28/08/2026
THE STORY OF EMMANUEL ARINZE IFEAJUNA (1935–1967) — THE MAN BEHIND OUR SCHOOL NOTEBOOK
If you grew up in Nigeria and attended school in the 1980s, 1990s or early 2000s, there is a good chance you have seen Emmanuel Arinze Ifeajuna without ever knowing his name.
His picture was on the cover of those familiar 2B exercise books many of us carried to school. He was the young man caught in mid-air, jumping over a bar.
We saw that picture so often that it became part of our childhood. We wrote mathematics in those books, answered examination questions in them, drew cartoons in them and sometimes even passed secret notes to our friends inside them.
But very few of us knew the story of the man on the cover.
Ifeajuna was born in 1935 and grew up in Onitsha. He attended Dennis Memorial Grammar School before proceeding to University College Ibadan. From a young age, he was an exceptional athlete, particularly in the high jump.
Then came 1954, the year he became a national hero.
At just 19, Ifeajuna represented Nigeria at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada. He cleared 2.03 metres (6 feet 8 inches) and won the gold medal.
It was more than just a sporting victory. Ifeajuna became the first Black African to win an individual gold medal at a major international multi-sport competition.
Imagine what that meant at the time.
Nigeria was still under colonial rule, and international sporting success by Africans was still relatively rare. A young Nigerian had travelled thousands of kilometres from home and returned with a gold medal.
His achievement made him famous.
But Ifeajuna's life did not remain in the world of athletics.
He joined the Nigerian Army and became increasingly involved in the political crisis that was gradually tearing the young country apart. He was one of the officers involved in the January 1966 coup, which overthrew Nigeria's First Republic.
That moment changed his life forever.
By 1967, Nigeria was at war.
Ifeajuna joined
