By Gbenga Gbadesire
IT’S been an incredible 21 years since one of Nigeria’s foremost football technocrats, Patrick Okpomo,who was a former Secretary General of Nigeria Football Association (NFA), died in Lagos.
‘Secto’ as yours sincerely fondly called him was a panache of sports administration with panacea for its challenges to the envy of his colleagues who couldn’t match his suave administrative attributes. No wonder CAF and FIFA quickly grabbed him the moment the Nigeria factor dumped him. And like the star that he was locally, he soared globally so much that Nigeria had to shamefully recall him in 1999 to head the Technical Committee of the U-20 World Cup which the country hosted.
Okpomo’s showcase of international football competence was courtesy of CAF President, Issa Haytou who saw at close quarters the immense administrative expertise in him,having learned soccer administration under him when his Cameroonian government seconded him to Nigeria for training years earlier before his CAF presidency, and it was Haytou who God thereafter used to elevate him to CAF and FIFA platform the moment Nigeria dumped him.
Leveraging on Haytou’s goodwill/ magnanimity, the rejected soccer technocrat suddenly became Nigeria’s unofficial soccer ambassador as he guietly climbed CAF hierarchy. And with grit and benevolence, he single handedly got CAF to name Chief MKO Abiola the Pillar of Sports in Africa, a novelty title unheard of in the annals of sports diplomacy to the envy of his detractors.
An award which was to herald MKO’s popularity to an international level which even his Abiola Babes FC couldn’t fetch him in their hey days.But in all of this, the unassuming facilitator of this momentous award remained humbled,modest, humane and germane to all and sundry.
Remaining in the background, unseen nor heard, in line with the civil service ethos that moulded him outside of his academic attainment at the University of Lagos and later University of Alberta,Canada, Okpomo valued his intergrity to the admiration of those close to him.
Though he was NFA Secretary General at three different times, namely 1984-1987,1989-1990 & 2001- 2002, our paths never really crossed until 1989 in Bauchi during that year’s FA cup final between BCC Lions and Iwuanyanwu Nationale.
Earlier in Lagos yours sincerely had written a story in Prime People/ Vintage People which he took offence to, and the moment I ran unto him at Hamdala Hotel Bauchi in company of NFA chairman,then Group Captain Anthony Ikazoboh with then Captain Emmanuel Okaro, he told Ikazoboh “Oga be careful with Gbenga “, to which the once provost marshall of the Nigeria AirForce replied as he came to stand by my side “Pat dis one no fit do me anything”.
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With that Bauchi meeting resolving our differences, the stage was set for a robust and brotherly relationship with the trio of Okpomo, Okaro and Ikazoboh,so much that Ikazoboh was chairman at my wedding in Ibadan and till date General Okaro rtd and I are still friends.
‘Secto’ and I became so close that I could order his wife, who shares same Mary name with my iya eleja mom, to cook for me in their house and whenever he was packing from one house to another, I was always around to help move items.
In continuation of our relationship, it wasn’t long before he started inviting me to join him at Ikoyi Club 1938 and Sagamu Golf Club to play golf, walking the length n breath of the courses teeing and putting.
The club became my relaxing point after my Unipetrol hustle so much that each time Emmanuel Maradas, Publisher of African Soccer Mag and I met at the office of my benefactor: former NFA chairman cum MD of Unipetrol, Alhaji Yusuf Garba Ali, and I needed to savour him with the touch of Lagos hospitality, our port of call was Ikoyi Club to the admiration of the Chadian- journalist who later offered me the editorship of his London based magazine twice with tempting pays which my village boy self-turned down.
As a buoy of our relationship, Okpomo, who had seen how comfortable I was doing in my logistic and petroleum marketing business, courtesy of my godfather Alhaji Yusuf Garba Ali, swayed me to become Ikoyi Club member rather than being his guest always since I could afford it.
Though this a lot of people didn’t know, but I joined the Club in 1998 as a golfer contrary to the misconception some people had when I won election to become the Entertainments Chairman of the Club in 2006.
One remarkable thing happened at my induction date when Okpomo and I didn’t know that I ought to wear complete agbada or corporate suit that night and not the Senegalese guinea I wore. Right on the queue when he realised it, he dashed to his then Obanikoro house from ikoyi (a drive of 40 minutes) to get me a suit only for the induction ceremony to be over by the time he got back and I had to be rescheduled.
He was such a jolly good fellow/brother from another mother who wished for the progress of all and sundry, giving to the needy and quietly paying school fees of so many people that I knew. You could then imagine my quandary when on the 1 August 2004 I learnt that ‘Secto’ was no more and not even my converging at his hometown in Inland Kokori, Delta State with the likes of Kola Abiola, Fanny Amun and Amaju Pinnick in November later that year could make yours sincerely believe in the farewell gathering that forlorn afternoon in the sea side town.
But alas, it’s been 21 years of witty Okpomo’s journey of no return since he went for a pile operation at St Nicholas Hospital, Lagos.
