In recent years his name has been in the forefront of sports development in Ogun State in particular and Nigeria in general.
Known for his passion for grassroots development and youth empowerment, Honourable Bukola Olopade, who was the youngest commissioners in annals of the state, dazzled during his reign under the administration of former Governor Otunba Gbenga Daniel.
The vivacious man who has been a blessing to this country, through his Nilayo Sports Management Limited, one of Nigeria’s highly rated sports companies, has successfully raised the bar in the history of sports events in the country, in a chat with journalist on Nigeria foremost WhatsApp group NSM Rebranded, spoke about what spurred him into venturing into marathon race.
“As we can see now that a healthy body is needed every time of the year for us to be healthy and be comfortable with our lives.
“I just saw the World Health Organization brief message that was done by the organization talking about people keeping fit, eating well, walking, running, jogging, and that was one of the reasons I taught that a road race will galvanized our people into understanding that we can have a culture of running, a culture of jogging, a culture of strolling, a culture of just keeping fit to let our body get accustomed to the fact that it is well exercised that the pandemic of this nature will not affect us that much.
“To God be the glory I want to believe that the message keeps spreading from South to North, West and East of Nigeria we’ve seen a tremendous growth in road racing the acceptance level from people has been amazing, I will give a typical example, I know as a matter of fact that in Lagos we had just about twenty running clubs but today in Lagos we are counting of running club of over two hundred, in Abeokuta have just been told we now have over fifty two running clubs, from maybe three or running clubs since after the race and am sure the same thing is happening in Remo and all over the country.
“My main goal of going into road races apart from the obvious fact that it also a business that has changed my life completely and has helped my family and those who work with me have been able to touch thousands of people in terms of creating add up job apart from that my main goal was to ensure that Nigerians are healthier than ever before.
Aside from the health benefits that the race brings, Hon. Olopade has ensured that the colourful race which through tourism has also opened up the gateway state to economic prosperity.
