Dikko: How Mumini Alao’s Soccertalk Opened The Way For Me In Sports Management

The National Sports Commission (NSC) Chairman, Mallam Shehu Dikko, has credited veteran sports journalist Dr. Mumini Alao’s popular Soccertalk column as the platform that launched his career in Nigerian sports management, Completesports.com reports.

Speaking at Alao’s autobiography launch on Sunday, 2 August 2025, at the Tayo Aderinokun Lecture Theatre, University of Lagos, Dikko, a former Chairman of the League Management Company (LMC), revealed that a response he wrote to one of Alao’s articles more than two decades ago caught national attention and opened doors that shaped his professional journey.

How a Published Response Changed Dikko’s Career Path

Dikko recalled that his rise in sports management began after Alao published his reaction to a Soccertalk article in the Complete Sports newspaper. The piece, which ran under the headline “Take A Bow, Shehu Adamu Dikko,” was published unedited and included a personal commendation from Alao.

The exposure, Dikko said, played a key role in his eventual appointment as LMC Chairman and his subsequent achievements in Nigerian sports.

The Article That Sparked the Breakthrough

The pivotal article, titled How to Rebuild Nigerian Football, was published on 28 October 2002 as a counter-response to Alao’s earlier piece advocating a reward system for home-based Super Eagles players. Impressed by the depth and clarity of Dikko’s arguments, Alao devoted his entire Soccertalk column to the submission — the first time he had ever done so for a reader.

Lifelong Professional Respect

Dikko noted that, despite their professional interactions, Alao had never sought personal favours from him. He emphasised that their conversations over the years had always centred on ideas for improving Nigerian sports. Accepting the role of chairman for the book launch, Dikko said he cancelled another engagement to honour Alao’s professionalism, integrity, and contribution to the industry.

The article that Mallam Shehu Dikko said catapulted him to prominence in Nigerian sports was titled “How to Rebuild Nigerian football.” It was published in Complete Sports newspaper on October 28, 2002 in reaction to Dr. Mumini Alao’s own piece in his popular column, Soccertalk, two weeks earlier where Alao advocated a reward system for home-based players in the national team, Super Eagles.

Alao was so impressed by the logic in Dikko’s submission that he decided to devote his entire column to Dikko’s article. Alao headlined the column, “Take A Bow, Shehu Adamu Dikko” and proceeded to publish the whole article unedited with a postscript where he saluted Dikko and endorsed his recommendations. It was the first that Dr. Alao would surrender his entire column to one reader.

From Newspaper Feature to National Sports Leadership

At Alao’s book launch on Sunday, Dikko revealed for the first time that the publication in Soccertalk in 2002 opened the door for his career in Nigerian sports management.

“Because of the respect that Mumini Alao’s column commands in Nigerian sports, the Chairman of the Nigeria Football Association at the time, Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima, invited me to work with him. From there, I got the opportunity to manage the Nigeria Professional Football League, I became a member of the Nigeria Football Federation executive committee and now, I’m the Chairman of the National Commission. So, when people talk about Mumini Alao’s Soccertalk, I tell them that is the platform that opened the door for me in Nigerian sports management. He did not even know me before he gave me his platform and we did not get to me until many years later.

“The most remarkable thing in all of this is that in all the years that I have been involved at all levels of Nigerian sports, Dr. Mumini Alao has never asked me for any favour. The only times that he calls me on phone, it is only to make suggestions on how we can grow Nigerian sports further. Even recently when we met and talked for hours, all our discussion was centred on ideas to grow Nigerian sports.

“So, when he asked me to come and be Chairman of his book launch, I told him I would be there. I have had to cancel another assignment for me to keep my word and to honour him for his professionalism, his integrity and his contributions to Nigerian sports.”

Images: Ganiyu Yusuf