President of FC Ebedei Barrister Churchill Oliseh, said sports can arguably be employed, deployed, to drive and sustained systematic change in culture, civilization and even religious faith.
Oliseh, a lawyer cum football administrator was the speaker at this year’s Breeding Leaders for Empowerment and National Transformation (BLENT), hosted by Dr. Mike Okonkwo, The Presiding Bishop of the Redeemed Evangelical Mission (TREM), in Gbagada, Lagos,
The President of Nigeria National League (NNL) club, in a 5-page lecture titled:’ The impact of Sport on societal transformation: The Nigerian Football Story’, talked about how sports can help social transformation via the economy it drives, national identity, and unity it gives.
“Empirically football was introduced into Nigeria with the assistance and activities of the early missionaries. With time it became a vehicle for city congregation and representation. So we had teams like Port Harcourt XI, Ibadan XI, Enugu XI. It grew and by the 40s and 50s, we had attained a national team for Nigeria,” he said as he detailed Nigerian football trajectory.
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“The golden era saw Nigeria qualify for the FIFA World Cup in 1994 with a 2nd Round finish, win the 1994 African Cup of Nations in Tunisia, Olympic gold medal in Atlanta in 1996, and qualify for its second Mundial in France.
“In the millennium, the Nigerian flag was visibly present at the Japan/Korea World Cup in 2002. In club football, Enyimba became the first Nigerian team to win a back-to-back CAF Champions League after winning it in 2003.
“Nigeria became a global brand, feared and loved, even the military regimes of the day leveraged our football success. We spoke in one voice and proudly sang the national anthem and saluted the Nigerian flag.
“Unfortunately, the ease and fortuitous nature of our attaining the golden era became our undoing, due to the absence of a policy/program to replace the players of that era,” he added amid applause by the audience.
He added: “Deliberate global policy to deny Nigeria and Africa access to the foreign Resources and technology Africa relied on in conquering and challenging the World.
Hijack of Nigerian football by incompetence, ineptitude, maladministration, and outright banditry,” he said.