Zachary Nkwo Has No Equal in Cameroon-Bengu Thomas

Former Cameroon referee Bengu Thomas has said the late Zachary Tokoto Nkwo who will be laid to rest on Saturday the 5th of August, 2017, in Buea, has no equal in terms of relishing football commentaries.

“I admired Zachary so much. He made you feel that you were watching a match live especially in our days with no TVs,” Mr Bengu told Volcanic Sports on Thursday 3 August, 2017.

“For now there is no-one who equals Zack’s commentary status. Even when I met Fon Echikiye, he told me Zachary was his mentor, and that he was a science student in school,” the 69-year-old match commissioner continued. 

“If a player missed a glaring chance, Zack would describe it by saying even a pregnant woman could have scored with relative ease.”

Mr Bengu, Zachary’s age mate said they grew up together. The former auditor said if he were in authority a portrait of Zack would be made for posterity.

Bengu Thomas, former referee, current match commissioner

The all-time Cameroon’s best football commentator passed away aged 69, at the Mount Mary Hospital in Buea, early on Sunday the 4th of June, 2017.

The Journey Begins Saturday 5 August

To say the least, preparations have been hitting up in the town of legendary hospital, Buea, where the all-time best football commentator will be buried.

Zachary Nkwo is the golden voice Cameroonians are going to miss against their wish. Those in Buea can still track a spectacle of his in 2002, when Canon Sportive of Yaoundé descended on the Omnisport Stadium in Molyko, Buea, to challenge Mount Cameroon FC in a League match.

As usual Nkwo took his audience on a sumptuous ride to the end of the 1-1 stalemate between Le Mekok Megonda and Lava Boys.

Today it is Zachary Tokoto Nkwo versus death, a fixture no Cameroonian would have drafted, not even his enemies.  

From nothing, he became something. And the story of this journalistic northern star, started back in the 70s in the then Littoral Provincial Station in Douala. Zack shot to fame as he moved to the national station in Yaoundé.

In a recent article to The Post Newspaper, Philologist, Kikefomo Wan-Mbulai has only likened this rare talent to Africa’s commentary icons such as Ernest Okwonkwo of the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation and Zambia’s Denis Liwewe.

Mr Kikefomo is right indeed because to Cameroonians, Uncle Zack was a fine broadcaster, a breath-taking microphone warrior, a commentator sans pareil.

According to his long-time friend, Bengu Thomas, Tokoto sensationally recreated vivid images of pitch action hundreds and thousands of miles away, engaging every living soul of the national triangle to a football showdown.

Zachary Tokoto Nkwo is gone, a rare generation, a golden age is ended, but he will forever remain an artist whom Cameroonian journalism students born and yet unborn would aspire to emulate.

In his war poem "Dulce et Decorum Est", Wilfred Owen’s last line reads “pro patria mori", meaning, "It is glorious to die for one's country." 

Adieu Father of football Commentaries!

Official Programme

Wake-keep ceremony without corpse has been scheduled this Friday at 6 pm, at Professor Julius Ngoh’s Camp Sic residence in Bokwaongo-Buea.

On Saturday 5th August 2017

8:00 am: Removal of mortal remains from the Buea Regional Hospital Mortuary.  8:30-10:30 am: laying in state and viewing of corpse at Prof Ngoh's Residence.

11:00 am: Requiem Mass at Saints Peter and Paul University Parish Molyko, then burial at 3 pm.