I met the late Gbadebowale Wayne Aboderin late 2016 at civic centre. I was ushering at a GOTNI(Guardians of The Nation International) conference. At that time, I never knew who he was. He walked up to me and made a comment that made me smile. He then talked about my height and asked me if I was playing basketball. I said no as I had never had the opportunity to do so right from when I was in school. As we were talking, the founder of GOTNI saw us and walked up to where we were. He asked me if I knew who I was talking to and I said no. He told me I was talking to Wale Aboderin, I still didn’t know who that was. He went on and told me that he was the current chairman of Punch Newspaper. During this time, Mr Wale was trying to discourage him from telling me who he was. He took my number, then invited me to the basketball camp, Dolphins.
I resumed camp on the 22nd of January 2017. In the evening, when everybody had settled down, Chair (as we called him), called everybody for a meeting. He welcomed us, at the end of the meeting, he asked everybody to sing a song. He wasn’t particular about any genre; he just wanted to lighten the mood of everybody. Since I was new to the team, I watched the way Chair related with the girls (the players). He was very friendly and played with everybody not regarding the fact of his position in the society. Even if your mood was down, just seeing him alone would lighten it up. He was every so caring and protective of us. I remember a day on court, he called me, he looked closely at me and could tell I wasn’t feeling well. He called on the medical practitioner around and I was taken care of.
I was in a plane for the first time in my life all thanks to Chairman. The team was going to Kaduna for the second phase of the zenith female basketball league. I wasn’t on the team as I had just started learning to play. After the last training before we travelled, he called everybody together and surprised us all. He told us we would be going to Kaduna by flight. I was very ecstatic as that would be the first time I would be flying. Even when I wasn’t playing on the team at that time, Chair would still give me the same allowance he was giving to players just to encourage me. He was forever telling me that I was destined for greatness that I just needed to work harder
On different occasions, he would gather everybody together for a prayer meeting. We would sing and then he would ask us if we had testimonies. One time, he called us and told us to go and prepare sermons as we would be called upon anytime to preach in our prayer meeting. He was a firm believer in God and always encouraged us to draw nearer to God. He made sure that we kept the house clean as he believed that we would marry in the future and wanted us to know how to properly take care of our own house too when that time comes.
Once in a while, Chair would come to the court and say we should sing and dance. Sometimes he grouped us, while at other times we did it individually. Anything to just lighten up the atmosphere. Chair was a father to me, he took care of me. He was always there anytime I had a need. I could go on and on about his kindness but in all, he was a rare gem. Even at this point, I still find it hard to believe that he is gone. When I heard of his death, I was devastated and kept on asking why. It was so painful that someone so selfless would leave this world like that. I didn’t even have the opportunity to say goodbye. Chair, you might be dead, but I know the impact you’ve made in my life and that of others will continue to live on. Things would never be the same without you. There is nobody for me to disturb anymore, I remember that due to my disturbance, even when you saw a fly perching you would say “Ejiro leave me alone”. If I hear you from my room, I would come out and you would run to your house when you heard me coming. It’s going to be hard adjusting to life without you but I know that wherever you are, you would want me to be happy as that was what your life was about, making people happy. Even for the short period I knew you which has been like years, I thank God I was able to meet you. You will forever be in my heart. Rest in peace. D’Chair lives on. ”
Joy Uwegba
