In his first major interview post  the Tokyo 2020 Summer  Olympics Games,  the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) Caretaker chairman, Daniel Igali,  shed lights  on some of the problems befuddling sports in Nigeria  while offering  fresh blueprint for success in an exclusive conversation with MORAKINYO ABODUNRIN.

Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) Caretaker chairman, Daniel Igali , has seen the worst and best of the sporting worlds hence a voice to be  reckoned  with  in the administration of the combat sport.

Born in the recess of the Ijaw Nation of  Bayelsa State where he caught his teeth on the mat of wrestling, Igali  would later etched his name in perpetuity as the first Canadian to  win  a wrestling  Olympic Gold medal. En route to Olympic stardom in  the colours of his adopted country, Igali captained the Nigerian wrestling contingent   to the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Canada where  he stayed behind to seek  asylum before acquiring the Canadian citizenship in 1998.

Aside winning the historic  gold medal in the Men’s 69 kg freestyle wrestling at the Sydney 2000 Games, Igali also won a gold medal in the Men’s 74 kg freestyle wrestling for Canada at the 2002  Commonwealth Games in Manchester. He was inducted into the Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame in  2007 as well as the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 2012.

But  Igali has  since proved his mettle since he became the president of the NWF  and it is by no coincidence he was the caretaker chairman of the federation when Nigeria won her first wrestling Olympic  medal at the recently concluded delayed Tokyo 2020 when Blessing Oborodudu won the Games’ silver medal in the women’s freestyle 68kg.

Read Also: Igali calls for sustained funding for wrestling

Yet, Igali said Nigeria has the potential to rake in more medals at the Olympics beyond  Oborodudu’s Silver in wrestling and  Ese Brume’s Bronze medal in the long jump event at the Tokyo Games.

“I have always maintained that with proper planning and preparation, Nigeria has the potential to win above five medals consistently at the Olympics,” Igali said in a n exclusive interview with NationSport. “That said, considering our recent history of medal hauls at the Olympics, a silver and a bronze medal was not particularly a bad result. Passable, I would say.”

Never shy of calling a spade, a spade; the two-term member of the Bayelsa State House of  assembly  and current sports commissioner , said  poor infrastructure and lack of technical expertise  are some of the factors that have been the bane of the country  at challenging the world’s sporting order.

“Our inability to compete at the level of most advanced nations cannot be narrowed down to infrastructure alone,” Igali, a holder of Master of Arts degree in criminology  from Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada  further explained. “ It’s a combination of infrastructure, lack of qualified technical officials, lack of sustained long term planning, inadequate budgets and lack of opportunities to compete amongst others.”

Citing his creditable  performances in the red and white colours of Canada, Igali  said  it was obvious that  was something wrong  with methodologies  athletes in the green and white colours of Nigeria  were being exposed to, adding  it is about time Team Nigeria is shown the new  techniques.

He said: “I believe Nigerians have some of the best genes anywhere in the world. How can we explain my ability to win gold medals at both the world and Olympic Games for Canada within six years, if our genes were incapable of producing  spectacular performances?

“I am of the view that if we are to make rapid progress and compete at levels expected of a country like Nigeria, the corporate world has to step up its game. Sports Federations must start being ranked and funded based on their performance levels and projected medal hauls at major multi sports games.

“A situation where a federation does not have a budget, is a signal for failure; the inability to plan for multiple years because of lack of budgets for federations is a major cause of our under performance,” the  vastly experienced sport administrator noted even as he shed lights  on some of the problems befuddling sports in Nigeria  while offering  fresh blueprint for success. Excerpt…

On the  adopt-a-talent policy by the FMYSD

In my view, the ‘adopt an athlete’ initiative by the Hon. Minister (Sunday Dare)  is admirable and commendable. He has been in office for only two years so we can’t fault him for not having introduced the unique policy earlier. Again, I come back to the private sector participation in sports. What was required to adopt an athlete is about 5 million naira for an athlete based in Nigeria and 10 million for an athlete based abroad. Now, how many athletes were adopted and funds paid upfront to cover training and competition expenses? I don’t doubt that Nigerians like sports and really want our athletes to do well, but do we put our money where our mouth is? If we continue with this policy and the private sector participates actively, it will greatly help. Especially, when combined with other funding sources. However, what would Five  Million Naira do for an athlete expected to compete at the world level? Let’s say such athlete needs about 200K monthly for their upkeep. That alone gulps over Two  Million Naira. The athlete should have a coach, possibly strength trainer, doctor and Physio. The number of competitions SUCH athlete attends will vary based on how old and experienced they are. But on the average, you have the continental tournament, world championships, national championships, and trial competitions for both world and continental championships every year. That’s five compulsory tournaments every year.  If we need success for such athlete, it is recommended that they compete at about three other international ranking series tournaments yearly. This is the minimum. Same goes for the Junior and cadet athletes – in fact, they are expected to even compete more frequently. The point am making is, for us to mould an athlete to a world level, we must be prepared to spend between 15-30 million yearly on an athlete. And that’s not including the regular exposure of our officials and umpires and even the secretaries of federations. Between 1995- April 1999, I had about 180 matches. That’s an average of 45 matches a year. The maximum matches you can have in a tournament is 5 matches. So on average, I attended 11 tournaments yearly for four of my preparatory years leading to world and Olympic gold medals. Sports is not cheap. If we must aspire to reap those medals, we must put in the investments. We must also recruit the professionals that will drive the process.

Performance of  Team Nigeria’s wrestling contingent  in Tokyo

Yes, am very happy that we have finally won an Olympic medal. For the past few years, I had felt uneasy each time Olympic medal winning sports was mentioned. Nigeria had participated at the Olympics since Moscow 1980, we were yet to win an Olympic medal. Blessing Oborududu is the model athlete. Am so happy that after all the near misses at the world championships and Olympics, she finally won a precious silver in Tokyo. But Odunayo Adekuoroye’s loss was almost unimaginable. When it happened, I felt like I had been shot. It was not over confidence. That’s Odunayo’s style and that’s how we train them to wrestle.  She is not the wrestler who stays away from finishing off a match. The normal routine for the coaches and myself after the draws is to do scouting of her potential opponents all night, compare notes in the morning and get the athlete prepared for their matches. However, when we looked at the draws, it was evident that Odunayo was familiar with everyone in her pool. Had easily handled about 80% of them. So, our attention was turned to the other side of the bracket who we could possibly meet at the finals.

The unexpected happened. If Odunayo and that same girl were to wrestle ten more times, it’s unlikely that we would see what happened in Tokyo. Lessons learned. It’s a psychological blow, especially because we had her so prepared physically, psychologically and mentally for this Olympics. This is the most ready I had seen her. It was not meant to be. She is getting ready for the World championships coming up in less than two months. She will be ready for Paris.

Oborududu for 2022 Commonwealth Games

Blessing is one of those unique specimens that will be very hard to replace. She is one of the few athletes who became and African champion only in her second try at the young age of 19 and has consistently won it 11 years in a row. She has been very close to winning medals at several world championships.

In my view, though she is not a late bloomer, she is now at the height of her game. We discussed at length. She has committed to the Commonwealth Games next year. However, the corporate world has to be involved if she will commit to another Olympic journey. We will see how the corporate world will support our journey to 2024.

Making Yenagoa the ‘Mecca’ for wrestling

My view is that training has to be consistent. We cannot improve the techniques or the strength and explosiveness of our athletes by calling them to camps when we have a month to competitions and expect results at the highest levels. God being so kind, we have been able to build a “ theatre of wrestling”, complete with training and accommodation facilities in Yenagoa. We have had the support of the Bayelsa state government since 2007 when I relocated to start this project. Last year, we also got a grant from the uww (united world wrestling) to equip the gym. The accommodation complex is about 80% complete. I intend to have it officially Commissioned and raise enough funds for it to operate on its own. We can then open it up to the  west African sub region and attract technical support from NGO’s  and international sporting bodies.  I have received several inquiries from athletes virtually across Europe, North America and even Australia, wanting to come and train at the centre. I believe the fed ministry, as they have started to do, merely need to collaborate with such centres and make adequate use of our facilities. Oftentimes, government is not the best at maintaining such facilities. I encourage most federations or private individuals to go this route, so we can create the opportunities for our athletes to train year round. Am a proponent of raising athletes locally. All we need is go for intermittent camps and compete regularly within and outside the country and we will be fine.

Setting bars for  good sports administrator

To be an administrator in any sport in Nigeria, you must have the passion and drive to ensure that your sport thrives. For me, that is the greatest pre requisite. With passion and drive, everything else follows. Over the past ten years, I have had to be a friend, Coach, training partner, fan, baby sitter, psychologist, philanthropist, marketer, mentor etc. We do not have structures in most sporting federations and even at the state levels. For any sport to groom a couple of athletes to be competitive, especially if it has to be done locally, one has to take matters literally in ones hands. I remember those early days, and I give a lot of credit to Amos Adamu and Patrick Ekeji who recruited me and Supported me when the atmosphere wasn’t very clement at the time. I turned my three bedroom apartment to an accommodation for select athletes who could come to Yenagoa to train whenever they needed. It’s really important to have robust relationships especially with local authorities. Local government Chairman, Commissioner’s, government officials and especially governors. I have been so fortunate to have had the support of every governor Bayelsa has had, starting from Alamieyeseigha – Goodluck Jonathan – Timipre Silva – Seriake Dickson to the current governor, Sen. Douye Diri.  Gov. Timipre Sylva started the annual Governor’s wrestling classics in Yenagoa and it has today become the biggest tournament in Nigeria. Over the past 6 years, we have had the support of the Delta and Rivers state governments as well. Gov. Wike exposed Nigeria’s capacity to host world class tournaments when he hosted the first ever Africa Wrestling championships in PH in 2018. It is fitting that I give him credit for that incredible feat.

Kudos to Sunday Dare

On another note, I would like to thank the minister of youth and sports, Chief Sunday Dare for all the support he has rendered to the wrestling federation for the last two years of Olympic preparations.

A good administrator needs to have good relationships with the federal  ministry, state and local governments, the private sector, NOC – we got three Olympic scholarships for three of our top athletes; Be driven and passionate about your sport; ensure that the welfare of your athletes and coaches is your priority and be fairly knowledgeable about your sport.

Marching beyond Nigerian borders

I would like to add the bit about deliberately raising administrators in sports administration at the continental and world levels. It has to be a deliberate policy of the federal ministry of youth and sports. As we speak, Nigeria the giant of Africa has no Nigerian heading any continental Olympic sport. Out of over 40 Olympic sports, not one Nigerian is a continental president. That tells you how disadvantaged e is when it comes to sports politics in Africa.