With Adebayo Olodan
Just a week ago, the news of the passing of a consummate sports analyst and sports administrator par excellence, Deji Tinubu jolted me.
Though he reportedly played football for some years during his stay in England and may have represented the Three Lions but Deji made more success out of the game off the pitch than he did on the football pitch.
According to the report I gathered from the deceased’s associates, Tinubu who is a former board member of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, slumped and died while playing football at the retreat organised for Lagos Commissioners and Special Advisers with Governor Akinwunmi Ambode present at the event in Epe.
He was earlier certified healthy during the screening carried out before the start of the novelty match. The game was aimed at ensuring none of the government officials had such misfortune.
Until his death last Thursday, Tinubu who initially served as Chairman Lagos State Football Association and Chairman Lagos State Sports Commission was special adviser on commerce to Governor Ambode. He was moved from sports to commerce during the cabinet shake up carried out just recently.
Deji, I must confess is one of those that inspired many of us to become sports journalists. As an undergraduate, I rarely missed the ’90 minutes’ football highlight show on DBN which is co-anchored by Deji Tinubu, Deji Omotoyinbo and Bode Oguntuyi. Followers of ’90 minutes’ were every Monday treated with highlights and incisive analysis on matches played in major leagues across Europe and also the Nigerian Premier League. While Bode was an expert in relating events in the domestic scene on the 1 hour, 30 minutes show, Tinubu and Omotoyinbo offered analysis on the foreign leagues.
Those days, we made sure we fueled our generating set before the commencement of the highly enthralling programme.
Not done with analysing football on TV, in 2003, Deji Tinubu co-founded MediaVision Limited, a sports communication company, with Omotoyinbo, Oguntuyi, Obafela Fela Bank-Olemoh, Sola Aiyepeku and Kunle Adewole. The company published, THE GAME, the first football newsmagazine in the country but the quintet however disintegrated into two groups of three each with Deji Tinubu, Deji Omotoyinbo and Bode Oguntuyi founding SportsVision while Obafela Fela Bank-Olemoh(now Special Adviser on Education to Governor Ambode), Sola Aiyepeku and Kunle Adewole running events at MediaVision.
Despite the separation, the six remained friends and they regularly check on one another through visits, phone calls and text messages. Omotoyinbo, Tinubu, Aiyepeku, Bank-Olemoh and Oguntuyi were about the best football/sports analysts in town at that time as they regularly got linked to appear on TV stations, including SuperSports, NTA and HITV for analysis.
While Deji Tinubu supported Nottingham Forest, Omotoyinbo s a Man Utd apologist, just as Bode Oguntuyi is a fan of Aston Villa.
In the other camp, Fela Bank-Olemoh supports FC Barcelona and Ajax while Sola Aiyepeku is loyal to Liverpool and AC Milan even as Kunle Adewole supports Arsenal.
For some years, I had looked forward to meeting those revered sports analysts and I was presented with that opportunity when I applied for a job at MediaVision, publishers of THE GAME newspaper. In December 2003, I was called for an interview which I passed and was immediately asked to resume in January 2004 by Bank-Olemoh and Aiyepeku. I was assigned to cover the domestic league in addition to monitoring performances of Nigerian players abroad. Though I never had the opportunity of working under Deji Tinubu or Omotoyinbo, I was however privileged to be tutored by Bode Oguntuyi who turn in every weekend to edit my write-ups until he was satisfied I was already well grounded in sports reportage.
However in the line of my duty, I often meet Tinubu, Omotoyinbo and Oguntuyi according me warm reception anytime we meet at assignments. Oguntuyi, consistently embraced me first, perhaps because I worked closely with him. However, the words of encouragement from the Dejis encouraged me in the industry and the few times I visited their Maryland office, they treated me like their brother.
Most of our meetings took place at Onikan Stadium when Deji Tinubu was the Chairman of the Lagos State Football Association and I covered matches of Julius Berger or the Nigerian Ports Authority every weekend.
I must confess, Deji Tinubu just like his friends of many years, was humility personified, I never knew he had a billionaire as brother in Oando boss, Wale Tinubu.
Throughout his lifetime, he related with people well and I learnt he sponsored some athletes to competitions from his purse.
It was so sad to see him bow out at 54 but we take solace in the fact that he left an indelible mark and he would continue to be remembered by those of us who knew him.
A week after his passing, I find it difficult to believe Deji is no more and in his honour, I have decided to put aside my birthday celebration which coincided with the day his remains was lowered at the Ikoyi Cemetery, Lagos.
For many weeks, I looked forward to Tuesday, January 30, perhaps to give friends and colleagues a treat here in Ilorin but any such plan was shattered by the sad news of the great sports pundits. My hearts bleeds for your wife, children and your associates especially Deji Omotoyinbo, who you met when you were just 10.
Goodnight Deji, the entire sports fraternity in Nigeria will really miss you!
