President Muhammadu Buhari and All Progressives Congress’ (APC) dream of youth empowerment may turn out to be a mirage, unless they turn around the sports industry which has the potential to engage millions of Nigerians. The first step will be appointing a Sports Minister who understands the industry and has genuine intentions of stopping the present rot writes INNOCENT EGBUNIKE
EVENTS in Nigeria since May 29, 2015 have been bitter-sweet to me. The sweetness is the good tidings I get each time I call my 95 years old dad in Onitsha and my siblings in Nigeria, they confirm the good news I have been reading online about how things are changing for the better in Nigeria within a short period.
But am also bitter because President Buhari and the APC leaders seem not to have any plan for sports or they have wrong advisers.
Peradventure President Buhari is getting the wrong brief about the state of sports, my memo will not only give him the true picture, but also proffer solutions.
President Buhari must have been briefed that we just won the Africa Nations Cup in Basketball, but he should ask them what the state of basketball is at home or at the local league. Nigeria is probably the only nation in the world renown for football without a good football league. Tennis is completely dead, ditto boxing, volleyball and other sports. Table Tennis was a sports we used to dominate completely, now we play second fiddle to Egypt and Congo. I read that you congratulated our team for placing second in the All Africa Games, but the truth is, the All Africa Games today is merely a developmental programme for upcoming athletes.
ATHLETICS AS AN EXAMPLE
No other sports give me the opportunity to paint the sorry state of sports in Nigeria today than my sport, athletics, a sport that gave me global fame.
After watching the recently concluded Beijing 2015 IAAF World Championships in China, and the Brazzaville 2015 All African Games and reading up all the news articles, I made the decision to join the discussion and reflect on our past performances in comparison to where we are today.
Nigeria’s track and field records from the past speaks for itself, the Nigerian Record in the men’s 100m stands at 9:84, 19:84sec in the 200m and 44:17sec in the 400m, 48.50sec in the 400h, 8:27m in the Long Jump, 17:26m in the Triple Jump, 67:80m in the Discus Throw, 37.91sec in the 4 x 100m and 2:58:68 in the 4 x 400m.
On the women side our records are as follows: 100m 10:79sec, 22:07sec in the 200m and 49:10sec in the 400m, 12:44sec in the 100h, 54:40sec in 400h, 1:95m in the High Jump, 7:12m in Long Jump, 42:39sec in the 4 x 100m and 3:21:04 in the 4 x 400m.
Today, we don’t have male sprinters that can run under 10.00 sec in the 100m.
How did our athletes reach those splendid performances? The answer is found in the framework that was built in the seventies during the leadership of Isaac Akioye.
Now late, Akioye invested in sports national development programs, from Primary school, Secondary school to college level, with such examples as the Secondary School Sports, University Games (NUGA), National Sports Festival for junior and senior athletes , Armed Forces Games, and such national sports events, helped set standards in the development of track and field in Nigeria. I remember being at the same school sports with Sunday Uti, Yusuf Ali, Henry Amike, Daniel Ogidi, Rufina Uba and transitioning into the senior level with each of these individuals.
I remember that the first time I went to the National Sports Festival was 1979, Oluyole 79, I remember flunking the Xray exam for the junior team, but my state still took me to watch the competition and watching my team mate, Francis Ude, the great Samson Oyeledun inspired me to want to be on the national team.
To my recollection, everything was done right, there was a standard set for every event, for both junior and senior athletes. Akioye brought in administrators and coaches that were given responsibilities and held accountable for their duties. Athletes were also held accountable with the code of conduct. It was a privilege to make the national team, because every athlete worked very hard and faced tough competition to make it to the national team.
EDUCATION AND SPORTS
Athletes were encouraged to go to college in Nigeria and overseas, we had the JJ Kio (dollar man) Ahmed Adio, just to mention a few that attended college in Nigeria, and the national team athletes Mary Akirimi, Kayinde Vaughn, Obusiemie Ensienu, Ikpoto Eseme, Iziaq Adeyanju, Lawrence Adegbehingbe, Samson Oyeledun who teamed up with likes of Felix Emadeye (Beautiful legs) Joe Sia Sia, Dele Udo, Charlton Ehuzelun, Modupe Oshikoya, Tom Nnakwe, Joan Elumelu and Edward Ofili and Godwin Obasogie that attended college in USA. One thing that these athletes had in common was the that they were treated the same way and were expected to respect and abide by the code of conduct.
The foundation that was laid in the seventies was the bridge to the performances in the eighties and nineties. In the eighties, Nigeria won the Commonwealth 4 x 100 with the great quartet of Ikpoto Eseme, Iziaq Adeyanju, Lawrence Adegbehingbe, Samson Olajidie Oyeledun, won her first Olympic medal, dominated the World university Games, showed her supremacy at the African Games. During the eighties, Nigeria won World Championship Silver and Bronze medals. The eighties started the who is who in track and field, the eighties gave us such athletes as Chidi Imoh, Moses Egbusisen, Rotimi Peters, Joseph Taiwo, Sunday Uti, Airat Bakare, Henry Amike, Yussuf Ali, Paul Emodi, Augustine Olobia, Mary Onayli, George Igbede, Tina Ihegwam, Beatrice Utondu, Obinna Eregbu, Falilat Ogunkoya, Olapade Adeniken, Davidson Ezinwa, Hope Obikaeze and the list goes on.
TRACK AND FIELD IN THE 90’S
During the nineties, we started another trend of great athletes that trained in Nigeria, the likes of one of our best quater milers Sunday Bada, our Olympic gold medalist in the Long Jump Chioma Ajunwa, Bisi Afolabi, Charity Opara, Deji Aliu, Pat Itanyi, Uche Emedolu, Francis Obikwelu, and they teamed up with the likes of Fatima Yussuf Olukoju, Adewale Olukoju, Clement Chukwu,Osmond Ezinwa, Oluyemi Kayode, Olapade Adeniken, Chima Ugwu, Francis Obikwelu, Faith Idehen, Udeme Ekpeyong, Jude Monye, Christy Opara Thompson, Gloria Alozie, Tina Ihegwam, Batrice Utondu, Obinna Eregbu, , Falilat Ogunkoya, Olapade Adeniken, Davidson Ezinwa, Hope Obikaeze, and Chidi Imoh.
Some of these athletes contributed to the success stories of Nigeria’s track and field that won 1 gold 2 silver and 3 bronze medals at the Olympic Games, 2 silver and 2 bronze at World Championships; the nineties gave us the most medals
In the 2000s, the nation saw Enefiok Udo-Obong, Nduka Awazie Olusoji Fasuba, Aaron Egbele, James Godday, Saul Weigopwa, Franca Idoko, Gloria Kemasuode, Halimat Ismaila, Oludamola Osayomi, Agnes Osazuwa, Blessing Okagbare rise to prominence and team up with some of the athletes from the nineties to win Nigeria 1 Gold and 2 Bronze at 2000 and 2008 Olympic Games.
Okagbare was introduced to the world in 2008 and she won Nigeria a bronze medal in the 2008 Olympic Games. Since then, Okagbare has done Nigeria proud by being the first Nigerian athlete to win a medal at the World Championships since 1999, and has been our only hope at every international competition, the only flag bearer for a nation of over 180 million people.
ATHLETICS FROM 2008
Now, the question is what happened to our sport since 2008? Why are we going backwards when the rest of the world is advancing including some of the countries we liberated like South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe just to mention a few, where did we go wrong, why do we have to rely on one athlete when we had had between 3 to 4 athletes running under 11:10 in the women 100m, between 4-5 men running under 10:05sec in the men’s 100m, we had 4 women that ran between 49sec and 50 sec in the 400m, 3 to 4 male athletes that ran under 45.1 at any given time. Things in Nigeria’s track and field have become so bad to the point that we only go to world competitions to register our presence . We had been medal contenders in the past and these days we celebrate making finals, we could spin things to make us look good but the facts are there, our best athlete is ranked top 4 in the world, which is the highest ranking for any of our athletes and the rest of our athletes in the events we dominated are not ranked within top 70 in the world and this is sad and unacceptable.
BRAZZAVILLE 2015 SECOND PLACING
As I read the articles from the African Games and reflect on our performance at the World Championships, we did well at the All African Games, but in comparing our performances to medal contenders, we are a junior team in comparison to the rest of the world. Congratulations to our athletes at the African Games, the question now is who replaces Okagbare when she retires? She has done well and it is unfair to see her carry the burden of a country on her shoulders, like she did at the World Championships,
I was saddened to see how far behind we are in comparison to the rest of the world. Some of the athletes that represented the other countries are a new breed of athletes, they rose to prominence within the past 4 years, some were juniors from 2012, and have become senior athletes and in some cases World Championship medalist in this just concluded World Championships. Most countries, at the just concluded African Games, sent their 3rd tier (junior athletes) while we sent our best athletes, we literality competed in what has become more of a development competition for the rest of Africa and big championship for Nigeria. We called ourselves the “Giant of Africa” and my question is how can we now stand to be the peanut of Africa and celebrate mediocre performance in Africa, when the rest of the World is celebrating victories in world competitions
I struggle with what is going on because of the chemistry of what is going on in our sport, while the rest of the world is investing in developmental programs we have invested in recycling our athletes from 12 years back, and are reduced to buying foreign athletes giving them Nigeria passport, is this what a country that calls itself the “Giant of Africa” should be doing? Our history shows that as a people have produced some of the best in the world in the past, in the past most countries were afraid of us, but today, we have become a laughing stock all because we decided to abandon our developmental program by going for quick fix programs. As a people, one of the things that holds us together is our love for sports.
We are over one hundred and eighty million strong with great intellectuals, hard working people with great minds and I believe that we should take pride in building our youth programs in all aspects of life and most of all, in sports. I grew up with the slogan “the young shall grow”. The young is surely grown but with no directions, everyone wants quick fix. We will need to overhaul the way we to look at our models from the seventies, eighties and learn from such countries as the USA, Jamaica, Bahamas so we can compete with the best in the world in this 21st century. We cannot afford to continue to regress and see everyone around us progressing.
WAY FORWARD
We need to plan ahead, a failure to plan is a plan to fail, and to avoid this downhill spiral, we need to stop all the bickering and bring in sports administrators with a vision, individuals with goals, willing to advance sports in Nigeria from day one when they take office, we need a Sports Minister that will set the standard, set up a code of conduct for the administrators and make sure they abide by every rule. We need a Sports Minister that is willing to lead, one that will have the trust of the masses from day one in office, someone that can be trusted and will be willing to work with anyone regardless of any personal differences. We need individuals that will respect the office of the position they are in, we do not need Sports Minsters or administrators that are there to impress the athletes, we need administrators that will hold the athletes accountable. We are one Nigeria and no one individual is bigger than our nation. We need to contract our administrators with performance standard like we do with the athletes. It is about time we hold the administrators accountable the same way the administrators hold the athletes accountable. I will suggest that we go back to the nitty gritty and roll our sleeves and get busy in developing grass root programs, hire coaches with resume, coaches that have been tested, have good character and are willing to be good role models to our sport. To move forward, we need to have a Sports Minister that will be the President Buhari of Sports, who will overhaul the sector, and bring the change that started in the power sector to the sports sector.
PULL QUOTE: We call ourselves the “Giant of Africa” and my question is how can we now stand to be the peanut of Africa and celebrate mediocre performance in Africa, when the rest of the World is celebrating victories in global competitions
Egbunike, an Olympic and World Championship medalist lives in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
