By Mike Awoyinfa, The Sun Newspaper. ( March 2, 2013)
Why this belated tribute? Why haven’t I written about you long before now? It is because I still don’t believe that you are gone. How can you just go like that? How can you simply exit from the arena, Mr. Arena?
Something tells me you are still around. I don’t know what is the thing, but I have the sneaky feeling that you are there, somewhere, down there. In search of you, I went down there where you are supposed to be in Melbourne where the finals of the Australian Opens was taking place, where the two tennis gladiators and archrivals, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic were slugging it out in a titanic struggle in which Djokovic came from behind to beat Murray 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2.
On that night in Melbourne, there were fireworks in the night sky. And I knew it was for you. Because when heroes die, comets are seen. You were a hero of our profession. A hero of journalism. Sports journalism. I never believed you were dead, so like that character in Amos Tutuola’s Palm Wine Drinkards, I went out in search of you in the world down under.
Somehow, I was searching for you in the crowd at Melbourne. I spotted one empty seat there and it reminded me of you. Perhaps that was your empty seat. And my mind went to I Samuel 20: 18 where Jonathan said to David: “Tomorrow is the new moon, and you will be missed because your seat will be empty.”
Today, Ayo Ositelu is missed and will always be missed among sports writers and readers alike. His seat can never be filled. Because no one reports the way he does. No sports reporter in Nigeria today reports with the kind of passion Ositelu exhibits in his reporting. No reporter takes you there to the scene of action as Ositelu would. He was the eyes and ears of his readers. And his readers would miss him badly. I am missing him now. We both love tennis, boxing and football. He was a generalist and generalissimo in sports reporting.
But tennis was his niche. It was his forte. Nobody loves tennis like he does. And nobody writes and reports tennis with so much detail, so much colour and so much flair. Any time there is a new moon and a tennis festival is going on, Ositelu would surely be missed. He was the last of the great reporters who lived and die to cover the story.
His last major event before his death was when the William Sisters visited Nigeria and he was the compere of one of the shows. In Ayo’s face you could see joy. The joy of being with the legendary sisters of tennis. That is one picture that would forever remain with me as I think about Ayo Ositelu, a legend in his own right. A journalism legend. A man who served God and tennis with his heart and soul. May God find a nice arena for Deacon Ayo ‘Arena’ Ositelu in heaven. And if they play tennis in heaven, he would be very useful there reporting it just as he reported it on earth. Didn’t the Good Book say whatever is bound on earth is bound in heaven?
