After the Festival in Abuja, Dudu settled fully into the job before him. He unfolded his masterplan for the transformation of Edo State sports
By Nnamdi Okosieme
Today, I return briefly from my long break on Facebook to celebrate one of Nigeria’s finest.
Godwin Dudu-Orumen is a man no one needs to introduce to Nigerians. He is too well known that it will amount to needlessly burning energy. At 65 years, he seems to have been around forever. This is because he has been a major participant in our sporting affairs particularly in the last three decades.
His contributions to Nigeria’s sports development is grossly understated and this because unlike most other participants, he prefers to work quietly from behind the scenes, shunning the klieglights and the hoopla that come with being involved in sports administration in Nigeria.
The truth though is, as self-effacing as he is, his passion for Nigerian sports, his overarching vision to see it appropriate a place in the commanding heights of the global sports firmament and his rugged determination to succeed to succeed, have long marked him as a crusader of sorts.
It is an indubitable fact that a chronicling of the currents, movements and personalities that shaped Nigerian sports in the last half a century will not be complete without him being accorded a befitting place in the pantheon.
I have had the honour and privilege of interacting with him both as a journalist and a subordinate. As a journalist, I covered his activities as a sports administrator. In that capacity, I had the opportunity to dissect and analyze his vision and programmes, and came to properly appreciate the man. Many years later in 2018 when he was appointed Chairman of the Edo State Sports Commission by Governor Godwin Obaseki, I was thrilled beyond measure.
The reason for my happiness was simple. Edo State, which had in the two decades following our independence from Britain acted as a thriving assembly line for the churning out of quality athletes for Nigeria, and which lapsed into obscurity, was going to infused with life again. It was thus with pleasure and excitement that I accepted his offer to me to become his Special Adviser on Media and Communication.
As boss of the Sports Commission, Dudu, as his close friends call him, plunged headlong into the assignment entrusted to him. His appointment conicided with the hosting of the 19th edition of the National Sports Festival to be held in Abuja. It was a challenging assignment because with the festival was kicking off in less than five months, Edo State sports was in shambles to put it euphemistically.
Athletes, coaches, technical officials and other players in the sports family, were disgruntled. A string of allowances were owed them and sports equipment were either decrepit or non-existent. The task before Dudu appeared herculean if not sisyphean. But he was not one to shy away from a fight.
By December when the Sports Festival got underway, he had imposed order on the chaos that existed only a few months previously. In the end, Edo State, with athletes who had barely trained for the festival on account of their tiff with the sports authorities before Dudu’s arrival, finished in third. It was a monumental achievement. The icing on the cake at that Sports Festival was the handing of the hosting rights of the 2020 Sports Festival to Edo State. Dudu’s masterfully prepared bid trumped those of Delta and Imo States.
After the Festival in Abuja, Dudu settled fully into the job before him. He unfolded his masterplan for the transformation of Edo State sports.
The broad outlines of that plan included making Afuze, the hub of sports activities for not only Edo State but for Nigeria in general as well as re-engineering sports development at the grassroots. He infected everyone with his enthusiasm and we were all primed to go. Unfortunately, the deeply rooted principalities who for decades asphyxiated sports in Edo State and who everyone thought had been decapitated with the scrapping of the old Sports Council and its replacement with the more workable sports commission model, proved to be the proverbial Phoenix that rises rejuvenated after its immolation. The fillip for their immolation was provided by a certain highly placed character whose pettiness and vindictiveness is legendary.
I will not mention his name here not because I am afraid of him but because I want Dudu to be the one to tell Nigerians the indignities he suffered at the hands of this fellow. Many Nigerians who do not really know what happened will get a chance to find out when Dudu finally gets to write his memoirs. One thing I will say though is that I hold Governor Obaseki responsible for everything that happened. He could have intervened to bring to an end the deplorable situation instead he opted to throw Dudu under the bus.
Anyway, today is not about Governor Obaseki or that unsavoury character. It is about Dudu and we must both celebrate him and rejoice with him.
True to his love for Nigerian sports, he is organizing a colloqium titled, GDO BIRTHDAY CONVERSATIONS: LET’S TALK SPORTS.
He hopes it will be the first of many such conversations that would help point a meaningful way forward for our sports. It is a measure of the seriousness he attaches to the project that he has outlined a quality cast of speakers.
That conversation holds today at Sportshaq in Lagos. According to the programme provided by Dudu, The first session has as Speakers Chief (Dr) Segun Odegbami MON , Nkechi Obi, Olympic Gold medalist Eneifiok Udi-Obong, celebrated sports journalist and administrator, Godwin Enakhena, and Agu Imo Esq.
The panel of discussants is no less stellar. They include Dr Reuben Abati, Dr Ikenna DG NESG, PR and Brand specialist, Chido Nwakanma, Babatunde Ogala SAN , Obi Asika and many other others.
* Okosieme, a media executive, wrote from Abuja.