My Dad Wanted me To Be a Mechanic — Taribo West

Former Super Eagles of Nigeria and AC Milan Football legend, Taribo West, has narrated how he ran away from home because his father wanted him to become roadside mechanic.

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The football player spoke during an occasion to honour him with Lifetime Achievement award, by a Lagos-based media company, Our Moment Newspaper, in Lagos.

Taribo, as he is popularly called, said “My journey to being a world-famous soccer player wasn’t easy. The war started right from my father’s house in far-away Port Harcourt, some decades ago. My father actually wanted me to be a roadside mechanic”.

“My mother resisted strongly. She begged and begged him to allow me have, at least, a secondary school education, but he refused.

“The struggle led me to running away from my father’s house in Port Harcourt, many years ago, at a very tender age, to Lagos, and there stated my struggles”.

“But, I thank God that all that is history now. I am the rejected stone that later became the corner stone of the house”. When asked what business he ventured into after retiring from football, he said: “After quitting football, I ventured into football academy, philanthropy and missionary work.

“I run a football academy in Lagos where we discover and train young talents for European clubs.

“I am involved in philanthropic works where we assist so many indigent students and business men and women.