This headline is a bold inscription on the back of luxury buses belonging to a popular transport company in Nigeria. It is a warning to other motorists to drive carefully as many drivers and passengers have died from accidents caused by reckless driving and overtaking. Ironically, the drivers of these luxury buses warning others coming behind them don’t heed the warning they give to others.

They are equally guilty of reckless driving, over speeding and dangerous overtaking even at very sharp bends. They don’t practice what they preach, according to the popular song by the American songwriter and singer, Barry White. This piece however, is not a warning to anybody but a reflection of deaths of colleagues that I have encountered in my 34 years in sports journalism. Some of the deaths have hit me more than some others.

One particular one which didn’t hit me too hard was that of one of the founding fathers of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, SWAN, Mr. Babatunde Oshuntolu, who went with the pen name ESBEE. At the time I joined the SWAN family through the Concord Press, he was the Group Sports Editor of the Daily Times newspaper. ESBEE was already elderly at the time I knew him and being quite younger than him, his death, though sad, didn’t touch me that much.

He was one man who prepared for his death. I heard he bought a piece of land for his own grave in readiness for the day God will finally call him home. So you can understand why I said his death didn’t affect me too badly. It was like a celebration of life for a man who, together with other like minds, founded SWAN in 1964 when I was still a little boy. The first death of a SWAN colleague that hit me like a thunderbolt was that of my immediate senior on the Concord Press sports desk, Dave Enechukwu whose style of prose writing inspired me as a cub reporter.

Enechukwu was our Assistant Sports Editor then and handled the league page, titled League Train, published every Wednesday. Both of us survived the 1991 mayhem in Bauchi during the National Sports Festival there following a riot that broke out in Tafawa Balewa over the alleged killing of a pig at their abattoir. That I write a Column today was because I took over the League Train when Enechukwu left Concord for the now defunct Sentinel newspaper based in Kaduna. That Enechukwu died in his sleep was a shock to me. Next to Enechukwu was the great Nnamdi Anazia of Rhythm FM sports. He was a delight behind the microphone, not only for his baritone voice but for his exclusive stories which kept sports administrators on their toes.

His death was painful because he died as a result of surgery for tonsillitis from an overdose of anaesthesia. The deaths of Emeka Enechi and Ben Alaiya who were pillars of Sports Day newspaper were next that hit me. Enechi was one time Chairman of Lagos SWAN while Alaiya was a Media Officer of the Super Eagles. I remember Enechi when he sought to broker peace between myself and then Director General of the National Sports Commission, Dr Amos Adamu in far away Melbourne, Australia during the Commonwealth Games in 2006.

I was not at ‘war’ with Dr Adamu but he felt I was hitting him too hard and asked Enechi to talk me. Alaiya was a jolly good fellow, always poking fun. It was while I was with him at his mother’s shop at Ibillo in Edo State one sunny afternoon that I received a call from Mr.Ikeddy Isiguzo that I should proceed to Abuja to meet with Dr Tammy Danagogo who was just appointed the new sports minister by President Goodluck Jonathan. Till Alaiya passed on after a brief illness, he joked that it was the pounded yam meal I ate at his mother’s place that brought me that luck of being appointed Danagogo’s media aide. Another death I still feel today is that of an award winning photojournalist, Sylva Eleanya, aka Prof.

We were like twins from different mothers. We were almost always together whether in the office or at sports assignments. Just like the snail and its shell. On the day he passed on, we were in the office together. He complained of dry throat and bought a bottle of water which he couldn’t finish that day, very unlike him though. As we made our way home, he told me stories about his plan for his children all through our journey. The news of his death later that night shocked me and still does till today. And then this.

Dapo Sotuminu, a bubbly fellow and a dutiful community leader. Only six days earlier, I called him to confirm if the Wale Olopade newly appointed as Director General of the National Sports Commission was the same Bukola Olopade, his friend and boss. He confirmed it. His voice on the other end didn’t betray his health status. So when Tony Ubani broke the sad news to me on Wednesday I was devastated.

Dapson, as I fondly called him, was another colleague I have worked closely with since our paths crossed. We were in Havana, Cuba together in 2003 to monitor the preparations of Team Nigeria athletes for the African Games which Nigeria hosted and won for the first and only time. We were in the dungeon together when the Tijjani Umar-led board of the Nigeria Basketball Federation, NBBF was fighting to stop Solomon Dalung from meddling into the affairs of the Federation. As I was signing the condolence register at his home in Lagos on Friday and referred to him in past tense, a tear dropped from my eyes. Adieu Dapson.