It is said that whatever you sow you reap. It couldn’t be
more true for Nigerian sports.
It’s painful what has become of Nigerian sports. It’s been
hijacked by politicians and ‘men whose
God is their bellies’. People who have no part of the sports world. For the
first time in many years Nigeria has failed to qualify in all three African championships
in football at all age levels. That’s just a sample of what is wrong?
It’s like we think that we hit rock bottom in sports and
then we hit another bottom.
Asides from the issues of funding and the many other
problems facing the nation and its sports, the basic problem with our sport is
the structure. If we don’t fix the structure, we will continue along this same
woeful part and for a very long time.
Take a look at our football and basketball teams, they are
composed of primarily Nigerians who have travelled abroad and have taken
advantage of the structures that exist within those countries. It’s been a long
time since the Nigerian structure has produced any athletes with names worth
mentioning. In the past we had names that we bandied around from our villages
and schools, guys whose talents were found even before the world knew them.
We had sports administrators who had the passion for their
sports and worked assiduously to ensure that all the athletes and their coaches
were able to reach their potentials and provided for.
I remember back in the days when I was in secondary school.
I want to salute Mr Adewummi. One of the best sports administrators I have ever
met. He was just a PHE teacher but he handled the sports in Federal Government College
Ikirun with such aplomb that during our inter-house sports you will think we
were hosting the Olympics.
We didn’t need a stadium. All we used was our hands and the
little support from the school authorities and we had the best possible
inter-house sport competitions. There was hardly any sport we did not have in
Ikirun. Football, Basketball, Discuss, Shotput, All the Track Races, High jump,
Long Jump. Volleyball and many more.
With all the students Mr Adewummi will work to line the
track and we were good to go to have our own
excellent mini Olympics. It was here that the talents were found. It was
here that we discovered the talents like the “Ladis, Ariels, Labush” and all
the other guys who were great at these sports.
Unfortunately, we have lost all that in the country but till
we go back to that very form of sports, we’re a long way away from achieving
sporting success we can achieve. The reason why the USA is always the most
successful team at the Olympics is because they have this same model, the British
went back to this structure and it has paid up for them in the last two Olympics.
We need to get the kids back to the track and fields and
stop building “omo get inside” schools like we keep building all over the
country. Schools without space for sports or recreation. Till we go back to
that model. Tokyo 2020 Olympics will be just another blur for Nigeria.
The government alone cannot get this done, individuals and
private companies are needed but for them to join in, the structure must be set
up all over again.
Schools should have their inter-house sports and from them
the inter – regional sports competition to state competitions before we finally
have the national competitions where we can have those who can finally represent
the country. We need the inter - university games, the secondary school games
and so on.The team sports need leagues for them to thrive.
One day, hopefully we will have a sports minister with such
vision as to drive this form of sports structure for the country.
God Bless Nigeria.
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