Former Inter full back Taribo West has spoken on what he used his church for whilst he was with the Nerazzurri club and city rivals AC Milan between 1997 and 2001.
“I used my church while I was in Milan to help the homeless and Nigerians who were taken to Italy all in the name of prostitution,” he explained in an interview with the online edition of Nigerian news outlet The Punch.
“God told us to use whatever we generated from our personal income to upgrade the standard and living of the less-privilege, especially those that the society had written off because living in Europe is not easy, it’s like a land of economic refugees.
“We had a lot of immigrants coming in almost every day to the church. Most of them didn’t have places to stay, some didn’t have documents to assimilate them into the society.”
West, who was well known for his crazy hairstyles during his 18 year playing career, then spoke on some of the things that he did for the people who came to him.
“What we did was after delivering them, we gave them a place to stay and from there we looked for jobs for them and we helped them procure documents as well. It was very tough for me, because I spent a lot of money but it was historical in the Italian nation.”
In conclusion he spoke on how things differ in Italy compared to Africa.
“It’s not like Africa, especially Nigeria, where laws don’t work. There (Italy), you have to go through a legal process, which will justify if everything is correct, then I paid taxes, so I could get everything. My personality also helped. So, we did so much to give a lot of people life.
“But the system here (Nigeria) doesn’t work that way. Over there, you can work with the system and get a loan. So, they got loans, some bought cars and houses and they became free. I still keep in touch with a lot of these people that were saved and redeemed.”
West joined Inter in 1997 from French club Auxerre and spent two and a half years with the Nerazzurri before being transferred to the Rossoneri in the January transfer window of the 1999/2000 season.
In his time with Inter, the former Partizan Belgrade player made 64 appearances across all competitions, in which he scored two goals and tallied one assist.
