… Aaron’s Olympic gold medal was like a dream – father
When little Aniefiok Nick Nkanang, just 13 then, ran away from their London home, little did he know where he was headed. He eloped, and ran in no specific direction. His plan was just to leave home, to escape from his father who was planning to return to Nigeria. Thirty something years later, Nkanang was made to fly back to Nigeria by his rugby-player son, Aaron Grandidier Nkanang, who had never stepped foot on his fatherland since birth, 25 years ago. Born in Britain, Aaron represented France and won gold in the Paris Olympics with the French national Sevens team.
In a chat with Jacob Ajom at the Mike Adenuga Centre, Ikoyi, Lagos, where AllianceFrancaise organised a cocktail reception for Aaron, the senior Nkanang spoke on his son’s journey to stardom.
I am Aniefiok Nick Nkanang. We come from Etinan in Akwa Ibom State.
My father and mother went to England in 1964. When they got to England they had one child and they did not take this one child with them. They left this child in the village with grandma. For me this makes no sense but, perhaps, in 1964 Nigeria, it made sense. For me there is no way.
When they got to London, people did not understand that London in those days was a terrible place. They had no idea. This was a place that the minute you arrived you were meted and greeted with massive racism. No place to rent, no job to find; struggle, struggle, struggle. My mother would go to search for a house, She would look at the newspaper and they would say this house is available, she would arrive only to see the curtain move a little, she would ring the bell and no one would answer. Suddenly, someone would say, ,,,ah this place is gone. So you can imagine it was very tough. To cut the story short, they gave birth to five children in London. My eldest Essien, me the second born Aniefiok, third born Imeh, the fourth born Uwem and the final born Titi, but we call her Barbra.
We all lived in London. It wasn’t a good life. It was a very strict upbringing; very Nigerian, very academic, we only did the book… book… book. Then when I was 12, my mother had a nervous breakdown. She wanted to go back home as she was not well mentally. She said she needed to go back home and that only if I went back home would the mental problem stop. She went back home, took the three youngest children with her.
For me this was not a good move because we were not a rich family. So she went back to poverty. I stayed with my elder brother. One year later, my father said he wanted to go home as well. Why? He was tired of the racism in London; he was not happy with the racism in London so he wanted to go. As for myself, what did I say? I said I didn’t want to go. ‘I am not going,’ I said. Remember, I was thirteen. I ran away and I lived by myself on the streets in London from 13 until I was 19. My life was terrible. We don’t want to talk about how terrible it was because you had to survive in London and you are homeless. Then at 19, I was very lucky, I went for a job interview, then the person kind of took pity on me and employed me and they said, look at this boy, life has not been fair to him, Let’s see if we can help him. It was in a newspaper. So I began in this business and became very successful. Really, really successful and very quickly too. Then I started sending money back home. I would not only send money, I also sent big boxes with shoes, chocolates and everything.
Then in 2000 Aaron was born. My plan was very simple: I am going to give this child discipline, maximum discipline. I am also going to give him maximum joy in life. So he had maximum discipline; physical discipline, educational discipline. But he also had maximum joy; when I say maximum you name it. When he said he wanted to go skiing in France, okay, let’s go skiing in France, if he wants to mountain bike in the forest or want a stupid laptop I would get it for him. The laptop would be a thousand pounds and he breaks it in two weeks, I was there to replace it for him. Anything he wanted I was there for him. But the deal was simple, one discipline – education and two maximum joy, maximum fun. This way, you don’t mind the discipline.
Then I needed to get him into a good school. In England the system is simple and straightforward: you need to study. So I had three tutors. Three tutors that were coming to the house every week on top of the regular school. When he did his eleventh class, maximum success. Note that the rule is maximum. When you say to Aaron, what should you do? Aaron would say, always do more. The rule of the Nkanangs: always do more.
With his maximum success at his eleventh class exams he could choose any school he wanted to further his studies. Then we chose the best; you don’t pay for the best in London, not a penny. If you are the best in London they want you to come. They say please come, you don’t pay for anything.
Aaron went to the best school in London. He wasn’t good in Rugby. Terrible. He was really bad. Then he broke his arm. Clean break When he broke his arm, the physiotherapist said he needed to play basketball to fix the healing. Eventually, basketball taught Aaron what they call in sports lateral movement. Basketball players have got good lateral movement. Rugby players have it, but they don’t have it the same way as basketball players. When he returned to Rugby the brain had become incredible because now he had become very good. Very, very good and he was becoming known and popular. But his coming back was too late. The British catch them young. Because he arrived too late, they did not want to invest in him. In Rugby, they want you to start at 7 or 8 years old but Aaron came too late, nobody wanted to do anything with him. He became a little bit frustrated.
But remember, the Nkanangs, we say, always do more. So we are communicators, we can communicate. In Nigeria we emphasise on studies. But the rule is not just to study, be entrepreneurial, you also need to network and you also need the ability to take action; Study, entrepreneurial, networking, action. So he said I need to be entrepreneurial and he sent his videos to everybody he knew in France, he called everybody, which was the action, he made connections which is the networking. Like now you don’t know me, I don’t know you but we are connecting and networking. Then a tiny team in France, not the national team but a small team in France called Brive said come, we believe in you. He went, he wasn’t so good. Then the French national team said we believe in you, come and play Sevens for us. If you google him, you would find out that in 2024 he was the world’s strongest try scorer; not only in France but in the world. They call it the World Sevens Rugby Series.
Then came the Olympics, Paris 2024. The Olympics was like a film. His whole family was there, about thirty of his friends from his school were there, all of them wearing Aaron masks and it was like a dream. And they won the Olympic gold medal for France. A big, big achievement for Aaron and France.
Remember, the journey began from homelessness. It’s incredible. But we have to realise that it is not me that planned to come to Nigeria, but my son who has brought me back. It’s very strange that my son brought me back to my own country after thirty five years.
You also talked about his academics. Is he a graduate?
Very interesting question. When he finished secondary school, he had the highest mark in his A Level. And then he was told, come to the best University in the country. He turned it down, rather he chose to go play for a Rugby University. This is not a very impressive university but this university said come, you don’t have to pay anything. He started there four months after he was through. He told me no more university. Can you imagine what this feels like to me? He said, ‘Dad, I am going to France. I need to follow my dreams. I asked him, are you sure? His response was very assuring. He said, ‘Dad, I know what I am doing.’
As a father, remember what I said. ‘Discipline and also Maximum joy.’ This was his maximum joy.
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