Nigerian Sports: The Imperatives of The Urgent Rescue Of A Long Suffering Brand For Mr. President

 

 

 

 

 

This comes at the instance of my Publisher, Mr Nnanke Harry-Willie, a most energetic, cerebral and very motivated young man. Ordinarily I do not engage in the dishing out of unsolicited advice to government especially in public because quite often it’s a hollow ritual. Also, even when opinions are invited by government they are hardly implemented and become an exercise in futility. And to be honest Nigeria’s sports is not where it is today because of a shortage of literature and advice on the way forward. It is because successive governments lacked the sovereign will to do as advised by several bodies, Commissions of  Enquiry, Ministerial Committes etc etc who have worked and turned out well-intentioned and considered views, positions and advice.

Name it, there have been the S.O. Williams Committee (1982), The Babayo Shehu NFA Re-Structure Committee (2004), The Adokiye Amiesimaka Ministerial Committee, The Brigadier-General Oneya Committee reports and many others  I have no intention of burdening this piece with. It is enough to say that there are enough advice and recommendations to make sports a great and sustainable industry that can create at least two million jobs at different levels and constantly engage a majority of the populace today have been put forward and quickly archived to gather choking dust.

Sports in Nigeria is not a miasma. It is an industry awaiting exponential exploitation. It is a powerful, immense and unmatchable tool for social mobilization, the very sentiment and grain for the establishment of the National Sports Festival now lacerated by many undesirable negatives. Sports can create hope where despair and pain exist. Sports can create economic emancipation, empowerment and growth if well organized.

Sports will come good and serve its real purpose in society and become very rewarding to all if the right leadership is enthroned, empowered and allowed a decent and appreciable time on the job as the watchman and navigator of the business to profitable grounds. Fifteen Sports Ministers in thirteen years is damaging to sports. A leadership that learns on the job is not what sports needs.

Therefore the ideal of appointing a Sports Minister from the lower end of ministerial appointees does the brand no good. It, in fact, totally undermines and mortifies the activities and keeps it permanently in a state of inertia. Managing and superintending Nigeria’s sport is beyond the ken of the School Physical Education (P.E) teacher, a former Local Government Chairman or retired Councillor  for many reasons including the increasing need for self-funding, planned development and growth, professionalism and high quality administration and the production of elite sports men to match global standards and to make sports profitable to all stakeholders  are major tasks requiring  know-how.

It becomes imperative that the leadership of the brand must be a Captain knowledgeable in the administration, development  and growth of the brand. The captain must have vision, passion, capacity to take sports as a brand to the market place to invite industry captains and decision makers to buy into the business. The time has come when sports must stop going cap-in-hand to the private sector for over- advertised late night presence in sports broadcasts and events in exchange for tokenistic support.

Our prayers in Sports therefore include but not exhaustive of the under listed and several as are captured from the S.O Williams Report of 1982 and my thoughts:

1. The National Sports Commission has to have a law properly setting it up, giving it muscle to function in its time position as the numero uno custodian of Nigeria’s Sports. A proper and all-encompassing legislation is canvassed.
2. The new Legislation must provide for a Board headed by a Chairman (Not Executive), the Chairman being of Ministerial rank so he/she is able to attend FEC meetings to channel the challenges and needs of the commission and sports brand directly to the body at all times. The Board must have representation from all the major geo-political zones or in the alternative representation should come from the “old” NSC zones.
3. To re-create a National Policy for Sports to promote awareness for the general fitness of every Nigerian; to provide requisite fora for free and fair competitions for all Nigerians with a view to forging bonds of friendship and understanding; provide opportunities for persons with talents to excel in chosen sports as a means of self-fulfillment and the promotion of the national image and without prejudice to ethnic, religious or political affiliations or boundaries; and to provide national, continental and global opportunities for Nigeria to measure its strength against all other countries.
4. Re- vamp the National Sports Festival and commit it to the original ideological take-off point of its founding fathers with changes mutatis mutandis.
5. Special measures should be taken to re-invent schools sports. The current situation is undesirable, creating no real benefits beyond the comfort of the people in charge. Schools sports was until its barstadization the talent pool and conveyor belt for all the major sports in Nigeria. Better programming, direction and adequate funding from government (NSC and Federal Ministry Of Education) would produce great results.
6. The National Institute Of Sports is moribund. It requires urgent visitation and surgery to bring it back to life and up to speed with Nigeria’s needs and global equivalents like the Australian Institute of Sports which drives that country’s sports and its numerous honors collection at the Olympics and world Sports. Beyond the desolate, isolated structure at the National Stadium complex, the N.I.S has to begin to function.

Sports administration and governance is not for the jejune, the otiose or the neophyte. It is also not the tuff for self aggrandizement or gratification, nor for anyone seeking social and political relevance. It is for the librated, the visionary, the informed, the pro-active, and the self- assured equipped with the right competences and an abiding passion for sports as well as unqualified desire to make a difference and add value to sports.

Brand Sports is in dire need of a pragmatic Captain, a very good mariner who knows the port he is headed. One who can play in the deep waters of international sports intrigues where huge decisions are made. Nigeria has almost zero representation in continental and global bodies because of self-styled and mendacious czars of Nigerian Sports who fielded their cronies and lackies all of very limited capabilities and have now been crowded into oblivion together with their masters.

Mr. President, please do not play Pontius Pilate with Sports. Give Nigerians and its Sport a good Minister, a good Captain. Thank you.