By Jocob Ajom
Madam Florence Lokosa is already enjoying the limelight. Her son, Junior Lokosa who is a footballer was celebrated in Lagos penultimate Thursday as he was crowned the goal king of 2017/18 season . He got a giant trophy, the Eunisel Boot and a cash prize of N3.8m courtesy the energy giant, Eunisel.
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Sitting at the centre table and atching the unfolding glitz and razzmatazz at the Radisson Blu, where the event held, Madam Lokosa was evidently happy that her son was beginning to achieve what he had set out for himself: to play football to the highest level and win laurels.
In Africa, a child is often times forced to do the parents’ wish. In traditional Africa, a father who is a hunter, would always want his son to be a bigger hunter and more adventurous than himself. We have seen many parents, particularly fathers wanting their sons to be what they choose for them. Mothers too wield a lot of influence on the children after all, the child stays longer with the mother.
From the foregoing, Florence Lokosa, a mother of four sons and a daughter, had dreamt of producing lawyers, doctors or other professionals of highly respected professions. And when she sent her son, Junior Lokosa to school, she did not expect the lad would engage in any extracurricular activity outside his books. What she expected of him was to read, read and read. After classes, she wanted her boy to come straight home. To her surprise, other kids would return but not Junior.
He would return long after the other kids. He would return with ruffled, dirty and dust-caked school uniform . And she would bark at her son, “Where are you coming from?” The answer was always predictable. “We were out in the field, playing football,” Junior would offer, to his angry mother. “I would flog the hell out of him,” she recalled.
This continued without let and on each occasion, Mrs Florence Lokosa would beat her son. At the end of every school term, the class teacher’s remark on Junior’s report card would read, “encouraging result. He is very good in sports.” At this point, Mrs Lokosa believed Junior’s attitude was the result of a grand conspiracy between the teachers and her son.
“I went straight to his school. When I met his teacher, he saw the anger on my face. I told the teacher that I sent my son to school to read and not to play football. The teacher calmed me down and begged that I should stop beating my son. That was when I resigned to fate and said to myself, ‘if playing football is what God wants him to do, then, I can’t stop him.”
And that was Junior Lokosa’s point of victory. Free to play, he became a regular member of the school’s team, leading them in the attack and scoring goals at will. This endeared him to his school teachers, his team mates and the students generally. And ever since, Junior’s career has soared. He started with a non-league side, Young Strikers FC of Lagos, from where he was spotted by one of the best grassroots scouts in the country, Emmanuel Ibru who took him to his amateur club, AS Racine.
Junior Lokosa’s work rate and, especially, his consistency in front of goal set him apart from the rest. After about two seasons with AS Racine he had a brief stint with First Bank Football Club, also of Lagos. His scoring ability kept him on the rise. From First Bank he landed his first big break when Nigeria Professional Football League side, Pillars Football Club of Kano, in need of a striker ran to Lagos in search of little known Junior Lokosa. And they got their man.
Lokosa joined Pillars mid 2016/2017 season. He scored just 5 goals before the season ended. But in the 2017/18 season, the striker exploded and turned out a very good buy after he banged in 19 goals from 24 matches. His personal target of hitting a 30-goal mark was cut short when, due to some leadership crisis in the football governing house, the league was suspended. After numerous postponements, the NPFL ended the season and pronounced Lobi Stars champions. “It was the most devastating news to me because I had thought of breaking the highest goal scorer’s record set by Mfon Udo who scored 23 in a single season with Enyimba.”
Despite not achieving his dream of breaking the highest goals record, Lokosa’s season was one to remember. Apart from hugging the headlines with Kano Pillars, he was invited to Super Eagles camp, preparatory to going to the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia. He helped his club to the final of the AITEO Cup, which they lost in a dramatic fashion to Rangers International Football Club of Enugu. His efforts did not go unnoticed as Eunisel, an energy company rewarded the young striker with the Eunisel Boot , and a cash prize of N3.8m for emerging highest goal scorer in the abridged league season.
It was at this occasion that Mrs Lokosa reflected on the son’s career in a chat with Saturday Vanguard Sport. She SAID, “I always give thanks to God for using my son to bring happiness and sunshine into our home. We are all happy now and we owe that to God.”
One would think her son’s exploits in the round leather game would endear Madam Florence Lokosa to watching football. But she doesn’t. She hates the attendant tension and at times, unfair outcome of football matches. Her faith in God is unshakable as she said, “It is only God that can lift one to any level.” She remains grateful even when her son missed the trip to Moscow. “It is not yet his time. I still believe, his time would come,” she concluded.
Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/11/florence-lokosas-confession-i-flogged-junior-each-time-he-went-out-to-play-football/
