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Thank God for my
buddy, Sadiq Abdullahi, Nigeria’s Tennis Ambassador, who, by any
standard, is one of the most successful international tennis players,
this great nation has produced. Abdullahi drew my attention to Segun
Odegbami’s column of January 23, published by one of the nation’s
sports papers.

He called me from
his base in the USA, as is his custom, to discuss modalities and
strategies being put in place for the Save Nigerian Sports Initiative
(SANSI). Abdullahi is one of the rejected who should be firming up
grass roots tennis development in Nigeria, but is not considered
valuable by those that are in charge of tennis in Nigeria. Another
rejected stone, also domiciled in the USA is my darling sister – Pat
Itanyi, who has been massively, but very silently, contributing to the
development and promotion of athletics in Nigeria. Like Abdullahi,
Itanyi is not considered as a person capable of serving her father land
by the powers that be. She spends time calling, upwards of 45 minutes
on various occasions, passionately discussing issues concerning the
state of athletics in Nigeria and how SANSI can fulfil the purpose for
which it has been ordained by God.

By the way, as far
as I am concerned, I will continue to remind fellow Nigerians, that the
Lord God Almighty is the greatest Sports Person on this universe. And
it does not matter whether you – the reader of this write-up, believe
it or not. God is in control of sports in Nigeria and when He decides
to do what He alone can do, there will be deliverance for sports in
this country. It is only a matter of time and of course the efforts
made by those, who are genuinely concerned about the future of Nigerian
sports, to cry to God and say ‘enough is enough’ of the shenanigans,
going on in the administration and management of Nigerian sports.

I have good news
for Abdullahi and Itanyi and all those ignorantly rejected by the cabal
temporarily killing sports in this great country. The good news is that
it is the rejected stones that will eventually form the pillar, needed
to uphold and lift sports to the height of glory, in Nigeria.

This is one of the reasons, why we cannot afford to give up now.

The so-called Fans Assembly

I then searched for
Odegbami’s write-up, only for me to discover that we went through the
same unpleasant experience on the morning of Thursday, January 20, by
being unfortunate to have listened to the same radio programme referred
to as the “fans assembly” or ‘back-pass’ in which members of the public
call in and make contributions to issues concerning sports, especially
in Nigeria. I was also driving to my office as I traumatically listened
to the programme. I must confess that I used to be a honourable member
of that ‘assembly’, until I became “dishonourable”, after my views on
the issue of age falsification was considered reactionary and
absolutely unpatriotic, during one of such programmes in 2009. Since
then I decided never to be part of that ‘assembly’.

The ‘speaker had
set the ball rolling by telling Nigerians to contribute to the issue of
age falsification by age grade players, who represent Nigeria in
international competitions if they would allow or encourage their wards
to perpetrate such demonic act.

Majority of those
who participated in the phone-in programme saw nothing wrong in age
falsification. I got miffed and called in, to make my position known,
only to discover that I had stirred the hornet’s nest with my
contribution. My consolation however is the fact a few other patriotic
Nigerians, supported my submission.

The concern I have
is that if parents (fans) publicly endorse such acts of deceit,
corruption, falsification, immorality, thievery, misplaced priority,
ignorance and the lust for money, then it is not too difficult for the
discerning mind, to figure out what is happening to Nigerian sports.

When matured
adults, parents especially, are not mindful of the dangers inherent in
the acceptance of fraud, greed, mediocrity and ignorance, when the
socio-political, economic, academic and spiritual values of sports are
not only trivialised, but subjected to being shamelessly raped by those
who are supposed to uphold and defend such values, then, it is not
likely that there is the guarantee of a bright future for Nigerian
sports. When about 150 million people allow a few individuals to
continue toying with the their God-given passion, which is sports and
the only thread binding this nation, endowed with so much sporting
potentials, enough to rule the world of sports, then, it is time for us
to wake up from our slumber in Nigeria. It is necessary, because even
animals – dogs for instance, do not take it too lightly, when human
beings mess around with what they are passionate about.

Fellow Nigerians,
the future of Nigerian sports, the future of our children and the
future of this great nation, is being toyed with right now. It should
not be so. But how did we get ourselves into this ruckus? What can be
done to salvage the situation?

Wait a minute, I was going to discuss issues raised by Odegbami’s
column, but got so carried away. We will continue later but it is well,
because there is plenty of hope.