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| Segun Odegbami, MON... 60 going 40 |
"Today, my friend runs a unique sports and art academy, as well as, one of the most enduring sports marketing and promotion outfits in Nigeria. Today, he is at the head of a presidential commission designed to help resuscitate sports in schools across the more than 774 local governments in Nigeria, a job he is passionate about, but for which funding is still awaited,.. He was the visionary of one of the most audacious sports project ever attempted in Nigeria, but rubbished and sabotaged by sundry interests in our nation; a vision that would have changed the face of infrastructure in the country forever; and which almost cost him his life. - The World Cup 2010 bid."
As I set
out to write this piece, a thousand and one thoughts are struggling for
expression. I am replaying in my head events and circumstances that we have
been in together; some truly hilarious; some grim and reputation threatening;
some destiny altering. I can see as in a video the calmness, the patience, the
equanimity with which this gentleman is taking it all. You are going to have to
wait for my memoir to get in on these things; but today as I celebrate my
friend, who, if the Lord tarries turns 60 tomorrow, I shall try to give you a
glimpse into the world of a man, who I feel tempted to describe as one of God’s
gifts to Nigeria, but who, I know will not only frown at such description of
him.
So, I chose
to describe him as one of God’s gifts to me, which he is still not going to
like very much, but which he cannot deny me the right to do.
Permit me
to begin this way. My friend would have been an artist, but Providence directed
him into the sciences, so he studied engineering. As an engineer, given God’s
endowment in him, he would have been an engineer’s engineer, but God again
directed differently. He led him to download his art and his science unto his
pair of legs and ordered him to, of all places, you’ll say, the football pitch!
Many, there
would have been, who thought: “wow, what a waste!” but then, as events have
proven, “God works in mysterious ways, His wonders to perform”, to borrow a
famous line from a hymn by an English poet, William
Cowper.
I would be surprised if
there’s anybody out there, who would still characterize my friend’s divine
conscription into sports as a waste, but even as he made his way up the ladder
of fame, if not material fortune, there were many such people. I’ll share one
with you, just because it was public and published in a newspaper column this
friend used to write in 1979.
That friend whose identity
was not revealed, safe that he was a secondary school classmate wondered
why he sacrificed his engineering profession for “this trade which is usually
identified with dropouts”. This mate knew that he was one of the few who had
always wanted to pursue academics to the highest point. Wrote this classmate: “Although, I have always enjoyed watching you
play and tried to identify myself with you in public…I still believe that you
have not achieved much out of this football you are playing”.
In my friend’s reply to his schoolmate’s
honest opinion, viewpoint over 30 years ago, he decided to ‘count my blessings’
as he put it. Here’s an excerpt:
Here is a person, he began, referring to
himself, “who is hero-worshipped by millions of people, male and female all
over Africa; here is a person who is the dream-child of every home; here is a
person who walks into any store and gets first-class treatment; here is a
person who sits and dines with people of the highest echelon of our society;
here is a person, who has travelled to all four corners of the world on the
ticket of this trade; here is a person who has brought joy and set a
standard for thousands of youngsters to emulate and follow; here is a person
who walks down the street of his country with his head straight up, chest out,
erect, confident, sure of himself and proud of his trade, respected and loved,
here is a person who has all these things and more but who, for one reason or
the other, isn’t an academic professor and cannot lay claim to more than that
which sustains him andhis family… but standing in his trade…
“I would give up all the money and
education in this world to trade places with this person – to have honour and
respect, happiness and contentment in my ‘trade’… My dear friend, I have
achieved quite a lot not only for myself but also for my country which
incidentally includes you. Therefore, if
not having a series of houses, a chain of companies or a fleet of cars to show
for my achievement is what you mean, I can, now see your point.”
Now, I have been this
copious about this aspect of my friend’s life for two reasons. One, even that
early in his career he had become a role model and he knew it, though without
flaunting it. Even that early in his career he had recognized the Hand of God
upon his life and the responsibility that is involved. This is the key to
understanding how he has comported himself since then.
Since that time he had had
the privilege of captaining the national football team. He had won laurels on
the continent. He had been to the Olympics. He had swum the shark-infested
waters that football politics in Nigeria has become. He had master-minded
and/or consulted for institutions on youth sports development. He it
was who inspired the first field gold medal ever won by Nigeria at an Olympic
games. He has been a columnist for newspapers across the land and can count as
one of the most prolific journalists in Nigeria, not on account of his columns
on sport, but also his reportage of sports and life in general.
Today, my friend runs a
unique sports and art academy, as well as, one of the most enduring sports
marketing and promotion outfits in Nigeria. Today, he is at the head of a
presidential commission designed to help resuscitate sports in schools across
the more than 774 local governments in Nigeria, a job he is passionate about,
but for which funding is still awaited! As I write this he is on his way from
the United States of America, leading a team of school boys from Oyo state.
He was the visionary of one
of the most audacious sports project ever attempted in Nigeria, but rubbished
and sabotaged by sundry interests in our nation; a vision that would have
changed the face of infrastructure in the country forever; and which almost
cost him his life. - The World Cup 2010 bid.
Happy 60th
Birthday to you, Patrick Olusegun
Odegbami, sports icon, visionary, a man of many parts and a friend for all
seasons. I am so, so grateful to God for the privilege of numbering among your
friends. Your best days are ahead still, in the name of Jesus, Amen.
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