Award-winning sports journalist examines the colourful relationship between Nigerian football and the media in a new collection of quotations and observations
In Nigerian football, journalists and football personalities have maintained a relationship marked by mutual dependence, occasional admiration, suspicion, disagreements, and sometimes outright hostility.
Few remarks capture that complicated relationship quite as memorably as former Super Eagles coach Clemens Westerhof’s declaration: “Journalists are like mosquitoes, you must kill them in time.”
For Victor Akhidenor, an award-winning journalist who has spent more than 15 years covering and documenting sports, the statement was too remarkable to be allowed to disappear.
It has now become the title of one of his newly published books: Journalists are like Mosquitoes: Nigeria Football’s Finest Quotes & Notes.
The book, alongside its companion publication, If You Put 11 Herbalists on the Field…: Quotes and Notes from Nigerian Football, was released in Nigerian editions on Monday, November 2, 2026, by Abuja-based publisher Books & Journals Hub.
The publications collect memorable remarks and observations from the world of Nigerian football, offering a glimpse into the personalities, attitudes and relationships that have shaped the sport.
For Akhidenor, the first title carries an additional layer of meaning.
Having worked in sports journalism since 2011, he understands the sometimes uncomfortable relationship between those who report football and those who administer, coach and play it.
“Journalists are often accused of asking the wrong questions, publishing the wrong stories or refusing to leave football people alone. But the relationship is more complicated than that. Football needs journalism, and journalism needs football. The interesting thing is how both sides navigate that relationship,” he says.
The quotation that inspired the title appeared in an earlier collection of material published by TheCable on April 23, 2014, under the headline The Game in Quotes.
At the time, the publication described the material as selections from Akhidenor’s forthcoming two-in-one book project.
The new Nigerian editions give the project a fresh publishing life.
Akhidenor’s professional experience includes working as a staff writer at Complete Communications, sports editor at TheCable, editor at FC Naija and editor at Sports Nigeria. He has also worked as a freelance reporter and currently serves as an editor at Nidacity.
His reporting achievements include the 2015 Diamond Award for Media Excellence in the Sports Reporting category.
Beyond journalism, he holds an MSc in Media and Communication from Pan-Atlantic University and a BSc in Economics. His wider interests include media history, African sports journalism, national identity and the changing relationship between journalism and technology.
The books are intended for more than journalists and football insiders. Supporters, researchers, students of communication and readers interested in Nigerian sporting culture will find material that speaks to the humour and complexities of the game.
“I have always believed that journalism should do more than report what happened. It should also preserve the moments, conversations and personalities that help people understand an era. These books are one way of doing that,” Akhidenor says.
Both titles are available on Amazon for international readers. Nigerian readers can purchase the books through www.unpopularpele.com.
The Nigerian editions are published by Books & Journals Hub, Abuja.
With Journalists are like Mosquitoes, Akhidenor has turned one of Nigerian football’s most provocative observations into an opportunity to celebrate the very profession that has helped preserve the game’s history.