Its been an incredible twenty-one years since one of Nigerias foremost football technocrats, Patrick Okpomo, who was a former Secretary General of Nigeria Football Association NFA, died in Lagos.
'Secto as yours sincerely fondly called him was a panache of sports administration with panacea for its challenges to the envy of his colleagues who couldnt match his suave administrative attributes. No wonder CAF and FIFA quickly grabbed him the moment the Nigeria factor dumped him. And like the star that he was locally, he soared globally so much that Nigeria had to shamefully recall him in 1999 to head the Technical Committee of the U-20 World Cup which the country hosted.
Okpomos showcase of international football competence was courtesy of CAF President, Issa Haytou who saw at close quarters the immense administrative expertise in him,having learned soccer administration under him when his Cameroonian government seconded him to Nigeria for training years earlier before his CAF presidency, and it was Haytou who God thereafter used to elevate him to CAF and FIFA platform the moment Nigeria dumped him.
Leveraging on Haytous goodwill/ magnanimity, the rejected soccer technocrat suddenly became Nigerias unofficial soccer ambassador as he guietly climbed CAF hierarchy. And with grit and benevolence, he single handedly got CAF to name Chief MKO Abiola the Pillar of Sports in Africa, a novelty title unheard of in the annals of sports diplomacy to the envy of his detractors.