By A President Emeritus
I can write a book of 1000 pages for my tenure as the National President (1996 -2002) that will have in its content, the difficulty of having to bring members under one umbrella, my anti-establishment stance over the way sports administration was being handled, raising the profile of our members at the international level and more tasking to ensure that the 36 states and Abuja were functional and effective among others.
However, the most interesting of it all was my strategy to identify among our colleagues, the hardworking and those I could trust to carry out any function or douse any tension that was to threaten the unity of SWAN. Across this divide, Abdullahi Mohammed Tanko, my bother and friend popularly known as ‘TK’ fits into that collection.
Ever since I discovered his passion for SWAN, I never let him free. And he was everywhere to guide, to direct and in some instances, to condemn some of the things he felt were not in order. From Katsina, his base, TK had travelled to virtually all the states in the course of SWAN. The Lagos colleagues know TK. They take him serious on matters of SWAN politics. “You want to capture the North, meet TK”, they will always tell you. He truly, was one of the political kingpins down here.
His philosophy has always been SWAN must remain one. He gave everything to achieve that, especially in the development of chapters in the north. He was a key figure in the organisation of most of the SWAN seminars and programmes. I can recall he relocated to Kano when SWAN muted the idea of National Sports Conference at the time I was Deputy National President under the leadership of Fan Ndubouke. He gave his life for the success of the conference adjudged as the biggest singular gathering of sports writers and stakeholders aimed at reshaping Nigerian sports.
Finally, I can say without fear of contradictions that TK had a stamp in my emergence as the National President in the Jigawa convention and my re-election in the Abuja Delegates Conference. My successor, Olu Amadasun will tell you that TK played part in his election. Sa’idu Abubakar who succeeded Olu can’t deny the role TK played in his election and re-election as National President. Even Honour Sirawoo benefitted from the influence of TK. What of the current SWAN President, Benjamin Isiah? Ask him.
President Sa’idu Abubakar and I often in our good times, address him “TK for Senate”. Leave that to us. The SWAN award bestowed on him is well deserved as he sacrificed for the development of SWAN at all levels. My warmest congratulations to the iconic TK.
