'How I beat men in their 40s to win tennis tournament’

Otunba Femi Oduntan is a versatile personality with deep insight into various issues about life and living. Unassuming and accommodating, the chief schooled at the Government College, Ibadan and England. An expert in human resources management with skill in diverse fields, sixty-year old Oduntan recently won the first position which earned him a trophy at the end of the 70 years anniversary of the elite Ikoyi Club 1938, Lagos. The tournament was sponsored by MTN, ZAIN and NB Plc, among others. In this interview, Oduntan shares his experiences at the tournament including how he survived a dastardly robbery attack that made him to jump from the first floor of his house into another compound in the process of  escaping. Excerpts:       


YOU won a trophy at the just concluded 70th anniversary of Ikoyi Club 1938. Can you give us an insight into the table tennis tournament and how you won the trophy?

The table tennis tournament took place at Ikoyi Club 1938 for the 70th anniversary of the club. It was a week long event. I had not played for a very long time but when I saw the tournament, I felt challenged having been a first class athlete before. I felt I should take part because age is no barrier to sports and we must always exercise, and, as God would have it, I won the tournament.

You are about sixty years old. Can you give us a background to the ages of others who took part in the tournament?

Well, you know Ikoyi Club is an elitist club. Before you can join the club, you have to be, at least, a director, a general manager or a director in the ministry or a general manager in a company, and to get to that post requires age and maturity. Members are  40 years upwards. Those who took part in the tournament are  40 years upwards. So, you have young men that are just touching 40 years and people that are touching 70 years in the tournament,  but, even at that age, they are sports enthusiasts that will do anything to take part in the games.

I guess you must have been playing the game while young. Did you play  the game while at the Government College, Ibadan?

Oh yes, I was the school captain at Government College, Ibadan in those days, in the 1960s. But for academics, I would have played for West Africa or Africa. But my father did not give me a chance. All he wanted was that I should go and study. I played in England. I played for Midlands in England non trophies and badges. I won colours in University of Leicester for playing. I also won in Bolton. But I played for Midlands a little until academics became tough and I dropped sports.

I know you still carry out  exercises. What’s the secret?
By the grace of God, I hate taking tablets unless I am forced. I do not like taking medicine. And to keep fit and healthy, you have to punish your body in sports. If you punish it well and trim down, and you make sure you do the right things, your natural system will take care of you; it will activate your system. God has made our system in such a manner that all that you need to make sure your body functions well is there.

So, the major thing is for you to exercise, keep fit, keep trim and leave the rest to what God has placed in there to do. So, I enjoy exercising regularly, particularly in Ikoyi Club where you have lots of games, lots of friends that you can joke with and laugh with and play, not only to win tournament, play for the sake of playing, it makes life a lot better and easier.

I have also known that you are a religious person - from your utterance today, one will know you are not someone who merely goes to church. You also strive to follow the tenets of Christianity. Apart from Ikoyi Club 1938, I know another place you always go  is your church. People talk about spirituality, drugs and relationship with drugs. You don’t like taking medicine as you have just said.

Does this have to do with what you also read in the Bible?
Well, God has been very kind to me. If you do His work well, He will take care of you. Many times, I stood on the word and said, ‘Lord, Your Temple is fit’, because you must remember that the word says that the body is the temple of the Lord. So, you have to make sure that the temple is taken care of.

The most important thing is that you also have to take care of the spiritual side. So many people take care of the physical, forgetting the spiritual. Or they simply take care of the spiritual and forget the physical. And they look terrible. So, you have to strike a balance. You have to do everything to be in the presence of the Lord.

At the same time, the temple He occupies, you have to make sure it is fit and ready for you. That had been my principle for a long time and I am grateful to God it works for me.

There was a time you were attacked by armed robbers. Somehow, miraculously, you escaped. I must confess, I wondered how you made it  when I heard the story of what happened. You jumped from the first floor of your house across a  fence into another compound. What was the experience  like?

God is amazing. Only a foolish person will not acknowledge God for what He does. And for those He loves and those He wants to use, He will do everything to preserve them and show them the way. I myself, I am still amazed. When the Lord woke me up at three a.m that I had to talk to Him, I was laughing. I said, “Daddy Lord, you want to talk to me, what’s this?”

So, I got up and was seeing something. The prayer was funny. I kept on seeing things that I had never seen before. I didn’t know that the Lord was preparing me for the battle that was going to come. It’s a miracle. The man was shooting me with live bullets...Nine lives bullet and here I am alive. Despite that, he went to reload his gun and luckily I had a window  where I could jump - from the first floor building - and escaped. There is no explanation except God in His infinite mercy has given me the testimony that believing in Him and He will be there for you at all times. It was a miracle I will forever cherish.

I thank God for it. You need to have seen the situation for you to believe what I am saying. Some thought; “oh...the man is  Ijebu, he must have used Egbe (spell) or special juju to disappear.” But I know that the God that saved me was the one that did all the work. I believe the robbers were more injured when trying to get away. But I give glory to God. It is His doing that I am alive.

I didn’t know you saw the robbers and it was a face to face encounter. I thought you knew they were coming and you jumped across the fence to escape.

No. One came in first after he had shot twice looking for money that wasn’t there in the house, I didn’t have more than N200 in the house, I do not carry cash. I decided to hold the hand holding the gun. We were more or less about wrestling. But there was another  man with  gun downstairs. That one kept on aiming at me, trying to shoot. I was trying to use the other man to shield myself and dodge the bullets; God was just amazing. It’s not me. I don’t know how I was doing it; the man was a lot younger. I think he should be in his early 30s. So, it was just amazing as I held his gun. He then was trying to get more bullets to load. That was when I said to myself, its time to get out of this place!

You had N200 just like the day they came to my house and I had only N180. They didn’t meet me but my two sons they met said the robbers complained about just seeing books everywhere. Perhaps it could have been worse if they saw me. They could have asked me why I was  parading books in Lagos.

The ATM has solved a lot of problems. That day I was going to church. There is a bank next to my church. They share the same fence. So, whenever I need money to pay, I put my card in ATM and get what I want for the church, so, what’s the point carrying cash? When the robbers came, it was a trial, it was a triumph for the Lord. The Lord I serve is alive. They shot me and one metal bullet was found in my body. I believe our journey on earth here is temporary. We should pray that we should fulfill our purpose here and at the end of it should be able to enter His kingdom where we can spend eternity and have no more problems. We all have temporary living here and people should check themselves well.

What part of your body did the bullet lodge?

A bullet entered my back and lodged there. It’s amazing and I thank God for surviving.
Who were the sponsors of the tournament in which you came out tops?

MTN, Nigeria Breweries, Zain, Guiness and many other companies. It’s unfortunate that the Nigerian government has not been able to tap the potentials of Ikoyi Club. There are so many things in that place and many international bodies, companies and people come to tap the potentials of the place. When we had the event,  many countries brought their local food and culture. We had fun.

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