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The game of tennis has come a long way in Nigeria since independence. Its growth at the early stage was the result of a deliberate policy to introduce it in many secondary schools around the country in the 50s and 60s. This policy helped produce many acclaimed players, who won laurels on the African stage and players from Nigeria stood atop the tennis pinnacle in Africa.

There were several hubs for tennis development in Nigeria at the time: Benin, Ibadan, Minna, Enugu, Kaduna and the former Gongola State (now Adamawa) – they produced outstanding junior tennis players in the 1970s.

Nigeria also became a member of the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and the Olympic movement as Nigerian players became regular faces in major tournaments around the world. The credit goes to the early pioneers, who invested their time and resources to further the growth of tennis in the country. People like Ibrahim Sangari, Lord Rumens, and Raheem Adejumo are three of those whose contribution should be acclaimed.

Some of the great tennis players the country had in the last 50 years include the late Lawrence Awopegba, a former national coach; and Thompson Onibokun, who is currently the chairman, technical committee of the Governor’s Cup – organised by the Lagos Tennis Championship – since its inception in 2000. Others are Edward Agori, a former assistant national coach; Bala Habu;

Ola Olagbegi; and Adewale Isa. They were regarded as the first successful set of Nigerian tennis players.

Among the top women players then were Vero Oyibokia, Ann Abimiku, Nosa Imafidon, Cecelia Nnadozie, Ngozi Morah, Aishatu Adamu and Peju Akomolafe.

Nigeria has had six different generations of men and women tennis players from the 50s till the present time.

The afore-mentioned players were the best in Africa but could not compete with the rest of the world in the 50s and 60s tennis scene as it was not an open sport for people of colour. Probably the late Edward Agori may have won one of the grand slams as he was considered the best person ever to hit a consistent backhand, which was a veritable weapon then, in his years.

Bloom in the 70s and 80s

At a point in the 70s, Nigeria rose to the pinnacle of African tennis – but it has now fallen to a low where no Nigerian player is ranked in the top 500 players for both the men and the women.

Mohammed Ubale, a former national player believes Nigeria, who says the game has lost its essence and stopped producing real quality players, remembers the era.

“I remember that there were lots of Europeans playing the game then and they used to help us out with the basics and even with equipment. I remember my first tennis shoes and tennis racquet; they were given to me by a Frenchman in 1973, when I was nine years old,” Ubale said.

“That gift really spurred me on and the thought of beating my benefactor became the over-riding goal for me by which my game improved tremendously to the point where I became my benefactor’s coach. I trained every possible moment. But today that is not the case – what we have now are people playing the game, who do not want to be taught the fundamentals – there is no way that that kind of player will ever become the best.”

Nigeria tennis witnessed tremendous growth during the ‘oil boom’ because there were many tournaments organised in the country by companies and individuals.

In addition to this, a lot of Nigerian players were offered scholarships in universities abroad and were therefore able to play in international competitions.

This generation of tennis players included Nduka Odizor, Tony Mmoh, Bulus Husseini, Sadiq Abdullahi, David Imonite, Romanus Nwazu, Godwin Kienka, Steve Olagbegi, Rotimi Akinloye, Segun Balogun, Chris Mamman, and Bitrus Istifanus.

A number of these players competed in grand slam events like the US Open, Wimbledon, Australian Open and French Open. Nduka Odizor, known as the Duke famously got to the fourth round at Wimbledon in 1983. He also rose to as high as number 40 in the world.

The current generation has not been able to produce very good players, not because there are not enough tournaments but the tournaments are not strong enough to attract international competitors especially from Europe compared to past years.

Former Dutch number one, Paul Harrhuis as well as former world number one, Thomas Muster of Austria and others at one time played in Nigerian competitions like the Ogbe Hard Court Championships, and the Lord Rumens Tennis Classic.

Challenges to tennis growth

“The major problem facing Nigerian tennis continues to the problem of effective leadership and good governance,” said Abdullahi.

The Nigeria Tennis Federation board in 2008 approved aggressive marketing and sponsorship drive, establishment of functional committees, accelerated youth development program, special attention to women programme, training of coaches and umpires, adequate planning for Davis Cup, encouraging more futures and national competitions, and encouraging the sponsors of the board programmes.

But since then, the foundation has become dormant and incapacitated because of political wrangling that have shifted the focus and revealed the true intention of tennis federation leadership. As a result, the leadership failed to follow the clearly defined vision and goals for tennis development in the country.

“Sani Ndanusa, like Raheem Adejumo, and Chuka Momah, are responsible for the demise of tennis in Nigeria. But Ndanusa had the machinery of government and the PDP heavyweights and the support of Patrick Ekeji, the director-general of the National Sports Commission behind him. He had the opportunity to transform the game but looked the other way to tennis and other sports,” Abdullahi said about the state of the game.

Looking Ahead

On the women side, Nigeria has not produced a good female player to represent the nation in any of the A-grade competitions. Nosa Imafidon and Vero Oyibokia could have been the answer for the woman’s game but the tennis federation failed to help them achieve their dreams and the country’s goals.

For things to improve, former tennis player, Murtala Habu, who is based in the USA, said the bureaucracy that has almost run the game aground must be dismantled.

“Every tennis player that grew up and played tennis in Nigeria would testify that the Nigerian Tennis Federation is even more bureaucratic than the Nigeria government. But here is the difference. We know who is responsible for the bureaucracy and that is the challenge facing tennis development in the country,” Habu said back in 2003.

“Nigeria once known as giant of Africa in sports particularly tennis is now sleeping giant. Poor execution of tennis programs is causing the country tremendously; those responsible for the growths of tennis are not doing enough to continue building what was left.”

Nduka Odizor said cooperation between all parties will only bode well for the growth of the game.

“To transform tennis will require collective efforts within and without. The Nigerian Tennis Foundation, USA has pledged to work closely with the tennis federation with its grassroots efforts. But because of lack of trust and misunderstanding, the vision and advice as expressed by Sadiq Abdullahi to Ndanusa was not heeded or followed through,” he said.

Presently, there is no Nigerian ranked player on the men and women’s tours; Nigeria has not been doing well in the Davis Cup for years while we are yet to participate in the female version – the Federation Cup. Countries like Benin Republic, Morocco and Togo, who once looked up to Nigeria, now have higher rated players.

Sani Ndanusa was the head of the tennis federation for over eight years before becoming the Minister of Sports in 2007. He has now returned as president of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC). Abdullahi believes he has another chance to turn things around.

“Now that Ndanusa has become the NOC president, he has another chance to redeem himself. He can do several things, but first he must resolve to transform sports, particularly tennis in order to prepare young elite athletes for the promises and challenges of international competitions,” Abdullahi said.

“I have blamed my generation of accomplished and successful tennis players for our role in the tennis demise. The structure in place kept us out of the discussion about any meaningful contributions; instead some elements are fighting the tennis authority while others are organising private tennis junior tournaments. Nigerian tennis glory can still be reclaimed and its rightful place in global sports re-established.”

That is the hope as we celebrate Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary, we need to reflect in order to have the courage to hit the best tennis strokes for a meaningful change in the next 50 years.

When Chioma Ajunwa won the Gold Medal at the Atlanta Games in 1996, much cheering greeted her victory. It was a glorious achievement for athletics in the country as it heralded the growing influence of the country’s athletes in world athletics.

However, despite the myriad of achievements recorded in the past 50 years on and off the tracks; coaches, athletes and administrators concur that athletics, which used to be a stronghold of Nigeria is fast dwindling.

“We are not where we ought to be definitely; each day we are losing our grip on those sports that we usually win. As a country we have played lip service to sports development and that is why we are where we are right now” Solomon Ogba, President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria said recently.

Athletics is perhaps the sport that has given the country the highest number of laurels internationally at different sporting events.

At the Olympics Games, which serves as the pinnacle of sports competition worldwide, athletics accounts for 13 out of the 23 medals won so far by Nigeria; two of which are Gold medals.

Great exploits

Right from the Los Angeles Olympic Games where the quartet of Sunday Uti, Moses Ugbusien, Rotimi Peters and Innocent Egbunike took the World by storm to win the bronze medal in the 400m event , Nigeria had been making so much impact on the world map but surprisingly took off its foot off the pedal recently for inexplicable reasons .

Internationally, Nigeria was a dominant force in sprint, quarter mile, hurdles, the relays, jumps and other areas of speciality.

In the Men 100m, Olapade Adeniken and Davidson Ezinwa were up there with the best in the world. Mary Onyali also rivalled the best in the women category while Falilat Ogunkoya and Fatimah Yusuf, gave the leading ladies of her time-Marie Jose- Perec, Cathy Freeman, and Jearl Miles- Clark a run for their money in the 400m.

At a time the current technical director of the AFN; Sunday Bada was hailed as the only quarter miler in the world that could beat the invincible American, Michael Johnson; their confidence arose from Bada’s sub 44.00 relay split at the Gothenburg ‘95 IAAF World Championship.

There were also the heroics of the likes of Innocent Egbunike, Chidi Imoh and Deji Aliyu at different competitions worldwide.

For many, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was the best for Nigeria with the country winning her first Olympic Gold medals in that competition. The history-making gold medal was in the women’s long jump event and won by Chioma Ajunwa.

Other medals won by Nigeria in the Atlanta Olympics include a bronze in the women’s 200 metres event won by Mary Onyali and the women’s 400 metres event won by Falilat Ogunkoya.

From Paris to Stuttgart, Moscow to Brussels, the roll call of athletes at any major athletics meet was incomplete without the mention of Nigerian athletes, who won laurels for themselves and country.

The downturn

Sadly, the situation has taken a nose dive as the country no longer ranks tops safe for a sprinkle of athletes that are still flying the flag high.

Several reasons have been adduced for the dwindling fortunes. While some blame the drop on the laxity of administrators, others say the athletes have been unpatriotic.

Falilat Ogunkoya, one of the greatest female athletes produced by Nigeria, said “It’s quite unfortunate to find ourselves where we are today. By now we should be ranking top in the world but instead we are still struggling to hold our own in Africa. In our own days we enjoyed scholarships to schools in the United States and Europe and that really helped us. Athletes no longer enjoy such as only few of them are privileged to have such opportunity”.

Falilat, the first Nigerian to win two medals at the same Olympics- silver and a bronze at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, also reiterated the level of commitment at her own time.

“Though we were well taken care off at that time, it doesn’t mean we were never owed money. But for someone like me, I always put my race first before money. I knew if I did well in my races the money would definitely come” she said.

So many athletes have complained of the poor welfare for them which have made some dump the country for other nations like Spain, Portugal, and Qatar.

For Abiodun, a high jump coach who discovered athletes like Doreen Amata, the former African Champion in High Jump, the blame goes to the officials who he says have been selfish over time.

“Of late the kinds of people we have at the helm of affairs are selfish people who are only interested in filling their pockets and not the improvement of athletes. If we can have genuine administrators, athletics can still pick up its pieces and move on,” Abiodun said.

As the country celebrates its Golden Jubilee, it would certainly relish amongst other achievements the two Olympic Gold medals from athletics. With concerted efforts the country is destined for greater heights.

Boxing, the noble art of self-defence, was at some point in time in Nigeria the undisputed king of sports. It had immense following among the populace and boxers, especially the successful ones among them, enjoyed cult followership from fans who just couldn’t get enough of them.

In addition, there were others who opted for the professional ranks and dominated their respective weight categories. These included the legendary duo of Hogan ‘Kid’ Bassey and Richard Ihetu, more popularly known as Dick Tiger.

Both fighters didn’t rest on their achievements within the Commonwealth. They extended their dominance beyond this radius and ended up becoming undisputed world champions, Bassey at featherweight and Tiger in both the middleweight and light heavyweight classes.

Bassey, who back in 1950 at the age of 18, and still in high school, became the youngest boxer to win the national flyweight title, achieved his world title feat back in 1957 when he defeated Cherif Hamia, a French-Algerian in Paris and went on to defend the title twice before losing it two years later to America’s David Moore, in a fight that turned out to be his last. He quit professional boxinga afterwards.

For his part, Tiger became world champion in 1962. He claimed the then vacant WBA middleweight title after defeating Gene Fullmer over 15 rounds in a bout decided in San Francisco, California.

He held on to the title until December 1963 when he lost on points to Joey Giardello but reclaimed it, along with the WBC title, two years later with a 15 round unanimous decision victory over Giardello.

He lost both titles to Emile Griffith in April 1966 and thereafter stepped up to the light heavyweight category and by May of the following year stopped Roger Rouse in the 12th round to become the WBC and WBA light heavyweight champion of the world.

The nearly men

Besides Bassey, who died in 1998, and Tiger, who died in 1971 at the age of 42 – a year after his retirement from the sport, Nigeria also produced other world champions such as the Owerri-born Herbert Maduagwu, better known as Herbie Hide, and the Lagos-born Henry Akinwande who both temporarily held the WBO equivalent of the heavyweight crown at separate times in the 90s.

In recent times, Samuel Peter has joined the growing list of Nigerians to have won a world title after he claimed the WBC world heavyweight title in 2008, and there’s also Segun Ajose who is the current Commonwealth light welterweight champion.

Success hasn’t been limited to the professional ranks alone. The country has also produced champions in the amateur cadre such as Eddie Ndukwu, a two-time Commonwealth gold medallist in the bantamweight and featherweight categories; Nojeem Maiyegun, who won Nigeria’s first Olympic medal at the 1964 Games in Tokyo; Isaac Ikhuoria, who won a bronze medal at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich; and Davidson Andeh, who became world champion at the 1978 World Boxing Championships in Belgrade.

Peter Konyegwachie also won a silver medal at the Los Angeles ‘84 Olympics, a feat that was replicated eight years later at the Barcelona Olympics by the duo of David Izorintei and Richard Ibenegu, while Duncan Dokiwari won a bronze at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Disasters and near disasters

But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing as a lot of Nigerian boxers have seen their campaigns ending in disappointments as was the case with Obisia Nwankpa, who lost to WBC light welterweight champion Saoul Mamby in a title bout decided at the National Stadium, Lagos. So was the case with Joe Lasisi, who lost a shot at the WBA light heavyweight crown, along with his unbeaten record, when he suffered a 7th round knockout loss to Virgil Hill in North Dakota in May 1989.

At the moment Nigerian boxers particularly those in the amateur ranks have become cannon fodder for their opponents in international sporting competitions. Worse still, is the state of facilities were these boxers are trained. They are decrepit and so outdated that it is amazing that they have not been phased out.

And that appears to be what lies in the horizon for boxing in Nigeria unless, in the opinion of respected boxing coach Joe Mensah, certain things are put in place.

“There must be conducive atmosphere for sponsors to come in. Where it concerns government is for them to put facilities in place. But, as at today there is no facility for boxing across the country, and the administrators are comfortable with the situation,” Mensah told a local newspaper.

“We really need the Federal Government to do more for boxing to develop in the country. The sport is going down by the day. The administrators should endeavour to build boxing gymnasiums in the geo-political zones in the country. With that the sport would go places.”

Despite the negative publicity it received over the past few months, the 19th Commonwealth Games will actually take place in New Delhi, India.

Seven years ago, the sprawling city of over 18 million inhabitants was awarded the hosting rights to what started out 80 years ago in Hamilton, Canada as the British Empire Games.

But rather than showcasing the rich cultural heritage of the second most populated country in the world, the Commonwealth Games has only extensively highlighted a country bedevilled by corruption, in which there is a huge gulf between the poor and the rich.

Besides the corruption and poverty – according to the United Nations, by 2005, 42 per cent of its 1.2 billion inhabitants lived below the World Bank’s international poverty line of $1.25 a day, there’s also the case of missed construction deadlines as well as the threat of a attacks from terror groups.

In the past few weeks, reports of dubious construction certificates were proven when a footbridge at the main stadium collapsed injuring many workers.

Corrupt Games

Just last Wednesday, a Supreme Court justice in Delhi said corruption was rampant in the Commonwealth Games and that the event will turn into a source of self-enrichment for many involved in organising the Games.

A report in the Times of India newspaper even went as far as reporting that Suresh Kalmadi, the organising committee’s chairman, was “an inept organiser” who has filled his committee with his buddies, 19 of whom have employed family members.

Most employees within the organising committee were not properly qualified for their positions but were “selected on the basis of being wives, children, nephews and relations of persons who run Indian sport,” the newspaper reported.

Not prepared to sit back and take all the blame, Kalmadi accused the Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Mike Hooper of doing nothing in his four years as a temporary Delhi resident.

Hooper, a New Zealander, has reportedly been living the high life at the expense of the Indian government over the past four years but was recently accused of insulting Indians by saying Delhi’s “population hazard” hampered the organisation of the Games.

Terror groups

An even bigger threat to the Games than the feud between the two, even bigger than the unhygienic conditions inside the unfinished athletes village or the venomous cobras that have been found at the athletes village, is the ever looming threat of attacks from terror groups.

The Times of India reported that last week, a Pakistani journalist known for his links to the Pakistan intelligence complex met an Indian diplomat in Islamabad to say that he had spoken to Ilyas Kashmiri, leader of Al Qaida’s Pakistan-based 313 Brigade. According to the journalist, Kashmiri threatened an attack in India during the Games.

Indian and other foreign security agencies went into overdrive to assess the threat. But officials argued that there was none of the signs that were evident in the run-up to the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which lasted for four days between November 26-29, killing at least 173 people and wounding at least 308.

On Thursday, the government officially warned Delhi Police and other security agencies, as well as security officials of each participating team, about this new “information”, which led to a stern warning from the Indian home secretary Gopal Pillai to the Pakistani high commissioner Shahid Malik that any terror attack in India during the Commonwealth Games traced back to Pakistan will essentially be treated as a hostile act.

Malik was reminded of a threat by Kashmiri earlier this year that athletes coming for the Commonwealth Games would be targeted by his terror group. Kashmiri had also threatened to attack the country’s top cricket league – the Indian Premier League – and the World Cup hockey tournament in Delhi but no attacke took place.

Nevertheless, the Pakistani government are also not taking the report lightly. The Daily Times of Pakistan reported on Thursday that Pakistan’s Interior Ministry, along with various security establishments, are in a “state of panic” regarding the threat, which might jeopardise the already strained relations between both countries.

Even if the terror threat is not “credible”, Indian agencies believe this could be another tactic to spread fear.

Hopefully, the more than 100,000 security officials, including elite commandos, provided by the Indian government for the Games should be able prevent any attack during the event.

Withdrawals take shine off Games

Many also hope that once the Games start, the negativity surrounding it will become a thing of the past and that the focus will be on the athletes. But there are doubts regarding such a possibility as many of the best athletes in the Commonwealth will not participate.

They include the world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt and his predecessor, Asafa Powell, as well as five high profile Kenyan athletes – Olympic 1,500m champion, Asbel Kiprop; world 800m record holder, David Rudisha; world 10,000m champion, Linet Masai; former World marathon champion, Luke Kibet; and Commonwealth Games 800m champion, Janeth Jepkosgei.

Australia’s world discus champion, Dani Samuels and England’s triple jump world champion, Phillips Idowu, as well as Olympic 400m champion, Christine Ohuruogu, and most recently South Africa’s high-profile world 800m champion, Caster Semenya, have also pulled out of the Games.

Injuries, security and health reasons have been cited by many of the athletes as reasons for their withdrawal.

Their absence notwithstanding, the Games will be held, as scheduled. Probably, the only fear as the apprehensive world awaits the opening ceremony is whether spectators will be able to fill up the venues and cheer the athletes to glory as thousands of Games tickets remain unsold.

Doesn’t it just hurt to hear people say that American swimmer Michael Phelps, who won eight gold medals at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, has won more Olympic gold medals than your country?

To be fair, Nigeria didn’t start to participate in the Olympic Games until Helsinki in 1952, eight years before our independence. In our first decade as a sovereign nation, we won our first Olympic medal, bronze in boxing courtesy of Nojeem Maiyegun.

Impressive as it is, Maiyegun feat was by no means Nigeria’s finest moment in boxing. Hogan “Kid” Bassey and Dick “Tiger” Ihetu in 1957 and 1962 respectively won world titles in professional boxing.

Many people may not know this, but our great leaders at the time were also keen sport-lovers. Nnamdi Azikiwe was even a boxing referee. As premier of the Western Region, Obafemi Awolowo built Liberty Stadium, which, at the time, was as good as any in the world in terms of standards and beauty, if not in size. Up to the 1980s, his newspaper, the Sunday Tribune, was the go-to source for anyone who wanted to know the result of his football team the previous day. Long before the Nigeria Football Association secretariat received the results, the Sunday Tribune published it.

In the 1960s, though, the Commonwealth Games seemed to be the only arena where we could boast of winning gold medals and setting records.

Golden Oshikoya

The All-Africa Games of 1973, which we hosted, was Nigeria’s coming out party. Having earned more money from oil than we knew what to do with, we built a brand new sport city, not just a stadium, in Lagos to host the games. Whereas, even today, Wembley Stadium in London can only host football matches, our sport city had it all: tartan tracks for athletics, swimming pools, training pitches, indoor sport hall, etc. All was contained in one venue.

To crown it all, our golden girl, Modupe Oshikoya rose to the occasion. Although we did not top the medals table at the end of the games, we did win the football gold medal, which was just as valuable.

Apart from Davidson Andeh who won the world amateur lightweight boxing title, our boxers failed to achieve much in the 1970s. Once again, we found our level in the Commonwealth where we had champions like Eddy Ndukwu and Obisia Nwankpa. As boxing slumped against the ropes, football gained prominence. On the national level, IICC Shooting stars of Ibadan and Rangers of Enugu were the two dominant forces.

At the end of the decade, Rangers narrowly failed to win the most coveted club trophy of them all: the Champions Cup. An own-goal scored by Thompson Usiyen saw us lose to Tunisia at home and fail painfully to qualify for the World Cup of 1978. It was just as painful as the decision of our government to withdraw what some regard as our strongest team ever from the Olympic Games of 1976. It deprived athletes at the peak of their careers like Charlton Ehizuelen the chance of an Olympic medal.

However, the cause was noble: the independence of South Africa and Namibia. In 1977, Christ the King’s College of Onitsha won the “World Cup” for secondary school students, the first time ever that Nigeria was to win at this level.

1980 began so well for Nigeria, as we won the African Cup of Nations for the first time. The core of our players came from IICC, Rangers and Bendel Insurance. Soon enough, we were brought back to earth by our dismal failure at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. We didn’t win a single medal, but came back with enough sex scandals to keep Professor Osagie busy investigating thoroughly, at the end of which some athletes were banned for years.

Our hopes were raised ahead of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles. But our athletes failed woefully. It was left to boxing to rescue us again as we came home with silver and bronze medals in this event. The successes and failures of our sports in the 1980s, although we didn’t know it at the time, were to shape our football forever.

For example, the successes recorded by our junior players in teams like YSFON and Samco Stars of Benin against opponents from “superior” European countries and Brazil gave them lots of confidence when they became seniors.

The Duke of Wimbledon

The 1985 victory of our U-17 team at the inaugural World Cup for teams at that level is also worth mentioning. At about the same time, boxing was in a slump as Obisia Nwankpa had lost his world title fight to Saoul Mamby in Lagos; we had lost virtually all our Commonwealth champions and Davidson Andeh had been knocked out in America. On the positive side, Nduka Odizor won Ogbe Hardcourt Tennis Championships in Benin-City and got rave reviews for his Wimbledon performances, earning himself the nickname “The Duke of Wimbledon” from the British press. In table tennis, the likes of Sunday Eboh, Kasali Lasisi and Olawunmi Majekodunmi were top of the African charts.

As far as football is concerned, the 1990s were the decade Nigeria realised its dreams. Under the tutelage of Dutchman Clemence Westerhof, it won the African Cup Of Nations in 1994 and qualified for the World Cup for the first time. The team put up a gallant performance before losing to eventual runners-up Italy in the second round. A year earlier, Nwankwo Kanu and co had won the U-17 World Cup for Nigeria. At the 1996 Olympics, Nigeria won its first-ever gold medal through Chioma Ajunwa in the women’s long jump event. The biggest surprise of all was the way our football team won the gold medal, beating Brazil and Argentina along the way. The moment was as sweet as when Mary Onyali led the women’s 4×100 metres relay team to the bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics, thus becoming the first Nigerian women to win Olympic medals.

BCC Lions of Gboko won the African Cup of Cup Winners in 1990, coached by Shuaibu Amodu.

Apart from Samuel Peter becoming world heavyweight boxing champion, Nigerian boxing remains in the doldrums this new millennium. The final of the 2000 African Nations Cup was lost to Cameroun.

In 2002, our national team performed woefully at the World Cup, returning home with just one point, a feat repeated in 2010. In fact we are yet to win the Nations Cup this decade, a feat we achieved once each in the 1980s and 1990s.

However, in Beijing we may have discovered a new golden girl in the person of the multi-talented Blessing Okagbare, who won the bronze medal in the long jump. She seems to be a combination of Mary Onyali and Modupe Oshikoya.

What do 50 years of Nigerian sports look like?

Like the nation itself, it is fair to say that the country is yet to reach 50 per cent of its potential. Imagine what could have happened if we continued with the successes of great administrators like Mid-West State Governor Samuel Ogbemudia in the 1970s: we would have sport cities all over the country, square pegs in square holes in terms of sport administrators, incentives like scholarships for athletes and development from the grassroots.

Sports remain the glue that binds us together as a nation. When we play, we don’t care where the goal scorer or captain was born.

Still, one can’t fail to mention that the northern parts of the country are lagging behind. It is high time sports administrators in these parts of the country buckled up. If we want the next 50 years to be better than the last, we have to build and maintain sports facilities across the country, stop over-emphasizing football to the detriment of other sports, provide incentives for our sportsmen, put selfless and competent people in charge of sports and return to the grassroots. If we do all that, the future will be bright. One passing thought: it took 11 players on the pitch and at least five reserves to win Nigeria a football gold medal in 1996, while the USA needed just one man, Michael Phelps or Carl Lewis, to win eight gold medals in swimming in Beijing 2008 and four at the 1984 Games, respectively. In other words, the swimming pool and the tracks are where the Olympic medals are.

That’s where we should invest our resources. Happy Birthday, Nigeria.

Nigeria’s much-anticipated Golden Jubilee Independence anniversary, which took place on Friday, was marked by nations and people around the world.

In Ghana, the Accra Polo Club lined up a series of activities to mark the event. As part of the festivities, the club’s best players will take on their Nigerian friends and business associates this evening in a Golden Jubilee Polo game that is guaranteed to be one of the biggest events in Ghana.

Michael Mahama, Captain of the Accra Polo Club, disclosed this in the Ghanaian capital city.

“This is in furtherance to our resolves to wish all our Nigerian brothers and sisters a befitting Independence Anniversary,” Mahama said about the highprofile annual competition between both countries.

“We also want to use this august event, to rejoice with Nigerians and the Nigerian business community in Ghana on this milestone and it is our collective hope that this golden jubilee celebration will further cement our bond of friendship and further the popularity of the noble game of polo among us.” The Accra polo captain, fondly called Energy by his friends, urged the Ghanaian sporting public to rally behind their team. The ‘crack Ghanaian squad’ has such big names like, Jamil Ibrahim, Sulemana Iddrisu, Eric Gene and Harold Awuah Darko in its lineup.

Though he did not disclose the list of Nigerian friends invited for the game, it was gathered that the invited Nigerians include top players like Damian Duncan, Musty Fashinro, Kehinde Sanyawo and Kola Karim.

The Nigerians won the event last year and are looking forward for a repeat performance, but Energy has promised that Ghana will exact a sweet revenge this time round.

The independence anniversary clash will be preceded by a curtain raiser pitting junior teams from both countries; that are all products of Oho Sports Development Academy funded by Ahmed Dasuki.

Kaduna weighing in

While the Accra Polo Club, which nestles off the runway of the Accra airport, is hosting the game, the legendary Murtala Mohammed Square in Kaduna will be bubbling with activity as the polo fraternity treat Nigeria’s Vice President Namadi Sambo to a special Golden Jubilee polo event.

At the last count, eight battle-ready teams, complete with all the big names of Nigerian polo, from Kaduna and Katsina were confirmed for the two days event expected to climax with fanfare this evening.

According to Kaduna Polo Club Captain, Ali Hassan, four teams – IMAD Oil & Gas, Petroland,

BJ Ultimate and Katsina Masanawa, will battle for the event’s biggest prize, the Vice President Cup.

The Vice President Golden Jubilee Championship is sponsored by Imad Oil $ Gas Group, with the quartet of Imad Shipping, Maigidi BBC, Micro finance Bank and Katsina IT Sec.

Kaduna Polo Club Vice-President, Mohammed Babangida will lead Imad Oil & Gas team comprising, Ibrahim Kankia, Ibrahim Abba and Abubakar Dagazau, in their quest for the VP Cup, while visiting Katsina Masanawa is banking on, Lawal Mangal, Ado Madawaki, Tijani Hassan, Aminu Gagare for the same laurel.

Basketball has over the years become one of the most popular sports in Nigeria. Although not as popular as football, it is played in every part of the country and has come a long way since it was first introduced in educational institutions as far back as the 1930s.

By 1965 the first inter-regional basketball championship took place in Lagos but it wasn’t until the mid-80s that Nigerian basketball was exposed to the outside world following the exploits of Akeem Olajuwon in the United States of America.

After an illustrious college career with the University of Houston, in Texas, Olajuwon was drafted into the National Basketball Association (NBA) by the Houston Rockets in 1984 and thus began the beginning of an illustrious career that would see the Lagos-born seven footer playing in the NBA till the 2001-2002 season.

Nigeria’s NBA entourage

Olajuwon pioneered the appearance of Nigerians in the NBA, and many others followed the same route he took, from college to the NBA. These include Yinka Dare and Julius Nwosu who were drafted in the 1994-1995 season with Dare joining the New Jersey Nets, and Nwosu the San Antonio Spurs.

Nwosu only spent a season in San Antonio before heading to Russia, where he won the league title with CSKA Moscow, but Dare, a seven footer, went on to play four seasons in the NBA. He however died of a heart attack in 2004 at the age of 31.

The American collegiate system served as a breeding ground for Nigerian basketball players but not all of them ended up playing in the NBA. Most of them ended up in Europe, the Middle East and the Far East; most notably Tunji Awojobi.

The success story of Nigerian players hasn’t however translated into success at the national team level as the best the country has achieved at the African Championship have been three third-place finishes, twice behind Angola and on one occasion behind Senegal.

The team has however been to the World Championships on two occasions the last of which was back in 2006, eight years after making a debut appearance at the 1998 championship.

Ladies set the pace

The women haven’t fared any better than their men folks, but women’s basketball is a relatively new sport in Nigeria.

It was not until the beginning of the decade that it gained an appreciable level of followership in Nigeria despite the exploits of the First Bank women’s basketball team on the African continent dating back to the 1990s.

The club’s exploits notwithstanding, success didn’t come the way of the national team until effort was made by the Nigeria Basketball federation (NBBF) to lure American based players of Nigerian origin into the national team at the turn of the century.

Leading the returnees was Mfon Udoka who was able to form a formidable partnership with the Nigerian born Mactabene Amachree, who along with Udoka were plying their trade in the WNBA. The multi-talented Itoro Umoh, who had already represented the United States at the Pan-American Games, winning a bronze medal in the process, also joined the pack.

By 2003, the team swept all comers to the gold medal at the All-Africa Games in Abuja, claimed the African title the following year, before going on to the Olympic Games in Athens where, with the likes of Rashidat Sadiq and Mobolaji Akiode posted impressive figures on the floor – the team finished a respectable 11th with Udoka emerging as the tournament’s rebound leader and second leading scorer, just as Umoh emerged as the assists leader.

Poor management

In 2006, the women’s basketball team made a historic appearance at the World Basketball Championships but have since then struggled to make any positive impact, even on the continent. A situation Akiode, who now operates a foundation aimed at developing the potentials in girls – Hope for Girls – attributes to the poor management skills of the NBBF.

“The game has been poorly managed by the federation and it will only get worse as long as we have the wrong people in the federation,” Akiode said in a recent interview.

Akiode isn’t alone in taking a swipe at the NBBF. Joyce Ekworomadu, another member of the golden generation, believes it will be very difficult for the federation to convince overseas born Nigerians to play for the national team henceforth.

“There are so many Nigerian athletes that I know in the NBA, WNBA and Colleges that would love to play for their country, I mean who wouldn’t,” Ekworomadu said.

“However, they have either been a part of or have heard witnesses talk about such disorganisation that it discourages them to play for the country.”

There are however those who are of the opinion that lesser dependence should be placed on the overseas based players and more on the development of the domestic game.

“Besides not having enough indoor facilities we don’t have enough developmental programmes and games to develop the younger ones,” said basketball coach Okolo Emmanuel of the Lagos Chariots.

“The home leagues are not well funded so we will continue to rely on the foreign based players and continue to play second fiddle to Angola whose national team consists mostly of players who play in their home league.

“Their league is well funded, their players are well paid and they play a lot of games unlike the Nigerian league where teams play far lesser number of games.”

It is hard looking at the ruins of Nigerian sports to believe that this country has produced some of the finest athletes to have competed on the world stage.

At independence we got off the blocks early with Dick Ihetu, appropriately nicknamed Dick Tiger for his combative fighting style, battering American Gene Fulman to become Nigeria’s second world champion in boxing.

Along the line, there are remarkable moments that have made one proud to be a Nigerian. The Atlanta 1996 Games where within the twinkle of an eye we won two gold medals to make up for nearly four decades of barrenness. My most memorable moment of that games was Nigeria’s victory over Brazil in the semi final of football event.

Watching that game, I was almost having heart seizure as Brazil led 3-1 with 12 minutes left. And then the magic began. Victor Ikpeba pulled one back before Nwankwo Kanu masterfully kills off the five-time world champions with two breathtaking goals.

And then of course, are the other great moments in football-the 1980 Africa Cup of Nations triumph in Nigeria, which effectively cemented our claims to being a continental football power; the second Nations Cup title in 1994 and our first appearance at the FIFA World Cup a few months later. We recall also the 2003 feat of Aba clubside, Enyimba, which ended Nigeria’s nearly 40 years wait for a CAF Champions League title.

Worthy accomplishments

The valiant efforts of our young football stars who after winning the inaugural edition of the FIFA U-16 World cup in China, went on to claim two other titles in 1993 and 2007, also underscore the contribution of Nigerian sportsmen to burnishing of the national image internationally. And the women were not left out. Nigeria’s senior women football team, the Super Falcon thoroughly dominated the football scene winning the first five editions of the Arfican Women’s championships and appearing at every edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup to date.

Away from football, there are the exploits of our track and field athletes. Our post independent generation of athletes continued in the footsteps of the older generation like Josiah Majekodunmi (father of table tennis star, Olawunmi Majekodunmi), Abdulkareem Amu and Violet Odogwu-Nwajei. Easily the most outstanding of the 1970s was the delectable Modupe Oshikoya who at the 1973 All Africa Games hosted by Nigeria, won three gold medals and added another two at the 1978 edition in Algeria.

Sharing the same decade with Oshikoya was Charlton Ehizuelen. Ehizuelen, who after being tipped to win a medal for Nigeria at the 1976 Montreal Olympics and denied opportunity to do so following Nigeria’s withdrawal from the games, vented his spleen at his rivals at the 1978 All Africa games where he leapt to gold in the Long Jump and Triple Jump events.

If Oshikoya and Ehizuelen earned respect for Nigerian athletes, the constellation of stars that were to burst onto the Nigerian athletics scene in the 1980s, were to situate Nigeria firmly in the ranks of leading athletics nations in the world. Athletes like Innocent Egbunike, Chidi Imoh, Falilat Ogunkoya, Mary Onyali, Olapade Adenekan, Davidson and Osmond Ezinwa, Beatrice Utondu, Chioma Ajunwa and later, Francis Obikwelu, Glory Alozie, Deji Aliu, Uchenna Emedolu, Mercy Nku and Endurance Ojokolo, revolutionised the Nigerian athletics landscape winning medals in major international events like the Olympics and world championships.

At about the same time Nigerian sportsmen in other disciplines were holding their own squarely with their foreign counterparts particularly in boxing where names like Jeremiah Okorodudu, Joe Orewa, Fighting Romanus, Peter Konyegwachie, Christopher Ossai dominated the scene. These were to be replaced much later by names like David Dafiagbon, David Izonritei, Duncan Dokiwari and Richard Igbenegu.

In all, it has been fifty years of accomplishments for our sportsmen. Today not many in government spare a thought for these individuals. If anything, many of them live in regret with some changing nationality in frustration. As we mark fifty years of existence as an independent nation, there is no better time to say thank you to these heroes and heroines who have brought us so much joy and respect.