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This week, I shall
look away from the vexatious development of multi law suits in our law
courts brought by warring factions and interest groups in our football.
Reason is that I offered advice pro-bono to many of those groups with a
view to persuading them to change plans and style in order to save our
football. Adamant as always, the parties being convinced on what they
must do to protect or provide for certain interests have laid our
football prostrate once again. Now a Federal High Court sitting in
Lagos has annulled the election of the NFF Board led by Aminu Maigari
and they are to appear before the Court on February 3 to face contempt
charges. Meanwhile, stories are being posted everywhere to make Maigari
look good and that ‘nothing has spoilt.’ So saying, I shall shift my
interest to an area that attracts me more.

Reality check, please my buddies in sport

In a world where
18-21 years old footballers, basket-ball players, cricket and rugby
players, golf players, Formula One drivers, NFL footballers and tennis
players earn between 50,000 and 150,000 US Dollars weekly, the Nigerian
youth is still in search of sporting facilities to recreate, unwind,
hone latent talent and skill. Much more distant is the chance to
develop into professional ranks for the much desired economic
empowerment modern sport has to offer. Yet people with the
responsibility to make this possible are perpetually engaged in
negative sport politics, deceit and subterfuge.

The living legend,
Dr. Nelson Mandela, at the Laureus Sport Award 2000 declared that sport
has the power to change the world. That sport can create hope and
comfort where pain and despair exist. And I venture to add that in a
world where children are suffering from conflict displacement, disease,
poverty and famine, sport represents a new movement of hope and action.
It is trite knowledge that through sport, children are connected to
other children, to athletes, to coaches, to adults and to community at
local and global levels. Sports help youth and young adults to look
after one another, and to have opportunity for healthy development
where they otherwise may not.

The Nigerian Sport administrators are not acting, they are not listening. Can they be deaf but certainly not blind?

Under-utilisation of sports in Nigeria

The experience is
that sport and recreational facilities are in extremely short supply in
Nigeria and consequently the forum for interaction, talent development
which then promote growth to professional heights are limited. This
limitation creates a challenge for the empowerment of youth
economically through sport. The often trumpeted but sterile chant in
Nigeria by public sector deans and industry captains in Nigeria is that
sport is the most unifying factor in Nigeria. Unfortunately, beyond
this lip service and an admission of obvious reality, very little in
practical terms is done by these policy makers and decision executors.
From the necessary lack of political will and consequent resolve to
rectify the above is that the immense benefits of sport as leisure and
business capable of creating economic empowerment remains
under-utilised. Structures for the realisation of these benefits are
scarce and where available, they are decrepit and unusable.

Coming through from
the above and given a positive presumption that the Nigerian youth can
be empowered through sport, although I will dare to say that sport does
not exist in a vacuum, it having to exist within the structures
presented by other realities, I shall attempt to build a case for sport
with a pyramidal structure and the apex result of which is the
professional zenith. Economic empowerment for the talented, committed,
focused youth given an enabling environment together with the right
incentives are positive derivative from a pyramidal sport structure
ending in pro-ranks.

Moving forward

I begin by
recommending community sport facilities in all states and indeed the
774 local governments of Nigeria for youth and young adults to recreate
and expend excess energy daily. This pyramidal structure has mass
participation at the base, school sports then follows as step 2 and
step 3 is amateur sport. Step 4 is the apex at which point the very
best will stand out and go into the very rewarding markets of Europe
and America with the right techniques, skill and with requisite
confidence to drive their ambition. Local sport club performances will
receive huge boosts too, while some talents may find their way through
university scholarships in the United States and Canada to good
university degrees and professional qualifications which then offer
massive job opportunities even as good in terms of financial rewards as
professional sport can offer.

It becomes
imperative therefore for government to provide the frame-work, legal,
economic, political etc for local governments, corporate citizens and
responsive individuals to set up sports Foundations and Academies to
utilise up to date sport facilities to contribute their quotas to this
declaration that the Nigerian youth can be empowered economically
through sport.

These are only
possible or realisable when the synergy of good sports facilities being
made available for mass usage and the sharpening of skills as did the
ambience and discipline of boarding and Missionary schools for our
sport in the days of yore. The school’s games master probably did not
have more than a passing knowledge of all sports, he did however have
authority and basic facilities to get all students involved in all
sports and so raised a team for each sporting event for competition
with some ease. The same principle with guiding rules and effective
monitoring utilising available sport facilities in communities can
drive our dreams and ambitions in most sport. This will be all this
week.