One of the great tragedies of the Ambode's administration was what he did to sports here. Our late very dear Egbon Deji Tinubu & his team racked up over 100 events in their first year,most of them aimed at athlete discovery & development. It was a new dawn.
What was even more pleasing was their focus on other sports. We had young boys & girls being given a statewide platform to participate in lesser known sports. I was thrilled & worked pro bono with @solaiyeps on some of these initiatives. They had a clear strategy.
I remember visiting @solaiyeps at the office during SkoolLympics-a mini olympics for students across Lagos- & asking him how they were able to pull it off. They managed to attract full sponsorship from a bank within a few months, no mean feat,ask around.
They had a clear strategy. They had expertise. They had goodwill. And they had momentum. Then it all came to a screeching halt. I called Uncle Deji one to ask why we weren't hearing/or seeing much. He didn't say much but I knew him enough to hear what he wasn't saying
Someone somewhere clearly wasn't really impressed or didn't care to know what was going on & support became very hard to come by. Everything stopped! From 100 events to 0! Ask people in government how hard it is to get things done if the principal doesn't give a hoot.
It didn't stop there. We started hearing about him being removed as Chairman of the Sports Commission today, replaced tomorrow. Reinstated. All sorts. I remember seeing the headline "Tinubu sacked" in one of the dailies. It was so very tacky. And unfair.
Uncle Deji really wanted to make a difference. He & @solaiyeps worked extremely hard to make a difference. They were making remarkable progress. Uncle Deji was then moved from SA Sports to SA, Commerce. Deji's wealth of experience/knowledge about sports
Is first class. What contribution was he to make as SA,Commerce. It wasn't long after that we lost him. He died playing football. He lived & died for sports literally. I spoke to him when he was moved from SA Sports. He was very very unhappy.I sensed it clearly. He didn't say it.
What progressed have we seen in the sports sector in Lagos since then? Even the Onikan stadium has been abandoned. Teslim Balogun remains criminally underused. Sports events-even developmental ones- are few & far between. The has been momentum completely lost.Very sad. Very very.
Hopefully Sanwo-Olu will take a very keen interest in sports, appoint the right people, enable them work & when they are start doing the work, he won't shut them down for whatever reason. The opportunity cost is the potential waste of talent for young boys & girls.
I remember a young lady at one of the athletic events Uncle Deji & @solaiyeps organised. She won EVERY race. Unbelievable talent. Uncle Deji came down from the VIP stands to take her contact information & shared his with her. Back where we sat,he couldn't stop gushing about her
He was already seeing her at World Athletic Championships and Olympics. We all spent the 30 minutes dreaming up what was possible for her. It was one of the most animated I have ever seem him. I hope that young lady still gets the support she needs. She deserves it. Selah.
