Nigeria: Administrators, Athletes Tread Familiar Path

The Moment (London)

Oladipo Okubanjo, Paul Erewuba And Ajibade Olusesan

11 July 2011

analysis

With the year 2011 gradually thinning out, events in Nigerian sports in the last six months indicate there have been no significant changes either in the management of the sports establishment or the various sports associations and federations; while football, not unexpectedly, remains the most visible and busiest sport.

Indeed there have been more events in football than the other sports put together could muster in any given year. Early in the year, the national Under-20 team, the Flying Eagles, re-established their dominance in continental youth soccer by winning the African Youth Championship in South Africa; the triumph ensured that the John Obuh-led side secures a berth at this year’s FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Columbia.

In March, the Super Eagles resumed their campaign for a ticket to the 2012 African Cup of Nations by beating their counterparts from Ethiopia 4-0 in Abuja with striker Ikechukwu Uche scoring two of the goals to mark his return to the Eagles fold following a lengthy absence due to injury. However, few weeks later, the Samson Siasia-led squad forced a draw away to Madagascar, while group leaders Guinea beat Ethiopia 3-1 to leave the Nigerian side on the brink of missing out of the party in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

The national Under-23 side, Dream Team V, has been in splendid form, posting impressive results in both the All Africa Games and the 2012 Olympic Games qualifiers. But the women’s national team, the Super Falcons, recorded their fifth loss to an African side when they were stopped by archrivals, the Black Queens of Ghana, in the All Africa Games qualifiers.

All hopes that the Super Falcons would lift the pall of gloom cast by their failure to qualify for the All Africa Games with an awe-inspiring performance at the 2011 Women’s World Cup in Germany were dashed when the team crashed out in the very first round of the competition, losing 1-0 to both France and Germany and beating Canada by the same margin. Two-time African Female Footballer of the Year, Perpetua Nkwocha, announced her retirement from international football shortly before Nigeria’s game against Canada, and she ended up being the scorer of the lone goal, incidentally her first and only goal in three World Cup appearances.

Amid all the on-the-pitch activities came the shocking news of Olubayo Adefemi’s death in faraway Greece. The 2008 Olympics silver medalist, who had barely started his Super Eagles career, died in a car crash on his way to the airport in Thessaloniki, where he wanted to board a flight to Nigeria to finalise his wedding plans.

Adefemi was honoured by his Super Eagles colleagues, who observed a minute’s silence and wore black armbands during the June 2 international friendly between Nigeria and Argentina at the National Stadium in Abuja. The Eagles beat Argentina, dominated by obscure players, 4-1, but the result was trailed by a bout of controversy as the world soccer governing body, FIFA, issued a statement saying that a betting syndicate might have influenced the outcome of the match.

On June 11, Samuel Eto’o, Emmanuel Adebayor, Samuel Osei Kuffour and a host of other African stars – active and retired -joined their counterparts like Austin Okocha, Joseph Yobo and Ikechukwu Uche in rain swept Lagos to give former Super Eagles captain, Nwankwo Kanu, a befitting testimonial. The match played at the Teslim Balogun Stadium featured the Super Eagles All Stars captained by the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola against Kanu and Friends. It ended 3-1 in favour of the Super Eagles All Stars.

Football activity temporarily moved to the ocean side in June, when the Beach Eagles participated in the African Beach Soccer Championship in Casablanca, Morocco. Though the Beach Eagles could not retain their African crown, they qualified for the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, which comes up later this year in Italy.

Football events in the past six months have, however, been punctuated by the protracted crisis between the Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), and a group of stake- holders, who have continued to dispute the outcome of the August 26, 2010 elections of the NFF, and had gone ahead to set up a parallel soccer ruling body.

Other sports

Outside the football arena, Royal Hoopers of Port Harcourt put up a scintillating show at the Final 8 playoffs in Lagos to emerge winner of the 2010-11 Basketball Premier League; the national cricket team participated in the Division 7 of the World Cricket League Series in Botswana, and by the end of the competition, the Nigerian ambassadors earned promotion to Division 6 of the world league series.

The month of June also witnessed the staging of the 2011 All Nigeria Athletics Championships in Calabar, Cross River State, where Blessing Okagbare and Damola Osayomi, who in March returned to competitive athletics after serving her six-month ban for doping offence at last year’s Commonwealth Games, rekindled their rivalry in the women’s sprints, especially in the 100 metres.

In tennis, Abiola Akewula beat Blessing Samuel 6-4, 7-5 to win the women’s singles event at the 33rd All Nigeria Open Tennis Championships in Lagos.

The 17th National Sports Festival, which ended at the weekend in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, was always going to be the biggest sporting event of 2011 in Nigeria and reportedly, it surely lived up to expectations at least in the theatres of competition, but many of the athletes and fans alike would not forget the poor hospitality in a hurry.

The verdict

Based on what has unfolded in the sports sector in the past six months, stakeholders in Nigerian sports are unequivocal in their declaration that much still need to be done for sports to be on the path of development.

Former coach of both the Green Eagles and the Super Falcons, Paul Hamilton told The Moment that the sports authorities would have to return to the basics to bring back the glorious days.

“We have not gotten it right in the past 15 years or so due to lack of planning. We have abandoned the part of honour; we have lost focus; we have neglected the ingredients that make a pot of soup to be sweet.

“Before now, we had a situation whereby sports was developed from the grassroots level; we had School Sports where talents were discovered, they were identified, nurtured, harnessed, trained and thrown into the competitive world to represent the country.

Through this system, young talents were discovered in weightlifting, badminton, wrestling, boxing, football and other sports,” said Hamilton.

“The only solution left for us now,” he added, “is to retrace our steps and re-direct our sports development orientation.”

Rigid leadership

National boxing coach Obisia Nwankpa, who berated the sports administrators for lopsidedness in the way they manage sports, echoed Hamilton’s submission. “What we now know as Nigerian sports is football. A lot of money has been pumped into football recently, and even over the years, what do we get from it? What have we won in football? Tell me!

“We are preparing for the All African Games, Olympic Games, and all we hear about is football. Remember there are other sports. How many gold medals does football attract in an All African Games and by extension Olympic Games?” said Nwankpa.

He continued: “In these games, how many gold medals do athletics, judo, weightlifting, boxing, karate, wrestling to name but a few attract? We have relegated these essential sports to the background and all we talk about now is football.

“We do not have sponsors for these sports because the enabling environment to attract sponsors is not there. It calls for concern and if we must put our sports in the right perspective, we have to have a long time plan.”

Mediocre feats

Fiery sports commentator, Martin Osaile believes there is nothing in the past six months that suggests Nigerian sports is on the track to development. He told The Moment in an interview that in spite of success stories of national teams in some sports in the past few months it would be a disservice to the nation if anybody celebrates that as development of sports in the country.

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