Guardian

In recent times, the country has witnessed a raft of international competitions, where participants from all over converge in Nigeria to vie for honours and the cash that goes with them. Most times, such events, which cost thousands of dollars to organise, do not ultimately lead to the development of local talents, who can challenge their foreign counterparts effectively for the prize monies. CHRISTIAN OKPARA, GOWON AKPODONOR and OLALEKA OKUSAN take a look at the phenomenon and its impact on the country’s sporting landscape.

WHILE addressing the Nigerian community recently in London, sports minister/chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Bolaji Abdullahi, promoted the Federal Government’s programmes aimed at ensuring that Nigeria regained its place among the top sporting nations of the world.  One of such programmes is the Rhythm ‘N’ Play, which aims to utilise dance and fun to lure at least two million students back to sports. The minister said the strategy has become necessary if the country desired to raise future stars, who would then place Nigeria in its right position among the comity of sporting nations.

The minister also said that government’s commitment to sports development would soon manifest in new laws to deal with those who frustrate the wheels of progress in that sector.

The sports development agenda, he said, required that talented youths are trained at least two and half-hours everyday and also exposed to competitive environments to steel them properly so that they would be ready to compete successfully at the highest level when the time comes.

“We will take advantage of what we have to get what we need. We may not have the kind of facilities they have here in the UK and other developed countries, but we will ensure we harness every opportunity at our disposal and partner with other countries for success,” he said.

Admitting that the country cannot excel in sports “when we are not learning from other countries,” Abdullahi cited Kenya and other countries as examples that have little or no resources compared to what Nigeria has, but are excelling in track and field events.

According to him, the National Sports Commission is working on building a sustainable system, as the only way to success. Looking back at the last Olympics in London, Abdullahi said the Games taught the country valuable lessons, which would serve the country well in the long run.

“The London 2012 Olympics was really traumatizing because I trusted people who came to boast of their many years of experience in sports and at the end I saw where their experience got us to,” he reflected.

“Now we know that nothing happens by chance and so we are trying to build a system that will lead us to sustainable success.”

In the pre-colonial days and the years just after independence up until the late 1980s, Nigeria relied on the structures erected by the British colonial government to harness its abundant resources for success in sports.

Thus, the various divisions (states) had ready facilities with which to train their budding youngsters in almost all the Olympic sports. Even with minimal technical knowledge or teaching ability, games masters were able to churn out competitive youngsters, who went on to do well for the country in international competitions.

In the good days of Nigerian sports, every community, state and local council had its own competitions, which threw up its representatives in regional and national competitions, such that states’ sports festivals were as competitive as the National Sports Festival, which in turn rivaled the All African Games in the interest it generated among the people.

Those were the days when Nigeria had such world beaters in boxing like Dick Tiger, Abraham Tonica, Eddie Ndukwu, Lat Darasin, Davidson and Tony Andeh, Hogan Jimoh, and Dele Jonathan, among other great Nigerian boxers.

In athletics, Nigeria was almost at par with the United States in the number of worldclass sprinters, jumpers and quartermilers it produced for all occasions.

For instance, just before the 1976 Olympic Games, the country was rated among the top contenders in the boxing, long jump, 400 metres race, and the relays with Charlton Ehizuelen, Obisia Nwankpa, Bruce Ijirigho, among others being in the A list of athletes going to the Montreal show before the country pulled out of it.

But since the late 1990s, the country has been on a free slide in sports, prompting questions as to what must have gone wrong.

Since Nigeria had its best outing in the Olympic Games at the Atlanta 1996, she has not managed more than one silver medal in the world meet. In fact, the last Olympics marked the worst performance since Moscow 1980.

Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, agrees that Nigeria needs urgent surgery if she must be in the position to compete for major honours.

Abdullahi believes that as a country, after 52 years of taking part in a competition, Nigeria should sit back and re-examine her strategies to know what has gone wrong.

The minister, however, is optimistic that Nigeria will claim its rightful position in the comity of sports nations with the right approach to participation in competitions. He added: “When I came into office I asked for the template used in winning the Atlanta Olympics football gold medal, but I could not get it because there was none.

“We did not plan for that victory, which came against the expectations of many Nigerians. I believe that we will start doing well when we invest in the right resources. We have not achieved as much as we should because we have not invested as much as we should.

The argument is that most states and organisations spend so much on organising competitions without thinking of developing athletes to participate in such events. Some even argue that many competitions held in Nigeria are merely for the benefit of foreign athletes, who come into the country to win laurels and take away the rewards, which in most cases run into thousands of dollars.

The Federal Government is statutorily charged with providing facilities and the enabling environment for sports to thrive, while the local councils and states have the duty of harnessing talents within their domains, after which the federations assemble such talents for further development and competitions.

But a sports lawyer, Sabinus Ikewuaku, says those arms of government are not doing enough in grassroots development.

According to Ikewuaku, “some states’ sports councils are mere civil servants’ enclaves, where people go to mark the register and wait for the month end to collect their salaries.

“Most of these sports councils do not have qualified personnel, so what you find there is a situation where relations of politicians are sent to the sports councils to mark time.

“Abia State has produced so many national and international athletes, but there is no single tartan track in the whole of the state.  Ebonyi is a different case entirely.

“So, it is only by providence that an outstanding athlete can emerge from these states. But they take part in the National Sports Festival and other competitions because bit has become a routine.”

To a former board member of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Jide Josiah, Nigeria should reorder its priorities to ensure if it desired positive sports development.

Josiah says that given the opportunity, he will ensure that some state governors and corporate organisations operating in the country limit their spending in sponsorship of events such as long distance races.

To Josiah, who is from Ekiti State, what some of the governors and corporate organisations have done over the years are mere sports promotion and not sports development. He reasoned that the nation’s sports is not in any way reaping from the millions of naira being channelled into the sponsorship of events like the Obudu Marathon, which has consumed about $2 million as prize money from its maiden edition in 2005 till the 2012 edition.

“It is obvious that marathon races are alien to this part of Africa,” Josiah told The Guardian in an interview shortly after the Okpekpe Road Race, where athletes from Kenya and Ethiopia swept the prize monies at stake.

“People just misconstrue the races’ motives. Obudu marathon is just to showcase the ranch resorts to the rest of the world, while Okpekpe Road Race was a political event meant to show that Governor Oshiomhole is also developing roads in the hinterland.

“In the past, the MTN and Glo marathon were for mass participation and fun run in competitive terms. The races were of no use as no past Nigerian winner has ever come in the first 100 positions in any international marathon outside the country. So, it was just an advert stunt. The only benefit to local athletes is just the little cash money they won after the race,” Josiah stated.

In recent years, some Nigerian state governors have turned the country into a ‘gold mine’ for long distance runners from countries like Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda. They stroll in from different African countries to pocket thousands of dollars in competitions they have comparative advantage in, over their Nigerian counterparts.

The rush to stake huge amount of dollars on long distance races seems to be on the increase since former governor Donald Duke of Cross Rivers took the first initiative in 2005.

In that year, the country witnessed the birth of Obudu marathon race, which has become an annual 11.25 km race competition, where athletes from Kenya, Ethiopia and other parts of the world easily pick dollars. It usually holds in late November.

The Obudu marathon has the largest total prize-money available of any mountain race and is known as “the world’s richest mountain race”.

The competition winners receive US$50,000 each, and there is a total prize pot of around $250,000 annually. The race was created by the ex-governor  who devised it as a means of raising awareness for Obudu Cattle Ranch – a tourist resort.

Another ‘gold mine’ was opened for long distance runners about two months ago, when Edo State Governor Adams Oshomhole staged the maiden Okpekpe road race in a community near Auchi. It is the second largest in terms of prize money.

Kenya’s duo of Moses Masai and Rono Georgina came first in the male and female categories at Okpekpe race, pocketing $45,000 in the process. Athletes from Uganda and Ethiopia also smiled home with dollars from the race.

Some Nigerians who have the interest of the nation’s sports at heart are expressing worry over the unprofitable trend of marathon races in the country. To them, the governors are ‘directly’ nurturing other country’s athletes to stardom in areas they are already masters, leaving the short distance races, where Nigeria has a comparative advantage, to suffer.

To them, if half of the money channeled into Obudu marathon and Okpekpe road races are invested in short distance races (100m, 200m), quarter mile, jumps and the relays, the nation would continue to reap the fruits.

In the good days of Nigerian athletics, Cross River produced the likes of Emilia Edet, who went on to rule the 100m hurdles after losing the gold to highflying Modupe Oshikoya at the 1973 All Africa Games in Lagos.

Apart from Edet (now a coach), Cross River also produced great sprinters like Ikpoto Iseme, who was part of Nigeria’s 4x100m gold medal winning team at Brisbane ‘82 Commonwealth Games, Gabriel Okon and ex-African female sprint champion, Mercy Nku. They did not rise through marathon races.

Edo State, on the other hand, has produced great athletes who went on to rule Africa and the world in the short sprint from the days of old Mid-west region to Bendel.

Midwest, from which Bendel and Edo State metamorphosed, was the bedrock of Nigeria’s sports. The likes of Charlton Ehizuelen, Maria Usifo, Isaac Akhioye, Abraham Ordia, Jimmy Omagbemi and Awoture Eleyae ruled Africa and world athletics at different times. They were not marathon runners.

Some athletics buff have argued that state governors could as well draw world best runners in short distance races to their domains if top facilities are put in place.

To them, a Nigerian sprinter will go the extra mile to train in order to meet any standard set at any 100m or 200m event, if such mouth-watering prize money as $25,000 is at stake.

“From the way some of our state governors are going with promotion of marathon races, our traditional stronghold in sports, which is short distances races, may suffer more and Nigeria’s athletics will be in trouble,” one athletics coach reasoned said.

“There is urgent need to change direction from sports promotion to sports development as quickly as possible because there is no way we can beat Kenya, Ethiopia or Uganda in long distance races. We are just deceiving ourselves. We have our area of strenght, which is the short distance race. Why develop events, where the Kenyans will easily come and clear everything from time to time? I’m sure no governor in Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda will finance an event for short distance runners. I expect our governors to reason the same way?

Beijing 2008 Olympics taekwondo coach, Osita Egwin, believes the country would become a better sporting nation if conscious efforts were made to put down programmes for athletes development.

He said, “I want to say in the last few years, we have been doing more of sports promotion because all the basics for development have been neglected. We like to stage competitions and attend tournaments, but we are not taking any lesson from the major competitions we have attended.

“In terms of facilities, coaching and athletes’ welfare, which are the basics of development, nothing tangible has been done to correct the wrongs holding us down.

“New sports facilities are not being constructed while the old ones are not even maintained. Nobody talks of educating the coaches, who are supposed to be retrained and sent to zones. The athletes, who are actors, are not even given adequate attention. So if all these are not there, we are just doing promotion rather than focusing on development,” he said.

The University of Ibadan tactician added: “Even when we organise competitions, we hardly take any lesson from them. Rather, our priority is just how to outshine other nations.

“The question we should ask is, ‘What do we derive from the results?’ We need to start focusing on development, the way China has done. The coaches should be encouraged to affect the athletes positively by sending them out for coaching courses so that they can impart the knowledge on the athletes.

“It is the knowledge that the coaches impart on the athletes that they display when they go for major competitions.”

The President, Nigeria Taekwondo Federation (NTF), George Ashiru, says the inability to fashion a clear sports policy has made it impossible for the country to have a clear programme.

“There has not been any clear sports policy that will guide our activities. But in the last three years, the National Sports Commission (NSC) has set up dual programmes for grassroots sports and elite programmes, each with its own department. This is commendable. But before then, the federal government has left development for states in terms of facilities and we should also know that these states are faced with challenges of providing necessary amenities for their citizenry.

“So only a few states like Delta and Edo pay attention to sports development, which has reflected on their performance at major competitions,” he said.

National junior tennis coach, Mohammed Ubale, blames selfishness for the country’s decline in sports, saying the managers of the sector dwell only on sports promotion because it is lucrative.

“I think if we have been focusing on development, we will not be where we are today in sports. Those in charge of sports are not just interested in development because they know they cannot get anything from it.

“So their attention is always on promotion because most times nobody is called to give account of the fund spent on such activities.

“Some of our managers go abroad for sports activities and they see how other nations are doing things to develop their games. But our people are not bothered to replicate such experiences in Nigeria,” he said.

Ubale believes the country has enough raw materials to challenge the leading nations in sports, adding, however, that most of the talents are left to rot away or take to other things to make ends meet.