In a city known more for bumper-to-bumper traffic and booming nightlife than backhands and bowstrings, Lekan Fatodu is betting big on sport. And not just the kind played under floodlights or on crowded pitches. Think fencing. Think archery. Think speedboats skimming through Lekki waters while expatriates sip coconut water from the sidelines. This is Lagos, reimagined.

As Director General of the Lagos State Sports Commission, Fatodu is not merely running drills. He is orchestrating a quiet revolution, one fuelled by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s vision of sports not just as a pastime, but as policy. From grassroots to grandeur, Fatodu is stretching the sports canvas wider than it’s ever been.

At the heart of the strategy is a bottom-up pipeline. Talents are scouted from schools, finessed through community facilities, and nurtured with enough care to turn local promise into global performance. The state is investing not only in playgrounds but in character, weaving soft skills like punctuality and teamwork into every pass and push-up.

And then there’s the tourism playbook. Lagos is not just marketing itself as the pulse of Afrobeats, but as the continent’s rising capital of sports tourism. The Teslim Balogun Stadium will soon host an archery range. Jet skiing, motor sports, and even flight boarding now have a seat at the table—next to jollof rice and suya skewers, of course.

Fatodu’s ambition doesn’t end at winning medals. It extends to wooing the private sector, which had long drifted from public partnerships. Now, firms like Tecno and Parallex Bank are investing again, not for charity, but for strategy. In sports, Lagos sees not only identity, but industry.

That he once served as a communications strategist is clear. Fatodu speaks not in slogans but in frameworks, and his game plan is methodical. Sport, for him, is Lagos’ next big export. And with Sanwo-Olu’s backing, he’s turning play into a platform, talent into currency, and recreation into reinvention.