Sports Editors mourn Jide Fashikun
The Guild of Sports Editors has described Jide Fashikun’s demise as a huge blow to the country’s quest for sports development, as well as the push for a new Nigeria.
Fashikun, who passed on at the Federal Medical Centre Jabi, Airport Road Abuja yesterday, was said to have been battling the effects of stroke he suffered two weeks ago.
Reacting to the death of the investigative reporter, Guild of Sports Editors’ President, Tony Ubani said Fashikun’s demise could not have come at a worse period in Nigeria’s sports development.
“Fashikun was devoted to the development of Nigeria’s sports industry of which he gave his all, as a handballer, an athlete and a journalist.
“Although many people did not like his methods, Fashikun was unrelenting in his quest for a better Nigeria, a disposition which often brought him at loggerheads with the establishment,” Ubani said.
Lamenting that Nigerian youths, especially budding athletes, have lost a great champion of their cause, Ubani said, “Fashikun teamed up with former African queen of tracks, Mary Onyali, to create a foundation which main objective is to groom and support young athletes to achieve their potential.
“They traversed the length and breadth of Nigeria raising funds which they used to help athletes train and build their careers to the best of their abilities. This is a huge loss to Nigeria.
“His dream was to create gold medallists for Nigeria after so many years of failure at the Olympic Games. Now he is no more. May his soul rest in peace.”
Fashikun was a former national handballer and athlete, who veered into sports journalism on retirement.
A former chairman of the Kwara State Chapter of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, Fashikun was also the Sports Editor of the Herald newspaper, Managing Editor of Gong News, a senior Sports Correspondent at ThisDay newspapers and a former lecturer at Kwara Polytechnic.
He was aged 54.