There is a saying that all historical writing, even the most honest, is usually subjective, however, fact will always in any circumstance remain sacred. For this reason, a Sports Researcher with Happy 98.9FM George Mahamah also known as Alan Green the Researcher, is setting the record straight when it comes to Nigeria’s worst defeat in history.
According to Alan Green, majority of Sport Analyst and Commentators get the actual date the Gold Coast now Ghana massacred Nigeria in a football match that ended with seven(7) nill in favour of Gold Coast (Ghana) wrong.
The proof they say is in the pudding; Alan Green shared a Daily Graphic story with the Headline “Slaughter at Stadium Gold Coast: 7 Nigeria:0 And the ‘Jalco Cup’ is back here”. The article was found on page 12 of the Daily Graphic dated October 31, 1955 confirming that indeed sports Commentators have always gotten the day the Gold Coast annihilated Nigeria wrong.
According to Alan Green, he has observed over time, how sports industry experts keep sharing the erroneous date, and as a Researcher he had to set to record straight.
“The Newspaper in my hand is a copy of the Daily Graphic dated October 31, 1955 with the heading Slaughter at Stadium; Gold Coast 7, Nigeria 0. It was a Jalco Cup played between Ghana and Nigeria on 30th October 1955 and this report came out the next day October 31 1955” He clarified
He also mentioned that, even the erroneous date is also surprisingly on Nigeria ‘s football Wikipedia page.
“The correction I want to put across is this. If you visit the Nigeria National football team’s Wikipedia page, you will realize that the biggest defeat suffered by Nigeria was against Gold Coast (Ghana) and the date for that game is 1st June 1955 instead of October 30, 1955”
He however, indicated that the last straw that broke the camel’s back and necessitated the clarification was an article by the BBC he read online which also used the wrong date.
“What drew my attention to come out with this correction is that, I read BBC online’s match preview on Ghana vs Nigeria in the World Cup playoffs and they used June 1955 as the date Ghana recorded their highest win against Nigeria. So I said No! This thing has erroneously been used for years so let me come and do the correction on this big platform for the world and even some Nigerians who don’t know to be aware of the right date that incident happened”, he concluded.
As Ghana heads into the World Cup playoffs, every patriotic Ghanaian expects the Black Stars to repeat history at the Kumasi Sports Stadium, however, it is imperative that they get the day in history they want repeated right. Hence, it suffices to say Alan Green’s clarification is very necessary and timely.
By: Emmanuel Owusu Boadi