By Patrick Omorodion

I have been writing about issues and people over the years. Today however, I want to write about myself because God has been too faithful to me.

Today many years ago, God brought me to this world through my parents who nurtured me to adulthood with His grace. It was the wish of my father that I become an accountant. I never knew why he loved the profession so much.

For me I didn’t think along that line because I was more interested in the sciences. However, I ended up reading Animal Science instead of any field in Engineering or Medicine.

Again while I looked forward to having a swell time in my chosen profession, God had a different plan for me. God used my cousin, Dr Larry Izamoje to drag me back to what He wanted me to do, writing sports.

That I’m a sports journalist today was because Dr Izamoje took me to Concord newspapers when I searched for job without success after graduation. He said he saw through my letter exchanges with him that I had the language to string stories together.

So my journey as a sports journalist started in Concord newspapers in 1990 under the tutelage of Kunle Solaja and both Muyiwa Daniel and Dave Enechukwu, who are late now and of course Dr Izamoje himself.

When Concord started having issues after the detention of its proprietor, Basorun MKO Abiola, God used another man, a good friend, Tony Ubani to drag me to Vanguard newspapers after talking to his boss, Onochie Anibeze.

It is on record that Mr Anibeze never allowed me to pass through the ritual of probation as he assured the Vanguard Editor then, Mr Gbenga Adefaye that I was a tested hand.

Again, God made it possible for me to be noticed by the Publisher of Vanguard newspapers, Mr Sam Amuka just after a month or so.

I had written a match report of a match between the Super Eagles and one team I can’t recall now. He read it and wanted to know who had that name he was just seeing for the first time.

I was elated when he commended me for the stuff. He then asked for a piece of paper and scribbled on it, “please pay the bearer the sum of N1,000”, signed it and asked me to take it to the Accounts office.

My joy knew no bounds and I gave God the glory that I could be recognized and rewarded for the little I did after such a short time in an organization. I remain grateful to my Publisher, fondly called Uncle Sam. He may not remember this but I still cherish it till today.

God has used Vanguard to touch my life in several ways. It was while working in the organization that I was once appointed into the Vision 2020 committee by the late President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2009.

I was also appointed into the board of the Nigeria Basketball Federation where, together with my colleagues under the able leadership of a workaholic and strategist, Tijjani Umar, we were able to break the jinx of 50 years when in 2015 we led the national male basketball team, the D’Tigers to win the Nations Cup known as Afrobasket for the first and only time.

Before then, I had also been part of another national history, then as a staff of MKO Abiola’s Concord Press when I covered the African Nations Cup in Tunisia. The Super Eagles won their second Nations Cup title for the first time outside the country. Their first victory was in 1980 on home soil in Lagos.

If God had not redirected my steps and turned me into a sports journalist, I don’t know whether I would have traversed the world covering sports events like I have done since 1990.

From the coverage of football and basketball Nations Cup competitions to the FIFA U-20 World Cup as well as the Commonwealth Games and the FIFA 2006 World Cup host nomination which South Africa lost to Germany in Zurich in 2000 and many other trips for sports events through all the continents except Asia, I give God all the glory.

I am not an Agama lizard which nods in self adulation but just recounting what God has done for me using various people and organisations like Vanguard and Concord newspapers.

Through sports I met so many administrators who imparted on my life by not only mentoring me but inspiring me along the way.

Nigeria is not doing too well in sports not for lack of good hands but because we almost always place round pegs in square holes. We impose officials whose interest is more for themselves rather than the country.

Apart from Tijjani Umar, I was privileged to be associated with other good men like Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima, Dan Ngerem, the late Elder Bode Oyewole, Chief Patrick Ekeji, Chief Segun Odegbami, late Rev Moses Iloh, late Patrick Okpomo, Chuka Momoh, Sani Ahmed Toro and late Brigadier-General Dominic Oneya, among so many others I can’t remember now.

I cannot forget that it was also through Vanguard and this particular Column that I got noticed by one of the greatest governors ever to come out of this country. He is no other than the late Dr. Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia who personally wrote me a congratulatory letter when I was privileged to be appointed Special Assistant on Media to former Sports Minister, Dr. Tammy Danagogo.

To cap it all, Ogbemudia invited me to his Benin home as he was preparing for his 84th birthday which turned out to be his last on earth. I also had the privilege of him granting me his last interview on sports where he poured out his heart on how Nigeria allowed his legacy in sports, the Afuze Games Village to be destroyed.

My steps from the day I was born were divinely directed. They didn’t just happen. While my father wanted me to become an accountant, he didn’t know that God had another plan. God used him to send me to buy him newspapers every weekend.

From there, my appetite for reading newspapers grew. It went further from there. My father’s hobby of pool staking made him follow results of football matches in England. That also made it mandatory for him to tune to BBC radio to monitor results of football matches.

My interest for football and sports generally grew from there. Because I was reading newspapers even as a primary four pupil, I fell in love with letters to the Editor, readers reaction to happenings in the society.

From there, I developed the love of reacting to stories published in newspapers which grew as I became an undergraduate at the then University of Ife. That is the story of my journey into journalism and sports journalism in particular.

So as I mark another year added to my age today, April 23, my special day, I give God the glory for directing my steps from childhood. I also thank all those He used to make me what and who I am today.