Tayo Popoola, the first Nigerian black-belted female taekwondo player and a former board member of Lagos State Sports Council speaks with Ruth Olurounbi on what makes her tick.HER name is Tayo Popoola, and she is into sports. She majors in taekwondo and she happens to be the 'first female Nigerian black belter in taekwondo. I remember I got my black belt when I was quite young and I got it with the men who were doing their grading back then. I was the only female that did the grading then, grading means exams one takes to take one higher to points in the arts. We have different ranges of belt but when you want to be initiated into the level of seniority, it starts with black belt. So I happen to be the first female black belt and I did my grading with men.'For Tayo Popoola, taekwondo was the only form of sports that caught her interest while she was in secondary school. That was the only form of sports that inspired her. To a greater extent, it still is what motivates her and one of the few things she is passionate about. She said that 'I believe so much in it because it actually taught me a way of life and it has been able to direct me in many paths of life. It was able to teach me a better way of life, a more disciplined way. I mean, it was more or less a lifestyle. I made up my mind that I wanted to see it through, and thanks to God, I was the first Nigerian female black belter.'The only child of her parents, Tayo considers herself more of a tom boy and maybe, that was one part of her life that drove her into sports in the first place. She confessed that if she hadn't had a set of supportive parents, she probably wouldn't be doing sports today. As a devout Christian, she attributed her success to God and her parents. While shedding light on how she became a sports administrator of the Lagos State Sports Board, she explained that 'I was just so much passionate about it and because I have a supportive set of parents (my dad will sometimes drive me to the training session and so would my mum and it kept going on and on like that) I was able to stick with it. So all of a sudden, I met myself up there. I became a sports administrator. I was asked to be the sole administrator of Lagos State taekwondo, out of nowhere. And at that point when I came to be the sole administrator, I knew I left the country for some time and somebody asked if I would like to be the sole administrator of taekwondo and I said what' No, I do not want to do anything that had to do with politics but he said 'no you can do it' and I went to do it. And thanks be to God, we actually did very well and we went so high and the state was leading in taekwondo at every competition that we attended. 'Later on, they now made me the chairman of the art. A sole administrator is more or less like a one man thing but when they made the chairman, I had other people working with me. 'I was there for some time. If I am not mistaken, I think I was the chairman of taekwondo for about 10 years. Then one day, at about five O'clock in the morning, I was in the bathroom preparing for the day when my phone rang. I asked who it was and the person said his name. I said I didn't know the name and he introduced himself as the state sports commissioner and asked if I could meet with the then state governor at his office, that he wanted to see me. I got there and met with the commissioner since the governor was not on seat and he told me 'madam, you've been appointed as a member of the board of the state sports council.' I said that I wasn't interested in that, that I had my taekwondo which I loved very much. He then explained to me that the appointment meant that I would be administering sports on a much higher platform but I held my ground. I was afraid my taekwondo and players were going to suffer and all that. He assured me that none of that would happen and made it a point to remind me that that post was a most coveted one in the state. So I said I was going to think about it with my players before I take a decision. He said fine and I left.'On getting to office, I called my players and explained the event of the day to them. They said that I should go for it. While my players were doing a very good job of convincing me to take the appointment, somebody just walked up to me to say Lady T, congratulations. I was surprised so I asked on what, he said they just announced your name on the radio that you have been appointed as a member of Lagos State Board of Sports Council and that was how I became a member. That was in 2004. That now gave me the opportunity to act as an executive overseeing sports, not only taekwondo. Now, what I am trying to say here is that I was picked to become a sports board member of the state from what I was doing in taekwondo. Taekwondo was something I did just out joining of sports, out of a little child wanting to do sports in school and seeing herself growing into it and meeting herself at the top of it, administering sports in Lagos State, as a board member.'When asked what sports had done for her, she said that she's full of life, that she's happy and that sport 'makes me glow. People look at me and say I am 30 this or 30 that and I smile. I tell some that I'm not at the level of thirty but if you're making me the level of 30, thank God. But I know I'm in my 40s. What is behind that'I know it's my sports. As you know, some of us have been dissolved because of the new administration and all that but I still go to the council, every now and then, I still maintain my relationship with everybody in sport business in Lagos State and beyond, but particularly Lagos State. Recently, we had some competitions to attend and some of our athletes could not go because of some problems with sponsorship. The Commissioner of Sports and I agreed that these athletes have to go and we rallied round to find a solution to that. You see' This is coming even when I am no longer in the office."But does she have a life outside of sports' No, not exactly. Even in her private businesses, she deals in sports and sporting equipment. 'In my private business, I run a gym. I have a showroom for sporting equipment, I build gym for people ' for their apartments and hotels; I am an aerobics instructor. I read sports managements in school. The only other thing I know that I don't do is politics and that I belong to a philanthropic club. I tell people that sports is my lifestyle. My love life revolves around sports because my relationship had always revolved around people in sports, not sportsmen sha o. I can tell you that the best thing that has ever happened to me is sports. Whatever and whoever I am today is all because of sports. And it has actually worked for me in so many ways. I am not 100 per cent good, yet people see the best in me and that is because of sports. Achievements while in office' She said 'authoritatively that with the help of my team members, every assignment that was given to us was always successful. We always got more than the expected result and no one has been able to fault us. The major achievement for me had been the opening and closing ceremonies that I handled.People don't care if you had a good performance in between the opening and closing ceremony but if you had a bad opening or closing ceremony, people will care about that and fault you because of it.'Also parts of my achievements in office were the sports festival we had while I was still in office. Lagos has not been doing sports festival for almost 21 years. We had our first festival in 2005, just a year after my appointment as sports administrator in the state. In 2006, we had another one and I was still the chairman of the ceremony.Now the big one that was really a challenge was when we commissioned Teslim Balogun Stadium. When I was informed that I was going to handle the commissioning of the stadium, I was initially apprehensive because commissioning a gigantic stadium like that was a huge one. So, I travelled to one or two places outside the country to have a feel of how they did theirs and I also did some research. I came back to Lagos and my team and I decided on what to do. To the glory of God, we had a good outing that day. We had sports teams from across the country and outside the country that made the day outstanding and everyone was happy.'All in all, I am very grateful that I had beautiful ceremonies. For every of the opening ceremony that we had, Glory be to God, it has always been successful. I am grateful also that I had good people who supported me and worked with me because without them, I may not be here talking with you.
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