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Please permit me to
make myself absolutely clear as regards the state of sports in Nigeria.
In as much as I have decided and I am totally committed to the
development of sports in Nigeria, I do not wish for a moment to be
branded as a pessimist. I do not also want to be part of the problems,
or to be seen to contribute to the problems that Nigerian sports is
experiencing currently. I see myself as a source of solutions and not
of problems to sports. To achieve this however, I have come to realize
that the truth has to be told and wisdom has to be applied in order to
get the message across.

Dancing around the solution

Yes, indeed, and we
will explain. Horses are extremely strong beasts of burden.They are
also very fast when it comes to running and can get violent if need be.
Tie a rope around the neck of a horse and fasten the rope to the trunk
of a tree. In due course, the horse begins to walk about and around the
tree trunk as a natural animalistic tendency. In most cases, the horse
moves in just one direction, hence the rope with which the horse is
tied to the tree is eventually wound around the tree trunk and the
movement of the horse is stopped. The horse thus finds itself comatose.
This is why it is generally believed that a horse is full of muscles,
but with a little brain. Those who are apostles of sports development
will agree that sports as it is being administered in Nigeria today can
be appropriately likened to the horse described above. If care is not
taken, very soon, the shallow and unkempt pool producing the athletes
representing this great nation at international and national
competitions, will dry up.

Assessing the growth

A critical
assessment of football, table tennis, tennis and boxing, may offer us a
vivid picture of the unfortunate situation. Football, like most other
sports in Nigeria, is all about noise and negative motions. Football
management in Nigeria has been so compromised that it will take the
divine intervention of God for the beautiful game to be rescued from
the grip of the cabal who seem to be presently in charge — albeit,
illegitimately. Whereas billions of tax payers’ monies are being
intentionally wasted on football promotion, the foundation on which the
pyramid of football development is built has been stupidly and
ignorantly ignored. Even at the age-grade level with age falsification,
it is all about perambulating and no progress that will encourage our
children who are naturally and divinely endowed with massive
potentials, to pursue football playing as a career.

How for instance,
for the sake of the future of Nigerian sports and the sake of our
children, should the councillor in charge of the ministry of
agriculture, be in charge of sports in some local government areas?

This is the extent
to which sports — especially football has been abused and trivialized
by politicians. Those in charge of schools’ sports are also insincere
about searching and grooming talents that abound in our schools.
Whereas there is genuine synergy between education and sports in some
other parts of the world, the opposite is the case here. All we hear is
that the Nigerian Schools Sports Federation (NSFF) is either executing
a jamboree referred to a sports festival,or embarking on a tour of some
foreign nations. There is nothing developmental at all in these
junketing.

Promotions instead of training

One very important
point we would like to stress at this point is the fact that we are not
at all against the several football competitions unscrupulously
organised. The point is that in football, for instance, mere
participation in matches does not guarantee the improvement or
development of young football players. What these young ones need at
this stage is an exposure to the scientific rudiments of football
playing in such a non-threatening and fun-spiced manner, that they will
be able to express themselves and enjoy playing the beautiful game.
This makes them believe in themselves and the coaches and trainers
handling them. Do we have such coaches/trainers in our schools or at
what we erroneously refer to as grassroots football academies in
Nigeria? I doubt it and confess that I am one of those to be held
responsible for this. I can’t believe I have spent so much time and
space just perambulating around issues concerning age-grade football,
while I thought we would be dealing with table tennis, tennis and
boxing today. Meanwhile, there is still so much to discuss on the state
of football in Nigeria.

So much to talk and do about how to actualize the process of
developing football in Nigeria, instead of wasting money, time and
effort on promotions. One thing is absolutely clear anyway. Between
every two different days is a very dark night. Nigerians cannot afford
to forget so quickly that Nigeria’s glorious past was the result of a
broad-based developmental programme, which was the product of a sound
administration, which recognised that excellence was a function of
early identification of talent. Our sports life is going through a
night after a very glorious day we have been referring to as the
past/lost glorious era. This night will definitely pass away and a new
dawn will emerge. All will be well.