Nigeria: Civil Servants, Bureaucracy Bane of Sports -Odua

Daily Independent (Lagos)

Uzor Odigbo

22 April 2011

interview

Prince Isidore Odua lived sports. The former Nigeria Football Association (NFA) board member and also the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN) understands the undercurrents of sports administration. It is no surprise that he has never hidden his love and admiration for the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) for the giant stride his administration has achieved as far as sports is concerned. In this interview with SNR CORRESPONDENT, Uzor Odigbo, he did not spare the bureaucratic civil servants accusing it of stifling sports development arguing that Nigeria would have achieved much. Excerpts.

The clamour today is a return to grassroots sports development as panacea to the dwindling fortune of sports, how…

(cuts in) The truth is that grassroots sports development is the panacea to the dwindling fortunes of sports. Why Nigeria made waves in sports in the late 70s to 80s and early 90s was because of the policy centred on grassroots. But today we have abandoned this and are paying dearly for it. We need a deliberate policy aimed at developing sports at the grassroots and also inculcating sports in schools. This is why I give kudos to the Lagos State governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN). Anyone that have lived in Lagos for many years like myself would agree that what Fashola has done for sports in four years, and is still doing, no other government in any of the states comes close to it.

Sports development at the grassroots level has never been considered a project worth pursuing to past administrations, but Fashola came in and immediately took it upon himself to develop that sector. Apart from that, look at the sports infrastructure he’s built everywhere in Lagos, every Local council can boast of mini-sports centres, the state is now open for sports academies to strive, while in the past, there was nothing like that. There is the street soccer, there is plan to set up National Institute for Sports in the state. This will be at Epe. Look at what he did to Teslim Balogun stadium. He came with a policy that is against poaching of athletes for the National Sports Festival. Look at the junior football league for U-20 by the 57 Local Governments in the state. He has opened up the opportunity for the private sector to be the driving force and civil servant. I thing considering what this young man has done for sports in the state, he deserves another term.

Are you campaigning for him?

Not at all, his works should do that for him. I’m only highlighting reasons why all sports loving Lagosians must come out to vote for Fashola, like I was saying, sports in Lagos has taken another dimension, nobody talks about competition or Eko for show anymore, the state has retraced its steps from competitions to actual development.

You served in the Lagos State Sports Council in the 80’s and this perhaps gave you an insight in choosing Fashola for commendation. Does it mean past administrations did not do anything to improve sports in the state?

I’m not saying that. Past administration did something just like we are seeing it today in other states, but the present regime went the extra mile and took sports development and rehabilitation of sports infrastructures to another level; opening up Lagos for youth participation in sports was something not experienced in the state in the past. We have seen Lagos state participate in sports competitions in the past, we have also witnessed Lagos based teams in Premier League competitions in the past but all these has not led the state anywhere in sports development, that is my point. My mission is to encourage Lagosians to vote in Gov. Fashola for another term to continue the good work he started in sports.

You spoke about sports veterans, in what ways has his government affected their lives?

The governor surprised me when he heard and immediately responded to the needs of past sports heroes. Willy Bazuaye would have died of a strange illness and unknown to many Nigerians, if not for the governor. He also gave a helping hand when he was informed about the plight of former UK-tourist goalkeeper, Ibiam from Ebony who would have died of poverty after serving the nation. The recognition the governor extended to Sam Okwaraji’s family not too long ago was exemplary , this also include many sports veterans in the state that were fixed, employed and deployed to areas of their calling in the sports council as coaches, games masters and instructors.

Because of the general elections, all sporting activities have been put on hold, should this be the case?

I am very upset that in Nigeria, sports and politics which used to be on parallel lines have started destroying each other because the right things were left undone. There’s nothing happening at the national level, everywhere is quiet. Not reasonable sports ministry would put to halt preparations for the All Africa Games, World Athletics Championships, the Premier League and the 2012 London Olympics preparations. It shows lack of plan and focus. Mind you, others are not waiting for you to finish your elections, so why should Nigeria stop its preparation if not for the fact that those in charge of sports in this country are very ignorant, I mean the civil servants. In my opinion, what civil servants in the ministry ought to have done during elections was to continue with the sport programme as planned; election should not have stopped preparations if they really know what they are doing.

But as civil servants they cannot do otherwise if the government says everything must be put on hold for security reasons?

When some of us lament over none functional National Sports Commission (NSC), people tend to misunderstand us. If we had a functional NSC in place, Nigeria’s sportsmen and women wouldn’t have stopped preparations for major sports event. NSC would have ensured that camping is in progress followed by competitions. We have sports zones scattered all over the federation, athletes would have been camped in their zones to enable them return home quickly for elections instead of cancelling all sports activities. No civilised country ever stops sports preparations because of election, not in Ghana, Zimbabwe or South Africa. Let me say something here, Nigeria sports started nose diving when the NSC was pushed aside and the sports ministry began to direct the activities of sports and that was how bureaucracy came into our sports system.

Back in the days, everything was on budget, sports federation scribes don’t have time to queue in Abuja asking for money to travel for competitions, the money will come to them well ahead of the competition date to enable them prepare for the competition. But today, it is the ministry that determines when any sports scribe would travel, they would disburse the funds and on many occasions withhold some funds and blame it on bureaucracy. And bureaucracy in any sector of the economy is not a function of development but that of corruption.

Often times you have canvassed for enabling laws that would separate Sports Ministry from the National Sports Commission, in what ways are they different in their function?

We already have the enabling laws but the people there in the past like Dr. Amos Adamu and present Chief Patrick Ekeji were reluctant in pushing for a complete turn around, because they felt their powers would be watered down. The sports Ministry should be after the formulation of policies as it affects sports, while the NSC handles the actual implementation of the policies. The sports ministry doesn’t have the right to determine whether or not athletes go on competition. That is why you and I would find it difficult to know the United Kingdom sports minister or the US, even South Africa. In Nigeria, the sports minister is also the NSC chairman and the director general; these functions cannot reside with one man and we want sports to grow.

Who in your opinion had contributed to the underdevelopment sports had suffered in recent times?

I would not like to name names. But there are certain personalities in the past that brought sports to its knees. Forget about hosting this or that, this personality denied this country the actual youth sports development. It was during the time that sports federations became tools for ethnicity rather than competitions. If you are not close to some administrators, you won’t be posted to where some of the federation secretaries referred to as juicy federation. Professionalism was thrown to the dogs and mediocrity was elevated. Elections of chairmen and board members of sports federations were polarised. It became ‘paddy paddy affair’. It was during this time that competitions at the sports federation level died a natural death and nobody seemed to give it a thought. At the moment, how many sports federations have organised competitions with their own budget. None because, the sports ministry won’t release any money for them to do it. Therefore, when I say we are yet to get it right at the federal level, don’t get me wrong. The evidence are there, how many medals have we won in recent times, instead we are losing our pride of place in sports within the continent.

What do you think is the solution to all the problems you’ve highlighted?

The solutions lie within us. The sports minister should liaise with the National Assembly for the implementation of the policies in sports and letters of giving this nation a functional National Sports Commission. Functions must be shared adequately between the Ministry and NSC for sports to grow. The minister should also begin to empower the sports federations towards organising competitions; the idleness arising from dearth of competition in the sports federation is alarming because the ministry has not been disbursing funds to the federation to execute their primary assignment, if they do, sports will begin to grow. Above all, sports budget must be increased to take care of decaying facilities and youth empowerment in the country.

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