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Nigerians are
currently delirious with the performance of the Falconets at the just
concluded FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Germany. While there is
nothing wrong with being happy for the moment, Nigerians wonder whether
this ‘victory’ will be repeated any time soon in other cadres of our
football.

The answer to that
question is no, according to Paul Bankole, a United States of America
graded coach, who is a part of the Brazilian School of Football
Excellence.

“Nothing is wrong
with Nigerians celebrating the triumph of any of our national teams but
we will just be happy for some time, very soon we will be saddened by a
woeful performance and then we will start comparing it with our success
but this should not be the case.

“If there is a
concerted programme on the ground then we will know that this kind of
victory will be sustainable as the pool of players will be very wide to
choose from and the next set of Falconets will have been waiting in the
wings.

I am sorry to burst
anybody’s bubble but we may not have this victory repeated for another
20 years – this is what you will call a miracle – we did not plan for
this, it just happened,” Bankole said.

He believes this should not be the case if there is proper development from the grassroots up.

“Where are our development centres? Look around Lagos; can you point to one academy of note?

“There is none, and
that is the genesis of the problem. If the country wants to develop
this game, then we must have these centres all around the country and
not only for football. That is why I say that we are just promoting the
game and not developing it.”

Jeremiah Okorodudu, a boxer and Olympian says a win-at-all-cost mentality is the bane of sports development in Nigeria.

“If we have to get
back to the point where new talents will emerge, then we will have to
go through lean periods – when we will not win anything. When we were
growing up as boxers, we had training time, we had a growing up period
before we were called into the national team and my set almost won the
medals for Nigeria. We could not continue because we wanted to make
money quickly, so we did not finish our boxing education. Most of us
never did make it professionally. If we had waited, maybe our stories
will have been different,” he said.

Sports as tool for empowerment

Indeed, the rush to
make quick money by sportsmen has hampered the development of sports in
the sense that athletes don’t want to go through the normal processes
that lead to success.

Bankole says the trend must be reversed and that the right atmosphere has to be created for this to happen:

“If we will
continue to have peace in the land and abroad, then our youth must be
engaged in true sports development. If we look around us, there is so
much potential but we are not getting it right. We need to meet these
young ones at the point of their need and passion. Their need is
education and their passion is sports, especially football. They need
to be educated and their instructors need to be well educated. What we
have now is most of the educators and instructors especially in sports
are illiterates literally. It is what you have that you can give.”

Development of
sports and the athletes has been described as one of the ways that a
country can meet its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This much is
revealed by Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General:

“Sport is
increasingly recognised as an important tool in helping the United
Nations achieve its objectives, in particular the Millennium
Development Goals. By including sport in development and peace
programmes in a more systematic way, the United nations can make full
use of this cost-efficient tool to help us create a better world.”

Falilat
Ogunkoya-Omotayo, one of Nigeria’s most accomplished track and field
athletes agrees that grassroots sports development is key to
transformation of sports in the country.

Ogunkoya-Omotayo, who won a bronze medal in 400 metres and silver in the 4×400 metres at the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, said:

“I have started a
drive that will help cull grassroots talent in Oyo State. That is the
only way to go if we are to make sure that we do not become extinct in
the coming years.

“We have not made
the discovery of athletes the priority. The draw back now is that the
American Universities that were being used as our athletics academy in
my days are not offering as much scholarships as they used to and there
we have the problem.” She added that the National Sports Commission
(NSC) has an important role to play in getting these upcoming talents
identified.

“No organisation
can have the kind of national reach that the government has. The point
when we have credible harnessing points around the country is the time
when the government can have a laid back attitude towards youth
development. But as of now, they have a prominent part to play and they
must not shirk this responsibility,” she said.

For Bankole, government’s intervention will involve going back to the basics.

“Look at the Games
Masters in the primary and secondary [schools]; the fact is that they
are not well equipped for the task they have been handed. The bad part
is they are the first points of contact with these young ones and once
they get it wrong then there is no foundation,” he said.

Former stars as model

It has been said
that a key part of the development of sports in the country will have
to involve former stars getting into administrative positions in their
various disciplines. Presently former Nigerian sportsmen like Sunday
Bada, Ikana Mbora and Toyin Aluko are playing key roles in some sports
federations.

In football, four
of Nigeria’s former football stars – Christian Chukwu, Segun Odegbami,
Mutiu Adepoju and Austin Okocha – are vying for positions on the board
of the Nigeria Football Federation.

Bankole said that
while their aspirations are legitimate, more good will come out of the
Okochas of this world, working with the next generation of footballers
so that we can have replacements for his like.

“Okocha is so
highly rated across the world that the question we are asked when we go
abroad especially in Brazil and America is – ‘What is Okocha doing
now?’. Yes, it is good to want to administer the game but more fruits
await him if he will mentor the next generation. What will happen if we
can have an Okocha clone every ten years?

That is what Jay-Jay should be doing – running clinics and academies for the next generation of football stars,” Bankole said.

“If we really want
to develop the game into a multi-million dollar industry that it should
be – then players like Okocha must mentor part of the next generation.

The young ones
should be educated and the educated ones we have now, who have no jobs
must be recruited to be the agents, managers, referees for that next
phase of our development. Education in sports is the solution. What we
have now is that those that are supposed to influence are followers.

“We need to change that mind set and make sure that those handling
our sports are mentally and technically equipped for the task at hand –
that is the only way that we will start to get out of the rut that we
find ourselves. Let us not wait until countries like Libya, Iran,
Qatar, Benin Republic begin to beat our national teams before we know
that we have to develop our system of recognising, harnessing and
developing the numerous talents that we have in our midst.”