There’s always hope to combat any challenge, but can anyone bring life to a (natural) stone or a brick? The word change that has become a household name in Nigeria is grossly misunderstood by the country’s patriots because many of them think as long as any new face is in town the job is done. Unfortunately, change requires perception as well as individuals’ actions or practices in the same direction as the goal of that change. In sports; the fans, athletes and many stakeholders demanded ‘change’ ever since the 1999 (old) political dispensation became a reality. The country continues the downward spiral and of course, the country’s priority and peculiarity at the present time demands a little patience for the change train to arrive at the sports sector.
Recent Events That Requires Immediate Change
The fear that accompanied changes in the country’s highly prioritised industries like the oil sector has yet to descend on the sports sector because it is business as usual where the country continue to rely on small pockets of athletes like Blessing Okagbare, Gloria Asumnu and Vincent Enyeama. There are endless of the so-called officials or administrators that travel along with these few individuals and they are on federal government payroll and extacode scheme for doing practically nothing. More importantly short-changing the athletes are even more unthinkable, but it is happening and it is sad. Here is a statement by an athlete (a top male contender for AAG in Congo) a few days ago,
“Daddy…..me don de vex oh!!! Abi u never hear say Ogba still haven’t(sic) pay us since? E say nah NSC won host dis year golden league (in Akure)…..now e say NSC no gv am kobo to host any of the three legs;; till now NSC never still come out to defend dem self….we no no who con de lie….if u go fit help us reach DG (Yakmut) mk u help us abeg….na golden league den take de defraud us now O…”
At this stage, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) under Solomon Ogba has alienated the female top medal contenders with foolish remarks against the nation’s team to the World Championship recently held in China in its defense against incompetency allegation and outburst by some media outlets degrading the country’s poster girl. In the end several female stars are set to boycott AAG in Congo and the male team are already in the driver’s seat to boycott the AAG based on the statement quoted above and Tosin Oke’s (African Triple Jump leader) recent media interview. Among these athletes, the country is set to lose at least 12medals in athletics which is a sport that Nigeria relied heavily on in the past AAG edition and as rightly stated by President Buhari, the country needs to emphasize sports with the most medals at stake like swimming.
However, swimming has been regarded as ‘brief mention’ by NSC despite all the efforts by those private hands dealing with the sports as a day to day endeavor. In fact, National Stadium Surulere, Lagos was for sometime, a homeless shelter for some physically challenged athletes where one of them died there and till this day that facility remains an eyesore. The question is, does Nigeria have any chance of an average showing in swimming at the AAG where Egypt has dominated in the past? This writer thinks not.
Basketball is a sport where private individuals legally fought (and still fighting) the NSC for intrusions and imposition of leaders during the time of Bolaji Abdullahi,who himself was imposed on sports by the past administration of Mr. Goodluck Jonathan as Sports Minister. The nation’s sports tanked under Bolaji Abdullahi’s watch, whether or not the evaluation was done by the Olympics Games accolades or World cup of any sport, the result was very discouraging. In fact, as Solomon Ogba was destroying athletics, Mr. Abdullahi became his praise singer and bosom buddy. Alhadji Maigari led football federation joined forces with Mr. Abdullahi to create the League Management Company (LMC) while in office. There are rules against conflict of interests by any government functionary or Minister, but the question, was the former Minister aware and if not, was he competent at the time to be a Minister not to understand the law that guides his actions?
Sports Development
Moving on to solution for the current state of affairs the country finds itself and to begin, this writer would like to ask, one question. What are the functions of the Federal Ministry of Youth Development? At one time, Mr. Abdullahi headed such Ministry and the next question is, how can the country develop the youths without sports as part of the regime? No, NSC cannot do this alone. What happened to all the funding for that Ministry then and now? Virtually no youth sport endeavor was funded by such Ministry and it’s a very challenging and serious issue that the NSC could have raised with the President rather than parading friends of the past administration as sports leaders just few days ago.
Sports development must begin with the youths and the Ministry of Youth must be on Board before any discussion can commence. This writer supplied other sports focus agenda in the past and such views are appended here. Enjoy the readings. Better days are expected as the financial vandals grip on sports administration will be things of the past.
I rest for now.
Dr. Rashid A. Balogun, CPA, LLB(Hons.), LLM(London)
