It is no longer
news that athletics in Nigeria has gone downhill but one person that
cannot hide his anger at the present state of the sport he loves is the
former national champion and long jumper, Yusuf Alli.
He is even angrier
at the present board of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) which
he feels should have the interest of the sport at hand and should do
all within its power to develop the sport but has failed to do so.
Forget the Games
In an interview
with NEXTSports, Alli, who won a gold medal at the Commonwealth Games
in Auckland, New Zealand in 1990, says he doesn’t see Nigerian athletes
performing the same feat in this year’s edition of the event taking
place in India in October:
“I remember that
last year, February to be precise, I met with Sani Ndanusa (immediate
past Sports Minister and Chairman of the National Sports Commission and
Ekeji at the Chinese Restaurant here in the National Stadium and I said
Commonwealth Games is next year, let’s have a programme; the proposal
is still on the table, nothing came out of it. When it is two days to
the Games then we start preparing.
“I bet you we
cannot win anything; we don’t learn from our mistakes. The only person
I think will do well is Blessing Okagbare because of her own personal
talent and training but in terms of our own preparation, I don’t see us
doing well. Commonwealth Games is not something that you will just go
and do anyhow; you will only reap what you sow.”
Winning Commonwealth gold
He says the needed
preparation is lacking and gives his personal experience on how he was
able to win a gold medal in New Zealand:
“I remember my
preparation for the 1990 Commonwealth Games when I was living in
Missouri, Colombia, a very cold area in the United States. I left and
came to Bauchi in Nigeria to train and I won the competition. It’s all
about training; Ijebu-Ode is scanty, there is no organised programme,
you don’t know who the coach is so how do you want to win the
Commonwealth Games? Look at Britain; do you think they are sleeping?
“They are already
planning towards London 2012 and it is some of them they will still use
for the Commonwealth and they will win it. You might have all the
talent but sometimes these things go beyond talent. The authorities may
say because I’m not part of them that is why I am talking; Track and
Field is my life; this is my house and you cannot burn it down and I’ll
be happy. They should sit up and prepare for the Olympics and forget
about the Commonwealth Games.”
Killing the Grand Prix
“When you look at
the present state of athletics in Nigeria, it is very sad; it took this
country over 20 years to get to where we got to. I know how the late
A.K Amu fought to have a Grand Prix event in Nigeria. Nigeria has lost
that Permit Meet and it is very sad because it might take us more than
10 years to restore our glory. If you’re talking about Nigeria now,
people don’t want to hear it because you can’t bring athletes from
their countries and not pay them.
“That is the result
you get when you take our sport and put it in people’s hands because
they are personal friends. The people that are there should know that
you don’t toy with other people’s lives. We are the same people that
complain that everything in Nigeria is football but athletics has been
killed so people now will go and play football.”
Minister of Super Eagles
Alli, who still
holds the national record in long jump with 8.27 metres which he set
about 21 years ago said, the sport didn’t fare any better under the
tenure of Sani Ndanusa, former Minister of Sport who was dropped last
week by the Acting President, Goodluck Jonathan in a cabinet reshuffle:
“Did we have a
minister of sports before? We didn’t. He was not even minister of
football; he was minister of Super Eagles. Ndanusa came to this sport
and I thought he was going to do well but he did nothing; all Ndanusa
and Director General of the National Sports Commission, Patrick Ekeji
did was to disorganise our sports. I don’t see one thing they did. It
was during his era we had the Nigeria Olympic Commission (NOC).
“Ndanusa used to stay in the corridor of the NSC looking for money
for his federation when he was President of the Nigeria Tennis
Federation and I thought that when he came in, the first thing he would
do would be would give federations their subvention; I remember that
Ekeji said if they removed Ndanusa, he will resign. He should resign
now and let us see.”
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