Veteran journalist, Gbenga Oni Olusola highlights sports journalism and development exploits of Godwin Dudu Orumen
Yeah, if you are a sports lover, this face must be familiar to you, if not even his name, Godwin Dudu Orumen. To lovers of football and everything about football , local and foreign, this Edo State, but highly cosmopolitan and urbane man brought sheer joy to their living rooms in the 90s with his pioneer, multiple award winning programme ” The Best of Football”
You loved football, you looked forward to his programme on NTA.
A very cerebral, and engaging personality, who I have found most knowledgeable all round and whose company I have come to appreciate over the years wears several caps with ease.
And he is a lawyer too!! You know, they are learned men!! Obtaining a degree in English from the University of Benin after his secondary school at Holy Trinity Grammar School, Sabongida Ora ( one of the premier colleges in the then Midwest) and a stone throw really from his ancestral home at Oke Old Owan West of present Edo state, Dudu returned to Uniben to study law and was called to the bar in the late 80s along with Babatunde Raji Fashola ( yeah, you are right, that former governor of Lagos state and now Minister emeritus).
Dudu practiced law for some couple of years but decided quickly to devote his life to Sports business and Sports development of his fatherland
In 1990, he was appointed SA to the National Sports Commission NSC chairman, and was a member of the NFA/NFF Technical Committee at various times between 1993 – 2009, a period he was also running his TV programme.
Dudu breathes sports, dreams sports, and as we say in local parlance ” sports dey shack am”
Little wonder then he established Nigeria’s premier sports bar he called SPORTSHAQ which marked its 20th anniversary this year.
Dudu is also the founder and rector of the Cowbell Football Academy being a very firm believer in the philosophy of catching them young and grooming them from the grassroots. The academy is in 4 locations with one in the capital of his home state, Benin City, Edo state.
Please join me in wishing this sports enthusiast ( some call him football officionado, I call him Sports officionado), journalist, business entrepreneur, lawyer and a man of integrity and of many parts a very happy birthday!!
Blessings ma guy
