The footnote on channels Television News flash on the 14th of August 2012 announced that President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered a total reorganization of the sports sector in Nigeria. It still seems as if it was just yesterday.
Thereafter, the topic became a major news item. There have been follow –up radio and television discussions on the instruction which was occasioned by the abysmal or is it dismal performance of Team Nigeria:- the Nigerian contingent to the just concluded 2012 London Olympic Games.
The team has since sneaked back into Nigeria without a single medal of any description which is what the Olympic was meant for. Perhaps our people went to London to see the Queen and who ever knows if they ever saw the queen since they were failure ridden.
Unarguably, the decay in the sports sector manifested very long ago and the reorganization should have long started especially when nobody can justify the country’s woeful performances in the world cup soccer competition and thereafter could no longer qualify anymore, for the finals of that prestigious competition and her FIFA ranking was way outside the first (50) fifty football nations of the world. Soon after, all the countries football clubs and teams involved in international competitions were all kicked out at the semi-final stages. It could have started the very moment we observed that Nigerian athletes were dumping Nigeria and were participating and winning laurels for other countries whose colours they are very proud to adorn.
Yes the sports sector is to fully, to which I emphatically add, unrestrictingly reorganized. One major Newspaper even had a bold headline “Heads to roll in the sports ministry referring perhaps to only the federal.
Now I see an ad-hoc approach to a very serious and vexatious issue. By the way, whose head(s) would roll in the sports ministry as if the problem with sports in Nigeria begin and perhaps lie only in the sports ministry? Do America, Spain, England, China and back home South Africa excel because of the inputs of their sports ministries”?
To be candid, reorganizing completely, all be it, the sports sector alone, would mean an emotional and partial approach to our national malaise that should not be treated in piece-meal.
The whole entity called Nigeria needs overhaul to get things working orderly once again.
To make the dismal outing in 2012 more embarrassing and worrisome, an analyst presented a picture of previous outings and standings Nigeria has suddenly moved from the 24th position to the 32nd, then to the 64th and presently to no position at all.
In the first instance, all those lamenting the non – wining of any Olympic medal must first put the records straight.
Nigeria prepared for the Olympics (Notice the omission of games). We achieved that 100% Nigerians was there in London, her flag was flown, her men and women (Notice again the omission of sports) took part in the march past during the opening ceremonies parade, but in reality, the event was not for showing presence but for active performance with a view to winning laurels for one’s country whose image is a stake.
We only hoped for medals but never seriously prepared for same. Meanwhile to hope for medals without adequate preparation and in the end expect to achieve it is to say the least unfortunate Medals are given only to those who won them not just taking part. Athletics is not like football where the most valuable player in a game can come from a defeated team. Those who won Medals are the ones who deserve them and they actually work for them. It never comes by chance or by magic.
Of course only Nigeria wins gold medal by chance. After all, we have just been declared gold medalist in a previous 100metre dash race by chance after many years which the event took place. Now will all records held in other countries and places be amended to reflect Nigeria?
This question reminds one of a story about a messenger who was to be paid to destroy the original files of an officer who was compulsorily retired for offences and without benefits but who sought to seize the opportunity of a new regime to see if he could get some benefits paid him if records of his indictment are destroyed. The messenger declined and warned that for every document in file, there exists “A COPY TO” somewhere beyond that office which cannot be destroyed.
Nigeria may have been awarded or declared gold medalist of that event but all copies to regarding the earlier positions may never be subsequently amended.
The patriots piqued by our performance ought to know that recognition and appreciation just like competing and winning are two things which cannot be claimed just like that. They are worked for, agonized over, strained after and in the end deserved.
Should we be crying for our failures when we made no conscious efforts to succeed and possibly excel? Sincerity is a positive indicator for determination to succeed. Is Nigeria sincere with sports development not to talk of management? Can anyone before now, point at any meaningful indicator to succeed in sports generally in Nigeria.
Power flows from the centre to the states so whenever the centre is weak, the states stand and watch. It is the centre that killed the National Sports Commission which was there in the days of Jimmy Omagbemi, Chidi Imo, the Egbunikes and the Ezinwa brothers. How useful is the numerous sports associations in the states sports commissions? The only thing that happens in sports here is that whichever state that hosts the charade called National Sports Festival, must win the overall even if it came a distant 10th in the previous one.
Do you observe that no one graduates from the National Sports Festivals even though the event was to catch them young and train thereafter?
Why don’t the gold medalist feature in the following years’ event at least as defending champions. What else can be expected in the absence of continuity than stoppage?
It is not enough to organize or hold sports meet and recruit people for the Olympics.
With what speed timings do our medal winners at home emerge in comparison to existing records and performances of other countries. What are our chances of ever beating other people’s records with our caliber of champions?
In any case we have never hoped on our local materials because there will always be professionals who base abroad but always rush home and displace the locals.
Usen Bolt came to the Olympics with a Jamaican record of 9.8 secs in the 100metres race and ridiculously we will be confronting him with someone whose all time best speed is 11.8secs.
Unless we are praying for Usen Bolts to be injured last minute in the field and that is itself will be a bad prayer, we really do not present a picture of seriousness.
The use of the so called professionals has still not taught Nigeria any lesson. In the last world cup in South Africa, Nigeria was the only country who played all foreign based footballers with none from our local league. The question is what is there for the home boys to aspire to?
Our basket ball will now go to bed because all the members of our D-Tigers team are foreign based and have disbanded and gone back to their bases. They were mainly based in the USA and when the come came to become our boys could not stand the same Americans with whom they play. They produced a ridiculous Olympic world defeat record in basketball.
By the way, how many people took serious note of the fact that the Nigerian in the 78kg weight lifting category was in the 8th position and with this record, he was setting both a new African and commonwealth record. That should tell anyone who cares, how far away we are from the rest of the sporting world. I still lament that we have killed schools sports and today no school boasts of any practice pitch of whatever game.
Lawn tennis boards have disappeared, Table tennis boards have become fairy tales to modern day students. Let’s not deceive ourselves, for whatever a man sows, that he reaps. It is only in this country that school children present between N50 and N100 central bank of Nigeria currency notes as handiworks and teachers collect and award marks. Then when it is time for the charade called inter house sports competition, the pupils sew uniforms, dance Awilo or calisthenics and turn round to be awarded prizes.
Our dear President Goodluck Jonathan, the leader of the world’s most populous black nation must have been worried that all those who bit Nigerians silly in the track and field’s events are Jamaicans, all black raced and their black American neighbours. Initially he must have told himself that if they can, we too could.
However, it must have dawned on all that it is neither in complexion nor in zeal, but in hard training and practice which a nursery rhyme told us makes perfect.
The fact that Nigerians featured for other countries and even won laurels or at least made impacts should show that it has so much to do with the environment and management, hence the need for complete reorganization. But to single out the sports ministry alone for reorganization, hence for heads to roll will amount to a partial scratching on the surface of the malady called MANAGEMENT IN NIGERIA whether sports, security or polities because they are all ridden with institutionalized corruptions.
Before now the safest place to find security for either a Christian or Muslim is either the church or the mosque. Today they are highly endangered places. Today no occupant of a police barrack goes to bed and sleeps with both eyes as no one is sure of the next moment it really calls for concern.
In 1980, my ten year old sister In-law, a student of Federal Government Girls Secondary School Bauchi used to spend her mid -term breaks and even part of her holidays with an indigenous family in Bauchi in other to avoid constant long distant travels. That was a Muslim family and my little girl is a Christian. They all respected each other’s right to free worship and life was very good.
Earlier in 1974 I sent 3 Children of between the ages of 9and 13 to Zonkwa in Kaduna state by rail. I only spoke to a train ticket collector or is it conductor and went home to sleep. It was perfectly executed.
Today that would mean a donation to either ritual murderers or human traffickers.
We need to transform the entity called Nigeria for a more meaningful co-existence and then achievements, not just the sports sector in isolation.
Otherwise by the time the sports ministry is fully reorganized and every Nigerian still carries our present mindset, can we without doubts or fear send young athletes from Imo, Enugu or Ondo to compete with their mates in either Damaturu or Gombe and expect that we have taken no risks? The future will tell.
At this juncture it is important to take a look at the just concluded London Paralympics 2012. Gold medals and silver were raked in by supposedly disabled person who we politely refer to as physically challenged. What is their secret? The Paralympics always follow the main Olympics and the outcome has always been what we have seen. What the able bodied was unable to do, the disabled are doing with much success.
One thing in certain, those people do not seem to be much politicized and distracted like the rest of us.
One message is clear and that is that, if we play our politics well as should, and avoid the distractions of N5000 note, Boko Haram, self determination and fuel or is it oil subsidy, we shall do very well. Please let us wholistically look at Corporate Nigeria not just sports sector in isolation. God bless Nigeria.
