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Kayode Tijani known and described as Sports Encyclopedia extraordinaire, the man with one of the richest sports library in Nigeria is dead.
YOUNEWS understand that he had been battling ill heath for some times.His wife, and children have been by his side throughout the tough last few years.
He passed on Wednesday, 7 February, 2024 at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) after a protracted illness.
He will be buried today, Thursday, 8 February, 2024 at Atan Cemetery in Lagos at 2.00pm according to Islamic rites.
Tijani has been battling an undisclosed illness since 2019.
He was born on July 7, 1968. Aside from being a journalist, Tijani was also an archivist of Nigerian sports history.
He had over 29 years of experience as a print and broadcast journalist.
Aliu Kayode Tijani started out as a youth prodigy with an insatiable passion for collecting and preserving sports records and memorabilia; as well as meeting and taking memorable pictures with famous sports personalities.
Tijani graduated with a diploma from the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) in 1988, in Lagos and effectively began his sports journalism career as a reporter with Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Football magazine and Complete Sports newspapers in the late 1980s.
He cut his teeth under the tutelage of sports journalism icons Dr. Emmanuel Sunny Ojeagbase, Frank Ilaboya and Dr. Mumini Alao.
Thereafter, he served for many years as the pioneer sports editor of FAME magazine, a society publication, where he again worked with top entertainment journalists Femi Akintunde-Johnson (FAJ), Kunle Bakare and Mayour Akinpelu. On leaving FAME magazine, Kayode traveled to England where he was a correspondent and sports presenter for an Afrocentric television station, BEN TV.
On his return to Nigeria, Kayode set up a private media outfit, ‘Sport Xclusive,’ which he ran as a television sports analyst, producer and visual content consultant. He was reknowned for his rich library of historical videos on Nigerian and African sports heroes and heroines which he put at the disposal of government establishments and private companies.
On several occasions, he worked with major television stations including the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and the African Independent Television (AIT) to cover international sports events by providing rare video footage to enhance their presentations. He also collaborated with private broadcast companies to produce TV commercials and sports documentaries.
In 1995, Kayode teamed up with two other colleagues, Ademola Olajire and Adeola Fashola to launch ‘Sportlight,’ a daily sports newspaper, which however was rested after only a few weeks. Amongst several volunteering works on national service, he was a member of the Dr. Amos Adamu-led Organising Committee of the 8th All-Africa Games, “COJA Abuja 2003” hosted by Nigeria. Kayode was widely travelled and covered several major tournaments including the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic Games, the Africa Cup of Nations and the Commonwealth Games. He was well known by top Nigerian sports personalities many of whom he interviewed.
At the advent of social media in Nigeria, Kayode was very active in circulating timely sports news and information to his numerous followers on Facebook and “X” (formerly Twitter). Unfortunately, he had to scale down his social media activities on medical grounds when he took ill before he finally passed away on Wednesday.
