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Now that you’ve got
the overwhelming mandate of Nigerians for another four-year tenancy at
Aso Rock – even though I did not vote for you and I am sure, in your
famed broad-mindedness, that won’t be held against me – the fraternity
of sport is very curious to know when you’ll pay proper attention to an
area that has been treated with disdain, or at best indifference, by
your predecessors.

I ask this because
your manifesto – and to be fair, your opponents were guilty of exactly
the same thing in theirs – lacked an articulation of a long-term policy
for a sector that could be a prime source of positive engagement for
millions of our talented young people, bitter and frustrated with their
lack of opportunities in a country that has done very little to harness
their abilities.

In case your
coterie of advisers hasn’t pointed this out to you, the turnover of
sports ministers in the last 12 years – with an eight-year, two-term
tenure of Olusegun Obasanjo being the major stretch – has been
catastrophic for the sector.

With the average
lifespan of a sports minister since 1999 being just 13 months, if they
are lucky to stay that long, there has been no proper articulation and
execution of policies in sport, leaving it rudderless.

Since the People’s
Democratic Party ascended the reins of power, Nigeria have gone to
three Olympic Games (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008) and two
World Cups (Korea/Japan 2002 and South Africa 2010. We didn’t qualify
for Germany 2006, by the way), with very little to show for the million
of dollars in taxpayers’ money expended on them.

I won’t go into our
performance at other international sports events, some of which Nigeria
failed to attend or embarrassingly arrived at the venues when they were
about to end! Mr President, civil service mandarins responsible for the
(mis)management of sport in Nigeria have always relied on the fact that
the presidency has, sadly, a very consistent but tragic tradition of
using the ministry of sport as a place to extend patronage to the inept
but politically relevant.

Party apparatchiks
lacking the competencies to man ‘key’ ministries like Finance, Economic
Planning or Health, but who must be rewarded with a cabinet position
were dumped on the “less important” Sports ministry.

Unscrupulous civil
servants have taken, and continue to take, advantage of the
cluelessness of several sports ministers to perpetuate an unhidden
agenda, which has been the politics of enriching their pockets, at the
expense of our sports men and women.

Amos Adamu, who for
several years was the ministry’s director of sports development and
recently left FIFA, football’s world governing body, in disgrace, after
being filmed demanding for an $800,000 bribe, typifies them.

Adamu is still the
subject of an ongoing EFCC investigation into his conduct as the
executive director of the Local Organising Committee for the 2003
All-Africa Games – for which the public, as far as I know, is yet to
see its audited accounts.

Will you make it a cardinal part of your agenda to stop the rot in sports management?

Apart from
providing our jobless but talented youth with a means to channel their
creative energies positively, reducing criminality across our land, as
well as creating employment opportunities for ancillary industries,
excellence in sport is one of the best foreign PR tools to enhance
Nigeria’s international image.

Seventeen long
years have passed since Nigeria made its football World Cup debut in
America. But the performance of Daniel Amokachi, Jay-Jay Okocha,
Rashidi Yekini and other members of that distinguished class of 1994,
voted as the most entertaining team of that tournament, resonates
globally to this day.

And the same
applies to the Atlanta ’96 Olympics, where Nigeria picked their first,
and only, gold medals since the country made its debut at the 1952
games in Helsinki.

I’ve so much more to say to you, Mr President, but having a 700 word limit, I have very little room for much more.

But let the words of Madiba, Nelson Mandela, provide you with some
food for thought: “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the
power to unite in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a
language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was
only despair.” Think on these things and have a good Sunday, Mr
President.