By Rasheed Iskilu

The sad breaking news of the demise of a hood peer just after a soccer match that local and international media would have been scrambling to have him share his post-match analysis, Kayode Tijani shocked me like an 11kv current line.

Recovering from the shock however, reminiscing the moments shared with Tijani Aliu Kayode (TJ as he later became known in the sports journalism world) comes with a great deal of nostalgia.

Kayode’s life attests to the widely held belief that a child starts showing signs of the career path he/she may excel in sooner than expected only to the discerning eyes or minds. While some of us only take pleasure in the chewing gum of the Seventies/early Eighties (brand name forgotten) with pics of the National teams participating in the 1978 World Cup on the reverse side of the chewing gum-bearing card attaching no importance to the accompanying images, Kayode formed the habit of affixing the cards on blank pages of exercise books and labelling them accordingly.

As time went on, the budding sports enthusiast advanced to sourcing inserted pictures from the sports pages of old newspapers as materials in his authored books on players and club sides as well. The legendary Segun Odegbami, Late Muda Lawal, defunct Leventis United and IICC Shooting Stars are among the individuals and clubs that Kayode wrote books on. It only dawned on us that Kayode was just nurturing himself to pick up journalism as his career when he chose the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) rather than pursue admission into Degree-awarding tertiary institutions after secondary school.

Kayode soon became our pride in my EYIN OJA hood when his name started appearing as a correspondent on the sports page of the defunct Guardian Express (a daily evening publication) where he picked his first job appointment upon graduation from NIJ.

His steady rise in the circle of journalists could be measured in the various journalistic appointments that dotted his career at different points in time. Young Kayode had his wedding reception chaired by the then Sports Minister, Late Alex Akinyele whom he was serving as press secretary in 1995. His accreditation to cover several Mundial and continental soccer competitions even made him a role model and a shining example to upcoming journalists in our locality. TJ had several local and international media organizations craving his services but could only serve a few of them to the best of his ability.

It is incontrovertible that Kayode left his prints on the sands of time and will be sorely missed by his family, childhood peers (myself inclusive), and colleagues in the pen profession – the likes Lanre Olaleye, Kazeem Tijani, Musbau Rasak, etc all of whom, I’m sure, will describe the deceased in various volume and manners.

I pray God grants him eternal rest.

REST ON ALIU KAYODE TIJANI!