Former Super Falcons player Iyabo Abade, who is now a man and renamed James Johnson, has begged the Nigeria Football Federation to assist him with the payment of N69.7m to facilitate a corrective surgery that will enable him bear children.
Johnson, a confirmed hermaphrodite, was a member of the Falcons from 1997 to 2000 and successfully underwent a sex change
operation in the United States in 2004 courtesy of then Minister, Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai.
This came after a series of failed attempts to correct the abnormality that led to his being dropped from the women’s national team.
A hermaphrodite is a person or animal with both male and female organs. While it is common with animals, it is rare in human beings. He said he has written to the NFF for financial assistance last year to undergo the surgery but hasn’t heard from the football body.
The 40-year-old said he would be a fulfilled man if he could conclude the final stages of the surgery and bear children.
“Anytime I think that I can’t father a child’ yet, I feel broken, that’s why I wrote to the federation for financial assistance. The NFF president Ibrahim Gusau is a man with a listening ear and hopefully, through him, the federation can help me achieve my dream,” Johnson Punch.