Undoubtedly, Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola is one of the versatile, hardworking and a performing governors in Nigeria. Despite his tasking tasks, the governor unavoidably takes to footballing at least twice in a week, the reasons which he disclosed to City Peoples Magazine last week
Read the excerpt of Fashola’s reason for playing football at least twice a week despite busy schedules:
Every Sunday morning and Thursday evening, Lagos Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola plays football for one hour. On Sunday mornings, he joins his old-time friends at Eagles Club, Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, Surulere to play soccer. And on Thursday evenings, he plays soccer on the football field located within his office complex at Alausa. No matter what schedule or meeting he has on those 2 days, he pulls himself off work to play football. And guess what? He is good at it, he plays good football. And his mastery of the game and its rules is amazing.
And so, once it’s 5pm on Thursday, he removes his suit and tie and takes off to the field with his skits. He is a Manchester United fan. He goes to play with his soccer mates drawn from across Lagos. His Chief of Staff, Babalola also plays with him. He starts by warming for about 30 minutes before he goes on to play vigorously for another 90 minutes. City People witnessed one of his games last Thursday after which he took time off to speak on his love for football. “My love for football dates back to my childhood”, he explained, whilst sitting down under the pavilion after removing his black Adidas jersey and boots. “It was in my early childhood as a kid and also during the glorious days of Nigeria football, from the 2nd All Africa Games, the Academicals, Principal’s Cup, Ghana-Nigeria Sports Festival and at that time there was a lot going on with sports on television”.
“In the 70s, there was a lot of local football on the TV then, the newspapers used to report the stories of Stationery Stores, NEPA, Mighty Jets, and all of those players were heroes in their own right, and they were magical with the ball. I got occasional opportunities to go and watch them at the stadium. So that was where my love for football started. ”And we called ourselves their names. And the rest, like they say, is history”.
At what point did he start playing soccer, he was asked? “It was while in school that I developed that habit and I played all through my school days. In school, I was very small. I didn’t get into the Principals Cup Team until when I was in A’level class in Igbobi College but I of course played for my class in University. I was much taller, so my size was no longer a limitation. So, I played for my faculty from 1st year to final year, and during NYSC I was Vice-Captain of the Bendel State team, throughout the Youth corp year.
What has kept his interest in football? “Well, it is not just football I play. Incidentally, I play Tennis. I played throughout my University days. I played for the University of Benin. I played at Club levels too. I used to play the Lagos Senior Clubs League for Tennis in Lagos State, but I have given up my love for tennis now. On why I have kept to football. Let me say that “what I really need is exercise to keep me mentally alert, to control my energy and control my weight as well”. So, football is the easiest way out. And there is a hurly-burly about it, it is a contact sport, you get kicked, people kick you, you get up, you run, so all part of your body is affected. And you make a lot of noise as you can see, we abuse each other. We have fun”.
It must take a lot for him to take time out of no time to continue to play every week. How easy is it to create that time he was asked. “It is not easy, I tell you. But once some things are important to you, then you will make out time for them. There is no more than 24 hours in every day and there is always enough time for what is important to us including family, work, and even our health.
“I know that the nature of my work requires me not only to be mentally alert, but also to be physically well conditioned. So, this is also part of preparations for my work. This soccer time is the time when the whole world can wait for just one hour. This is free time for me to play soccer and gist and talk with my guys and let out the steam, just for one hour.”
If you get 2 hours in a week-1 hour on Thursday and 1 hour on Sunday to do this, it is not too much, just to suspend the world?
“It is a real privilege and it is an asset too because first, it helps you to exercise your lungs, conditions your body, your muscles, and also to generally relax your mind and get away from the pressure no matter how momentarily it may be”. Sometimes, emergencies come up. So there are times I have been called off the football field in an emergency. So you have to go and deal with that. It is part of doing the job. You can’t be a CEO and not have a form of recreation or relaxation. Sometimes too, when I can’t play football or tennis I play Squash, I play Billiards and Snooker.”
“Sometimes, I just go to the club late at night to go and play snooker for about 1 hour or 2 hours, walking around is also a lot of exercise, thinking, and looking for angles to play shots is a lot of exercise. So I just keep my mind busy in a relaxing way. I have a very active mind, so I can’t just sit down and be idle but its different when you are doing something to recreate rather than something that is the usually work”..