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Finally, the elections have come upon us. As far as electioneering goes, what we witnessed in the last few weeks, was clearly unimpressive.

The politicians who seek our votes certainly have not done enough to convince us that they deserve to be in public office. Their campaigns have been dull and largely empty; in the main they have mouthed the usual platitudes that have offended our senses for ages now.

If we vote for them at all, it will be in our desire to avoid having a vacuum in government, not because they deserve it.

One of my major observations has been the absence of any agenda for sports by most of the presidential candidates.

In the dying moments of their campaigns, we saw them offering tokens, aimed largely at ambushing the votes of Nigerian youth, inured to sports. On Sunday March 27, Muhammadu Buhari, the presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), dramatically showed up at the National Stadium in Abuja, venue of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match.

While his presence was a surprise to many, I easily saw through the gimmick- the general wanted to ride the crest of football’s popularity to garner votes at the election. And it wasn’t only the old general clutching at straws. Twenty-four hours earlier, our President, Goodluck Jonathan hosted Nigerian sportsmen who had excelled in major international competitions, to a banquet at the state house where cash ranging from N150,000 to N1.5 million, was handed to the sportsmen.

From the point of view of reward for hard work, the president’s action is clearly commendable. However, the timing of the awards betrays the motive of Mr. President. Why after neglecting the patriotic sportsmen, some of them for as much as two years, did the president suddenly deem it fit to honour them on the eve of the elections? We do not need to search far for answers.

Is our president enamoured of our sportsmen? Does he wish them well? The answer to these questions is a big no. And I’ll tell you why. The 2011 edition of the All Africa Games is just around the corner, has money been made available for preparation of our athletes? Has President Jonathan, who last year intervened in the crisis affecting football only to buckle under FIFA threat, shown any interest in what is happening as far as preparation is concerned? Or is sports for him, simply, Infra dignitatem?

A crying shame

The truth of the matter is that President Jonathan, like other candidates aspiring to Nigeria’s highest office, does not care a hoot about sports and for someone who comes from the Niger Delta, a seething cauldron of strife, it is clearly unfortunate. Why do I say so?

I’ll tell you why. If President Jonathan and his advisers were thinking clearly, they’ll see inherent possibilities for intervention in the situation in the Niger Delta through sports. Some of Nigeria’s finest sportsmen have come from the Nigeria meaning that the place is not lacking in talent. Rather, it’s a reservoir of talent, which needs to be exploited. Have the young men and women who have embraced violence as a means of resolving social injustice been sufficiently engaged through sports by President Jonathan’s government? Has the Jonathan administration even a blueprint for sports development in the Niger Delta and beyond.

We have heard successive ministers of sports in this country talk about a national sports policy; what are the contents of this policy? Does it reflect an understanding by government of how sports can be used to engage Nigerian youth, who in the absence of role models and social safety nets, have an increasing predilection for violence and other anti-societal behaviours? I think not, because if the so-called sports policy did, government would not engage in bogus programmes, which only end up enriching a few smart individuals.

It’s a shame really that, in this day and age, when sports is big business globally, where some of the most recognisable faces in the world are sportsmen, our President and his minister in charge of sports, should carry on as if sports were a mere distraction to which government should deign now and then, to offer tokenisms.

Does President Jonathan and his sports minister, who by the way, never ceases to remind us that he is the first professional to occupy that position, know that what Tiger Woods earns annually, outstrips our annual sports budget?

Well, we can’t really blame President Jonathan when people who should know, either keep quiet or deliberately misrepresent facts. Are we not witnesses to the buffoonery of a few former Olympians, who against all decency and perhaps in a bid to swell their pockets, hold rallies announcing President Jonathan as the best thing to happen to sports in Nigeria?

My take is that, whether President Jonathan returns to office or not, the fortunes of sports are not likely to experience any significant change because there quite simply isn’t any plan to affect it.