Alas Nigerians! The National Assembly passed NFF Act 2013 and no Act for other sports but unfortunately it is comically and clinically irrelevant and dead on arrival as others based on the antecedents of present administration where the country’s citizens continue to be muscled from relying on Nigeria’s Judicial independence from Executives for fear of some archaic “servitude phenomenon”. Nigerians are not second class citizens in their own country, but only in Nigeria can we expect this Master-Servant mentality where our laws are jettisoned for the sake of FIFA and there was no record of any real benefit coming out of FIFA to Nigeria ever. Yes, appearance fees at World Cup cannot be compared with a N450million monthly dash by the federal government to NFF. So what does the country gain from FIFA insults, absolutely nothing. This article is about all sports in Nigeria not just football for the benefit of all Nigerians.
When Nigeria talks about RIO Olympics Games that is due to commence in about 18months or so, the imposed people in charge of sports will ‘shout’ them down as a distant agenda that is less urgent. But it doesn’t seem that the Minister for Sports, Mr. Danagogo aka Danaboy got a clue on how to plan or prepare for an Olympics Games, on the other hand Nigeria has never appointed anyone who knows how, since the so-called democracy ‘pinched’ the brains of the country’s supposedly leaders. And of course Danaboy tenure is less than 90days away. This writing will attempt to provide guidance to the Sports Ministry as a civic duty. Some information is part of this writer published book.
Anticipatory (Long Range Plan) Program
This is developmental regime aimed at the 2020 Olympics Games. A Sports Development Authority (SDA) must be established.
Sports Development Authority (SDA) – Athletics
“NSC must establish a new corporate entity with the aim of developing athletes. In order to achieve this aim a new institutional structure must be established along with the determination on how such institution be governed.
Nigeria embraces American-styled democracy in her federal government structure and it will not be a difficult process to allow the governed, including the athletes in determining the leadership of the new SDA.
Stakeholders
It is fundamental in most democratic societies that the governed participates in the process of appointing or electing leaders and for the purposes of this writing, the governed are the stakeholders. Among them are all registered athletes, non-defaulting States Amateur Athletics Associations, non-defaulting parties such as club owners and other organizations or groups like uniformed services, etc.
NSC employees do not qualify as stakeholder. The non-defaulting party is defined as those individuals or clubs that are not in any arrears of debt to AFN or any athlete. A defaulting State Associations are those who failed to host or hosts less than mandatory minimum of three age-graded / inter-school competitions every year and those that failed to provide sporting facilities for that State.
The stakeholders’ choice of leaders begins with the election of the new members of the Board of Directors.
Board of Directors
The Board of directors is routinely appointed at-large based on merit and qualification to supervise an organization’s decision making by voting for or against any measure. This method of appointment should be adopted and strictly followed unless the stakeholders determine that such rule should be amended. A Board of Directors Selection Committee (BDSC) should be organized by the stakeholders. BDSC will set the guidelines for the Board election, conduct the election and set the goals of the Board, including the requirements that elected board member will be limited to two terms of four years. Previous and that the outgoing AFN Board members are not eligible to contest any position in SDA.
After the election process, the list of top ten will be publicly announced for vetting including security clearance by the country’s security agencies and validation of work experiences, credentials or qualifications. However, the incumbents are expected to have a fund-raising background.
BDSC will determine nine among ten forwarded individuals based on the number of votes, security findings and other merit such as fundraising skills, experiences and qualifications. Once that decision is made BDSC function terminates. Any appeal of the process must be delivered to NSC for resolution.
The selected Board members determine, among themselves who will be the Chairperson, and other office holders. The Chairmanship should be rotated annually. However, no Board member can run SDA operations in any capacity.
In addition, the new Board monitors SDA’s affairs through Committee of experts in specific areas such as audits, athletes’ or coach selections.
All Board decisions must meet the quorum requirements, simple majority or unanimous decisions in certain areas depending on the SDA’s constitutional demands. Veto power may exist on certain issues (such as the dismissal of its President during his / her term).
Restructuring Transition Committee (RTC)
Restructuring Transition Committee (RTC) should be set-up by the new Board. RTC has two functions, which are technical (athletes’ specific) or non-technical.
RTC-Non-technical should establish a search Committee for hiring a permanent head of marketing / promotions within 30 days.
The role of the President will be defined by the RTC with amendments by any succeeding Board.
The RTC (and later SDA President) is required to list out annual local, national and international program of events along with funding estimates. The suggested local competitions funded by each State should be at least three age-graded or inter-school state championships on each year. Four national competitions privately funded should be organized and at least two international outings should be encouraged. SDA may at any time fund its own weekly All Comers meets, etc.
RTC should train and engage former athletes to officiate any of its sanctioned events nationwide because this is a pool of experts currently ignored.
RTC should negotiate with international shoe companies directly to assist the nation’s athletes in athletic wears and equipment. SDA will not supply athletes with running / spike shoes due to the Card System funding mechanism. Only in international engagement will athletic wear be supplied to selected athletes.
RTC should set its fundraising goal to at least $30Million annually and not operate a budget deficit through shrewd spending.
RTC should within two weeks begin the process of setting up a search Committee with instructions to forward names of potential (President) candidate for background checks (security, fraud, criminal, etc.).
Until SDA President is hired, the RTC-Technical can in the interim hire Technical Secretary, Coaches / Trainers. In addition, it can prepare contract documents for the Card System and determine eligibility of athletes and enroll them immediately. Catch Them Young (CTY) program preparatory phase begins immediately through research and liaison between RTC, Federal Ministry of Education, LGAs and State governments. The Minister for Sports must be available for meetings with State officials.
New President (SDA)
The President of an organization runs that organization. This is an answer to resolving several perennial concerns in a typical Nigerian organization and for the new SDA’s President, his or her authority in consultation with the management team cannot be challenged except perhaps actions contrary to SDA constitutional documents. The President should shun all outside interests or Board interference with operations.
Functions of SDA President
The primary role of the President is the overall management of operations or activities that SDA is mandated to carry out within its constitutional limit. Essentially, the key functions of management not just the classical view by Fayol47 but also Mitzberg48ten identified functions of management.
The President, upon assumption of duty is expected to develop a plan of activities and resources along with operational target.
Activities
SDA must develop strategic and tactical goals, in addition to pre-existing operational goals by NSC. Those operational goals should be modified to accommodate new interim managers of various categories of athletes. The interim managers as appointed by the Board will oversee the effectiveness of the new regime structure.”
Strategic plan
Funding
• SDA should phase-out reliance on federal government funding except for the All African and the Olympics Games.
• The CS should continue because it provides incentives and motivation for the athletes while
The Catch Them Young (CTY) program discovers raw talent early. The CS costs can be as high as US$1million for about 100 athletes (some will get $1,500 per month others get $1,000 while the juniors get at least $300 plus free education).
• Ban on NSC direct funding (travel and accommodations) of Board members to international
Championships or Olympics games. Cost savings can exceed US$100, 000.
• Financial independence of NSC except mandatory new pension scheme matching contribution.
• Athletes, clubs, organizations, States, and others that take part in AFN competitions will fund such competitions through entry fees, club annual fees and stakeholders charge. This funding mechanism can fetch as much as US$1million annually.
Development / Performance
• SDA must consider as low priority athletes who are over 30years old and not worldly ranked above top 15 in their respective events.
• Redeploy many sprinters running slower than 10.3secs in 100meters of other events they are better suited such as jumps, hurdles, and long sprints. Re-emphasize throws and distance events.
• Increase transparency in decision making and athletes / Coaches selections.
• Phased-in the Local Government Area (LGA) inter-school competitions as early as 2013. Funded by LGAs.
• Phased-in State age-graded schools competitions as early as 2013. Funded by the States.
• Restructure privately funded State and National Junior Championships as early as 2013.
• Restructure National Sports Festival with under-18 category.
Technical scheme
The new technical regime follows a two-pronged approach, the Card System (CS) and Catch Them Young (CTY). This new regime will be phased-in over a six month period, but initially headed by 5-man / woman team named Restructuring Transition Committee (RTC) – Technical; with verifiable pure technical skills in track and field (may not all be Nigerians).
The regime is modelled to cater for talented athletes’ year round. The starting point is Figure 2 below which categorizes new technical regime (for athletes).
(i) Developmental concerns Elementary and Junior Secondary Schools (Coaches are seconded from the Nigerian Institute of Sports (NIS) new internship programs).
(ii) Junior deals with High School students (Elite junior attends schools funded by the NSC or AFN)
(iii) Elite athletes deal with ‘A’ or ‘B’ standard under IAAF World Championship rating. Senior Elite ‘A’ must be world ranked and Elite ‘B’ must be less than 21 years old. Junior Elite must meet ‘B’ standard and less than 18 years old
(iv) Retired (athletes) is a new category that must be supported based on their contribution towards the new pension scheme. The athletes must have competed internationally in the country for 10 years
Elite Maintenance Program
This is a program that will provide all required assistance to athletes who have reached Olympics standards as of December 2014.
“Tactical plan
• To meet the demands of a team to international competitions within the next two years, SDA must aim to maintain and sustain current crops of athletes by enrolling them in a new Card System (CS) program for junior and senior elite athletes. Such program discussed below includes eligibility for retirement benefits for athletes that invested over ten years on the national team. CS program is estimated at about US$1million annually and paid directly into the enrolled athletes’ bank account from the finance Ministry on monthly basis.
• Presents a quality Olympics Game’s team within 16months by using the following approach:
Hire twenty coaches nationwide to prepare for the elite structure and youth emphasis.
Reformulate funding sources and bring all States and LGAs as well as Ministry of Education together under the new approach;
Discourage spending on foreign airline tickets for national trials because it shows a preferential treatment;
Discourage forced camping (local or international) and reemphasises local training facilities in all region of the country. Athletes invited to represent Nigeria can assemble and train at the local centre near them under the guidance of National Coach assigned to that region;
Redeploy of good athletes running slower than 10.3 seconds in 100 meters to other events should be encouraged.”
I rest for now.
Dr. Rashid A. Balogun, CPA, LLB(Hons.), LLM(London)
