This reservoir of technical information and data on refereeing in Nigeria and by Nigerians at both national and international levels, prides himself as never receiving bribe in whatever form when he was active as a referee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo regrets. I walk tall. I never did. I may not have been popular for that but I thank God that my reputation is intact and am happier today for it\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Central Bank of Nigeria Research Officer, Journalist with Business Times, Public Relations Officer, later Export Manager Volkswagen Nigeria, this widely travelled icon remembers vividly his refereeing exploits in Africa, including the Africa Cup of Champions Semi Final tie between Zamalek of Egypt and FAR of Morocco in 1985.

What is the secret of longevity of this CAF\/FIFA Assessor and Match Commissioner?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGrace of God.  Simple and straightforward life. Honesty and service to humanity. I keep my mind free of all stress and deceit…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For yours truly a friendship spanning over 30 years, a celebration of professionalism, hard work and dedication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today a legend of the whistle clocks 80 and is still counting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAZI!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Elder Paul Bassey I got this message;\u201cPaulo please remember to pray for me on Monday 08 March, I will be 80. I will be attending a Thanksgiving Holy Mass.  Unfortunately you will be in Warri.This is quintessential Linus Mba. Humility personified, a man married to the whistle, the best Nigerian referee alive.80? Yes Eighty […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4325,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[1620,62,396,37,1618,32,1619,1262],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4321"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4326,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4321\/revisions\/4326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onwardnews24.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}