for women to invest in promoting female football and to receive a return on investment in the world of sport.
Ezeoke enjoyed watching football with her elder brothers; her passion for the game grew as she grew older.
This encouraged her to venture into sports journalism where she went on to become the first female football analyst for SuperSport Nigeria – a network she grew up watching and dreamt of working for.
In 2017, Ezeoke was one of the recipients of the Global Sports Mentoring Program and went on to be picked from her class to mentor the 2018 Class of the GSMP in Washington DC.
The BA. Hons. in English Language graduate is the co-founder of the Fortem Inspire program – a project that uses sport as a tool to promote education, leadership skills, and a healthy lifestyle for young girls and women in general.
A few days back, City People Journalist, BENPRINCE EZEH (08068599879) had an interview with this amazing woman and she spoke about her life as a football agent. Below are excerpts from the chat.
Tell us your story as the first female sports presenter and your encounter with the Algerian coach Jamel Belmadi at the AFCON 2019?
I mean, my Opportunity came and it met preparation. I think that’s the way I would say it. Because that’s how things happen. When the Opportunity comes, are you prepared? And I was prepared because at the time, I was eating, dreaming, and sleeping Sports.
All I wanted to do was Sports and I was lucky enough to run into Gary Ratburn, who was the Head of Super Sports Africa at the time, and we had these crazy conversations and banter about football. Luckily for me, the studio in Nigeria was about to start and he told me to go in and do an audition. I ended up not doing any audition and got on air and I’ve been there. And, you know, at the time, because they were opening in Nigeria, there were mostly men. They were the ones who were there and I was the only girl.
When was this?
Oh, I think this was probably in 2007. I can’t remember. 2007, maybe? 2007, I think.
It’s been a very long time. Or 2008. But anyway, it’s been going well for me ever since then. And I’ve been privileged to be on a platform that showcases me and beams across Africa and the world. And be on a platform that allowed me to cover every single tournament you can think of, the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Africa Cup of Nations, name it, basketball, everything. So I was just fortunate to be there. But as fortunate as I was, I was also prepared. I was ready to do the work. I kept improving.
And you have to remember, I started as an analyst and analyzed for three years before I was pushed to present. So I was also blessed to have bosses who were patient with me because I wouldn’t say I didn’t learn presenting on the job. You know what I mean? I learned it on the job. They were patient. They gave me time. After my first time, I thought I did so badly, I didn’t want the next week to come. And my boss would say, go in, still go do it. You know, so having bosses who were that patient and ready to have me do what I had to do was incredible, and I don’t take for granted how fortunate I was.
Speaking about Jamel, the Algerian coach, I think it was just…how do I put it? That was the year they beat Nigeria in 2019 in Egypt. They beat Nigeria in the semi-finals, and, you know, before then, he had commented. And we were in the press conference. I asked a question like any other person, he found the question offensive, which was funny. I think the next time he had a press conference after that, he had won the tournament. I said to him, the last time somebody, a journalist asked you from Nigeria you felt the journalist was being a sore loser. I’m asking you the same question again. And I think it was the Nigerian journalists who blew it out of proportion, to be honest. But for me, what it gave me was it gave me more publicity. Of course, international press people got to know me.
So I think at the end of the day, the Nigerian journalists did me a favour by putting it out there. People were calling me to ask me about it, people were sending me messages from Ghana and they were laughing and telling me, you know, well done for asking him that question. The next time the question was repeated. What exactly was the question? I’m trying to remember what it was. I think they were; I’m trying to remember what it was. I think maybe they (his players) were diving. An opponent kicked a guy on the leg and he tried to feign that it was in his eyes. That was it. Yeah, I think that was it. But, you know, he said it was Nigeria trying to, no, no.
Yes, it was, it was before they met Nigeria in the semi. And he said, oh, we are trying to play mind games and blah, blah, blah. And after they beat Nigeria, somebody asked him, now you’ve won. So now you know we’re not trying to play mind games. And so this is the question that I’m going to ask I want you to answer that same question. Do you think that your players, what they did, did you think it was the right thing for them to do? You know, I’ve been in so many press conferences where coaches lose their cool. I think it spoke more about him. And I think after that, he hasn’t particularly performed well. Yeah, that was the year they won the AFCON, 2019. So I think it spoke more about him than anybody else, to be honest.
In this job, as a Presenter, what have been your ups as well as your downs? What are the negative sides to the job?
I think the Media, and Sports media sector in Nigeria could be better, to be honest. I think there could be more opportunities. Unfortunately, in a place like South Africa, you have events, sporting events happening every single week. And it’s not just rugby for them or football. Like in Nigeria, it’s mostly football. They have rugby, they have cricket, they have now on TV, we’re watching netball, they have their netball league, they have basketball, they have everything, you know, and every single time opportunities are coming, content is going that people so, the sports media is making money. So I think that’s one of the toughest things about being in Nigeria, if you’re not doing football, it becomes very difficult and then we only wait for major tournaments. We don’t have vibrant leagues in Nigeria. So it affects those of us who are in the profession. And I have to be honest and say that I’ve been blessed, more blessed than a lot of people, but it’s never good to be in a place where the majority is struggling. I find it a major, major challenge. And the media cannot create the sporting events, we report and cover the sporting events. So I wish that now that we have a National Sports Commission, I wish that more focus will go to other sports and leave football because everybody is focusing on football.
Since you’ve brought up the National Sports Commission, what do you think about scrapping the Ministry of Sports for the National Sports Commission? I’m not very big on the nomenclature. I’m not very big on what it’s called, to be honest. I’m more concerned about the policies and the frameworks that are created to make sure that sports grow. So whether it’s the Ministry of Sports or the National Sports Commission, I don’t care about that. What I do know is that governance has to be cheaper. The cost of governance has to be cheaper in Nigeria. So if we have all these ministries or bodies who could be doing the same thing, but you have them with different bodies all chasing different things, they’re not coming together. It’s a problem. So I think as a citizen now, not just as a sports broadcaster, as a Nigerian citizen, the cost of governance has to be reduced, which means that a lot of the parastatals need to merge, a lot of the ministries need to merge, and I don’t understand why there is a sports commission that is being funded and a sports ministry. It should be together, whether it’s this commission merged with the ministry or the ministry merged with the commission.
So you think it’s a great idea for them to come together?
Yes. Either way, I think it’s a great idea. What I just need now is for whoever is in charge to do the work and create an enabling environment for people to work in and help us develop the sports and not just focus on that. We can’t start from the top. We need to start from the bottom up. Not focusing on the Super Eagles when there’s an AFCON. Nobody talks about the women, the Super Falcons until there’s an AFCON. Nobody talks about badminton until there’s the Olympics. Nobody talks about wrestling until there’s the Olympics. It can never work. It can never work. So we’re not going to be here and expect to make money from sports that are not being grown. Because the brands who will come in and support you and give you the money, the brands that you can get, they’re not charity organizations. Everybody’s worried about their bottom line. We need a leader or somebody at the helm of affairs who’s ready to develop sports the way it should be developed. So for me, I’m not big on the name and whether it’s the sports commission or the sports ministry. Just give us somebody who will develop our sports because if it works, in the long run, it benefits all of us.
