Stephen Tataw: A Legend Walks Away

Barrister Jerry Fombon

 

 

In the words of Williams Shakespeare, “the old order changeth yielding place for the new.” That is exactly the metamorphosis of human life. But curiously enough, it’s as well the course of a footballer’s life.

Stephen Tataw mounted the football stage of this country from the sandy, dusty and muddy pitches running behind the round object which curiously was and still is a unifying object. No one was from the North, South, East or West when Stephen Tataw was cheered while playing football.

He stood by the flag of this country, manned the armband and was a champion of which hilariously he was acclaimed upon his return from the football front as he stood head high while the “Oh Cameroon” was the song.

Cameroonians ran across the streets of this country embracing each other without blinking on who was or where they came from because they hailed a hero who wore and defended the GREEN, RED, YELLOW.

Stephen Tataw was decorated by the highest authority of this country for just one reason. I mean, one reason; he wore just a pair of boots, a short, and a JC which carried the Green, Red and Yellow colours of this country and stood by those colours because that was the only thing he could give back to his country. He gave opportunities to the authorities of his country to make speeches, dine and wine and even rub shoulders with those they couldn’t, if not of football.

Today, Stephen Tataw is no more; but, ironically, those who acclaimed him, who mounted podiums to give him glory, who dined and wined when he brought glory to this nation have suddenly gone mute. Why? Was what Stephen Tataw did for football not enough? Why have the football authorities in this country suddenly gone mute about his death? Why no official statement from the authorities of sports?

Even to his last bus stop which is the mortuary, no football authority nor sports officials accompanied him. Again, didn’t he do enough for football? Well, as the saying goes, never one without two. It happened to Mfede, it happened to Massing today its Tataw. Who will be the next?

But as Winston Churchill once said “Never in the history of mankind shall so much owed to so little by so many”

Adieu “Captain”. Travel well

Barrister Jerry Fombon

Fako Lawyers Sports Coordinator/President, SUFA – Buea

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