Nigeria’s first Nations Cup scorer dies

Weeks after the death of Nigeria’s first international goalkeeper, Sam Ibiam, an­other iconic footballer has joined the fold. He is Asu­quo Ekpe, popularly called Ekpe Senior in his playing days for Nigeria in the late 1950s up to the mid 1960s.

Perhaps to most cur­rent generation of Nige­rian football followers, his name may not ring a bell. But not so with those try­ing to give shape to our fast fading records.

Asuquo was a captain of the national team. He was in the national team, then called “Red Devils” that beat Gold Coast (now Ghana) 3-0 in the 1956 bi­lateral Jalco Cup. He was  indeed the scorer of Nige­ria’s first ever goal in the African Nations Cup when Nigeria first featured in Ghana in 1963. He was one of the country’s early gen­erations of footballers and had 14 goals to his credit. He made his debut for Ni­geria in an October 6, 1956 friendly match with Togo and played his last in an abandoned 1-1 All Africa Games qualifier duel with Dahomey (now Benin Re­public), getting 28 interna­tional appearances.

When Ekpe scored his second goal in the brace he achieved in the 3-0 defeat of Morocco in a November 16, 1963 Olympic Games qualifier, he became the second Nigerian player after Elkanah Onyeali to reach the double figure in international goal scoring.

While Onyeali who scored his 10th goal in the brace he achieved in the 6-2 home loss to United Arab Republic (a short-lived union of Egypt and Syria) on December 13, 1959 Rome Olympic could add just one more goal to his name two years later, Ekpe raised his total goals for Nigeria to 14 when he played his last match for the country.

He is famously known to be the scorer of Nigeria’s first ever goal in the Afri­can Nations Cup history.

That happened in Ni­geria’s 6-3 loss to Egypt in Kumasi, Ghana in 1963. His goal for Nigeria ini­tially put the score-lines at 3-1 in favour of the North Africans. Till date Nigeria has scored 118 goals in the Africa Cup of Nations fi­nals. The landmark 100th goal was scored by Obinna Nsofor in a February 4, 2006 quarter final duel with Tunisia in Port Said, Egypt.

When Asuquo Ekpe played along with his younger brother, Effiong Ekpe (then called Ekpe Junior), in a February 2, 1963 4-1 defeat of the then Dahomey (now Benin Re­public), it was the first time a set of sibling was playing for Nigeria. The pair went on to play a couple of more matches for Nigeria.

Asuquo had played for Duke Town primary and secondary schools in the 1940s and 1950s.