The Author
My name is Segun. My friends call me Big SegAds Corner
‘Gateway Games’ - a forensic X-ray!
The 2024 Gateway Games ended on Thursday in Ogun State.
Some people say it is the ‘best National Sports festival’ in 52 years.
The big question is: ‘How True?’.
On ‘90 mins with Mathematical7’ this Saturday morning, we shall be conducting a forensic examination of the Games.
Guests shall be the public, anyone that experienced any aspect of the games.
It could be LIVE at the venue, on television, on radio, on social media, or through my incomplete ‘Daily Diary’.
Any interested person(s) can call and freely tell their story, or share their experience of the Games.
The number to call during the show is 070022551037 from 7:30 AM in the morning on Eagle7 Sports Radio 103.7 FM.and also on the following social media platforms.
www.youtube.com/@eagle7fm
Direct Media player:
eagle7fm.com
Facebook : www.facebook.com/eagle7fm1037
Twitter: @eagle7fm1037
Online radio directories..
mytuner-radio.com/radio/eagle7-1037-fm-sports-radio-487313/
www.getmeradio.com/eagle7fm-5448/?station_id=5448
streema.com/radios/play/Eagle7_103.7_FM
liveonlineradio.net/eagle7-1037-fm
radio.streamitter.com/station/eagle7-1037-fm-sports-radio-XC6AB
Pls share, like, follow, hashtag…do anything, except nothing!
Dr. Olusegun Odegbami MON, OLY, AFNIIA, FNIS.
The 2024 Gateway Games ended on Thursday in Ogun State.
Some people say it is the ‘best National Sports festival’ in 52 years.
The big question is: ‘How True?’.
On ‘90 mins with Mathematical7’ this Saturday morning, we shall be conducting a forensic examination of the Games.
Guests shall be the public, anyone that experienced any aspect of the games.
It could be LIVE at the venue, on television, on radio, on social media, or through my incomplete ‘Daily Diary’.
Any interested person(s) can call and freely tell their story, or share their experience of the Games.
The number to call during the show is 070022551037 from 7:30 AM in the morning on Eagle7 Sports Radio 103.7 FM.and also on the following social media platforms.
www.youtube.com/@eagle7fm
Direct Media player:
eagle7fm.com
Facebook : www.facebook.com/eagle7fm1037
Twitter: @eagle7fm1037
Online radio directories..
mytuner-radio.com/radio/eagle7-1037-fm-sports-radio-487313/
www.getmeradio.com/eagle7fm-5448/?station_id=5448
streema.com/radios/play/Eagle7_103.7_FM
liveonlineradio.net/eagle7-1037-fm
radio.streamitter.com/station/eagle7-1037-fm-sports-radio-XC6AB
Pls share, like, follow, hashtag…do anything, except nothing!
Dr. Olusegun Odegbami MON, OLY, AFNIIA, FNIS.
Gateway Games 2024 - through my eyes
Daily Diary - the corn season begins!
Day Five
I leave for Lagos very early. At 7:00 o’clock I am on the Island within the premises of TVC. The popular television station is owned by the most powerful man in Nigeria today. It is understandable, therefore, that it is located within the most expensive Estate in Africa - The Atlantic City, a stretch of the old Bar Beach reclaimed mostly through sand filling from the Atlantic Ocean in Victoria Island.
The old TVC was located on the mainland in Ikeja. It was the target of hoodlums that seized the opportunity of a national protest to burn down most of the television station some years ago. That disappointment has become a blessing. A new TVC has ‘resurrected’ in one of the most sophisticated and most modern broadcast studios in the world, comparable, in my limited personal experience, to what I saw at the CNN Headquarters in Atlanta, and the BBC Headquarters in Ikoyi Lagos.
For the staff of TVC, the movement from Ikeja to the poshest and most exclusive part of Lagos can be likened to a transition from purgatory to paradise.
The interview with the ‘TVC Breakfast’ presenters goes very well. It is racy and interesting, a conversation around the Gateway Games and my role in it.
I depart Lagos early enough to catch the athletes leaving the Games Village at Babcock University, Ilishan, temporary home to most of the 12,000 representing all the States of the country, for different venues in Ikenne, Sagamu and Abeokuta.
They had arrived Ilishan in buses, turning the once-tranquil institution into a bristling motor park. Athletes are everywhere moving around in their sports tights and tracksuits. Near the university sports centre, many are seen either alighting from buses, or standing in long orderly queues waiting to board the buses that ferry them to their different venues.
I speak with some athletes and officials on the road and by the markets that have sprung up on the campus. The consensus is that the hostel accommodation is great, the feeding is average, the commuting may be stressful but also provides additional platform to mingle and to make friends. Generally, they love the Village experience.
The campus is clean and beautiful. It will make a good background captured on an artist’s canvas. It is a perfect choice for the Games Village: far from the madding crowd; good internal road network; 24/7 power and water facilities; adequate internal security; several relaxation spots for socialization; and a general feel-good ambience.
I walk around and take pictures. My style of videography is now well known - panning my camera with the intention of telling a whole story in a single shot, and reinforcing it with a simple narrative. Uncle TK, the famous storyteller and cinematographer, commended my work the other day. He thinks my videos are unorthodox, but clever and effective. Well, that’s the effect of unofficially ‘learning’ from the master himself, I jokingly tell him.
I don’t intend to watch any games. My reporters are all over the place doing a great job of making Eagle7 the go-to place to every report and scores on the games.
So, I leave the Games Village and head to Wasimi to monitor ongoing work in the Academy; check out the female dormitory that is nearing completion courtesy of a friend, one of the best humans I know; check out the Eagle7 Bamboo Garden that is being fixed to welcome guests from Abeokuta; and inspect my small corn farm that needs my blessing for the harvest to start.
It is my corn farm that takes the most part of the time. The effect of climate change is evident everywhere on the farm. The heavy rains have not come yet, and the land and vegetation are fairly parched. The greenery is not enough and the smell of vegetation is not heavy in the air. The corn season is, therefore, late in coming.
Baba Chibuzor leads me into the farm and, with his cutlas, I harvest my first corn 🌽. That finally heralds the start of my annual corn-eating season. During this period that lasts almost 6 months (till October) I consume 7 cobs of corn a day. It is my ‘ritual’.
The sad story around is that, this year, no one is sure about the rains.
Evening suddenly turns to night. I leave Wasimi and join Godwin and Bruce in Abeokuta for our now-regular nightcap on a small grass knoll located behind some stalls about a hundred meters down the road on the right as one enters the MKO Abiola Sports Arena. The drinks lady from Lagos is eagerly waiting for us. We bring business to her every night.
As usual, ‘Sports City’ is over-crowded, bursting at the seams with human and vehicular traffic. It is great fun to hang out like this and share some communion of drinks and small chops with colleagues from the past. You can imagine the conversations we have, of old times and how we would want to change the world of Sport but cannot because we are regarded now as ancestors.
We leave at about midnight discussing new, worrisome developments in the environment that need immediate attention.
There is much work to be done here when the Games are over!
The pictures speak better.
Dr. Olusegun Odegbami MON, OLY, AFNIIA, FNIS, GS Ambassador
Daily Diary - the corn season begins!
Day Five
I leave for Lagos very early. At 7:00 o’clock I am on the Island within the premises of TVC. The popular television station is owned by the most powerful man in Nigeria today. It is understandable, therefore, that it is located within the most expensive Estate in Africa - The Atlantic City, a stretch of the old Bar Beach reclaimed mostly through sand filling from the Atlantic Ocean in Victoria Island.
The old TVC was located on the mainland in Ikeja. It was the target of hoodlums that seized the opportunity of a national protest to burn down most of the television station some years ago. That disappointment has become a blessing. A new TVC has ‘resurrected’ in one of the most sophisticated and most modern broadcast studios in the world, comparable, in my limited personal experience, to what I saw at the CNN Headquarters in Atlanta, and the BBC Headquarters in Ikoyi Lagos.
For the staff of TVC, the movement from Ikeja to the poshest and most exclusive part of Lagos can be likened to a transition from purgatory to paradise.
The interview with the ‘TVC Breakfast’ presenters goes very well. It is racy and interesting, a conversation around the Gateway Games and my role in it.
I depart Lagos early enough to catch the athletes leaving the Games Village at Babcock University, Ilishan, temporary home to most of the 12,000 representing all the States of the country, for different venues in Ikenne, Sagamu and Abeokuta.
They had arrived Ilishan in buses, turning the once-tranquil institution into a bristling motor park. Athletes are everywhere moving around in their sports tights and tracksuits. Near the university sports centre, many are seen either alighting from buses, or standing in long orderly queues waiting to board the buses that ferry them to their different venues.
I speak with some athletes and officials on the road and by the markets that have sprung up on the campus. The consensus is that the hostel accommodation is great, the feeding is average, the commuting may be stressful but also provides additional platform to mingle and to make friends. Generally, they love the Village experience.
The campus is clean and beautiful. It will make a good background captured on an artist’s canvas. It is a perfect choice for the Games Village: far from the madding crowd; good internal road network; 24/7 power and water facilities; adequate internal security; several relaxation spots for socialization; and a general feel-good ambience.
I walk around and take pictures. My style of videography is now well known - panning my camera with the intention of telling a whole story in a single shot, and reinforcing it with a simple narrative. Uncle TK, the famous storyteller and cinematographer, commended my work the other day. He thinks my videos are unorthodox, but clever and effective. Well, that’s the effect of unofficially ‘learning’ from the master himself, I jokingly tell him.
I don’t intend to watch any games. My reporters are all over the place doing a great job of making Eagle7 the go-to place to every report and scores on the games.
So, I leave the Games Village and head to Wasimi to monitor ongoing work in the Academy; check out the female dormitory that is nearing completion courtesy of a friend, one of the best humans I know; check out the Eagle7 Bamboo Garden that is being fixed to welcome guests from Abeokuta; and inspect my small corn farm that needs my blessing for the harvest to start.
It is my corn farm that takes the most part of the time. The effect of climate change is evident everywhere on the farm. The heavy rains have not come yet, and the land and vegetation are fairly parched. The greenery is not enough and the smell of vegetation is not heavy in the air. The corn season is, therefore, late in coming.
Baba Chibuzor leads me into the farm and, with his cutlas, I harvest my first corn 🌽. That finally heralds the start of my annual corn-eating season. During this period that lasts almost 6 months (till October) I consume 7 cobs of corn a day. It is my ‘ritual’.
The sad story around is that, this year, no one is sure about the rains.
Evening suddenly turns to night. I leave Wasimi and join Godwin and Bruce in Abeokuta for our now-regular nightcap on a small grass knoll located behind some stalls about a hundred meters down the road on the right as one enters the MKO Abiola Sports Arena. The drinks lady from Lagos is eagerly waiting for us. We bring business to her every night.
As usual, ‘Sports City’ is over-crowded, bursting at the seams with human and vehicular traffic. It is great fun to hang out like this and share some communion of drinks and small chops with colleagues from the past. You can imagine the conversations we have, of old times and how we would want to change the world of Sport but cannot because we are regarded now as ancestors.
We leave at about midnight discussing new, worrisome developments in the environment that need immediate attention.
There is much work to be done here when the Games are over!
The pictures speak better.
Dr. Olusegun Odegbami MON, OLY, AFNIIA, FNIS, GS Ambassador
