Less than two years ago, it was all work in progress. In fact, the contractors were still putting up structures for the 2014 World Cup as the matches began. But the caricatures of what was left to be built in Rio and designated Olympic cities intrigued many.
Today, Brazil is built up with some of the finest archictural designs ever seen. The awesome structures typify the hilly terrain around the cities. With the hosting of the World Cup and the Olympics,the Samba land can safely be called an industrialised nation.
Today, nobody remembers the zika virus stories that forced many top athletes to stay away from the games for fear of being infected with the killer disease. To tackle the virus and the rumours surrounding its outbreak, the government demonstrated remarkable commitment, providing adequate funding for the health sector across all levels. Interestingly, you cannot walk into any medical facility for medication without the doctor’s prescription, except with glaring evidence of emergency that requires saving a life.
The two tournaments hosted by Brazil have changed people’s perception of the country. It is now the new attraction for industrialists bringing in their cash to invest. The first investors are those interested in mechanized farming.
Travelling by road across the cities are wide expanse of land with irrigation facilities. There is heavy investment in machines. Rice and other agricultural produce are flourishing.
Indeed, travelling from city to city, mechanized farming is evident on both sides of the roads. It isn’t all about crop farming; livestock is thriving. The castles in the ranches are a delight to the eyes.
Hourticulture is a major industry in Brazil. The best way to explain how agriculture can be used as a revenue earner for any serious country is to visit Brazil and under-study the agricultural revolution going on here.
With the massive investment in agriculture come job opportunities. Again, the industrialization of agriculture has brought in investors with the cash that has improved the power sector. A classical example of the effectiveness of the power sector here was the incident that happened Monday night in Maracana. A tree fell on electric poles and caused a massive outage. Believe it, in 30 minutes power was restored in the area. How did it happen? Simple. The electricity company stormed the area with vehicles manned by engineers with the right equipment. The fire service sent its men. Security operatives stood guard while the outage lasted.
Businesses are flourishing. Everyone is savouring the gains of the games. Hotels are jammed in Rio, forcing visitors to find accommodation in neighbouring cities. Parks around the cities have been modernised.Brazil is indeed a major tourists haven.
Everything is in Copacabana- music, booze and women. The weather is great. Beach lovers enjoy the cool breeze from the Atlantic Ocean. Some just sit around with their loved ones to savour the sweetness of the sunbath.
Here in Brazil, tourism is a major revenue earner. Tourists’ centres are kept neat. Tourism is also a major employer of labour like agriculture. I won’t be surprised if Brazil begins to generate revenue from sports because of its state-of-the-art sporting facilities. Sports is business and Brazilians are coming. England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland etc watch out. Soon Brazil would be a new platform for global football. Already, they have the culture of watching games.
This writer won’t be surprised if international sports bodies start to use Brazil as the hub for all thier competitions. They have during their stay for the Olympics seen that
government officials can be taken seriously. Health facilities are top notch, security is almost perfect, means of transportation is very effective (inter and intra) and the hotels are world class.
The effectiveness of the transport sector suggests that it is not only a revenue earner but a big employer of labour. The central nature of the motor and bus centres encourages the large presence of people who engage themselves in various marketing operations that make the place buzz all night long.
There isn’t any business concern that one can’t find in all these motor centres, including wash-up hotels for passengers to refresh after long haul trips. Movement on the roads is 24 hours. Well laid out seven-track roads most times with effective security ensure that travelling is a pleasure.
You will marvel at the type of buses here. Brazil is the home of buses and there can’t be enough words to describe many that I have seen here. “Awesome” is perhaps the best word to describe them, especially when you look back at what we find in Nigeria.
Who do we probe (2)
Did Nigeria prepare for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games? Is it not true that most of the athletes in Rio secured their qualification tickets from qualifiers such as the All African Games and other qualifiers depending on the teams? Did Nigeria not place third at the All African Games? What was wrong in sustaining that momentum, given our penchant for doing things late? Is this not why we have failed at another Olympic Games, despite the nine-hour session in Aso Rock after Nigeria returned from the 2012 London Olympic Games without a medal? Had Sports Minister Solomon Dalung exercised son restrains and allowed Alhassan Yakmut complete the exercise of preparing for the Rio Olympics, maybe we would have done better.
Yakmut, as the former Director General of the defunct National sports commission (NSC) understood the dynamics of preparing the contingent, having spent his administrative career in the sports ministry working with several ministers and other renowned administrators. Besides, as former Nigerian athlete, Yakmut knows the body language of sports men and women, many who would trust him better to resolve their problems. Had the minister hidden his disdain for Yakmut by allowing him to complete the process, irrespective of what the new trends were with the emergence of the Muhammadu Buhari-led government, it would have been easier now to draw up a roadmap for future international sports competitions, the Olympics inclusive? Yakmut would have used the hiccups of the All African Games to perfect his plans for the Olympics, which is what other African nations at the Games did.
Yakmut’s removal as the man in charge of our Olympic Games’ plans is chiefly responsible for our uneventful display in Rio. I’m sure that if the minister had pleaded with president Buhari to allow Yakmut complete what he started, Nigeria would have been talking about one of her best appearances at the multi-sports competition. The merger of the sports ministry with the youth ministry created a vacuum which the minister didn’t quite appreciate. Once Yakmut was eased off, nobody replaced him. Nigeria’s preparation was left on the altar of counter accusation between Yakmut and the Minister which remains unresolved.
With this lacuna, nothing was done to prepare the athletes beyond the doublespeak by the Sports Minister Solomon Dalung over our chances of winning medals in Brazil. In one breath, Dalung didn’t see any sense in our athletes camping in countries reputed to the homes of certain sports. Yet, the minister acknowledged the fact that we don’t have facilities to prepare our athletes here. Besides, the world was shocked to read the minister denounce the country’s Dream Team VI’s stay in Atlanta in the United States of America (USA), insisting that he didn’t know they were going there.
Rather than institute a probe panel or anybody for that matter to probe Nigeria’s Olympic outing in Rio, the Buhari administration should first separate the sports ministry from its youth counterpart. The government should then name a competent sports technocrat as minister who would function with a National Sports Commission (NSC) like we have in civilised climes. The reason for a commission is that its members would be sports technocrats who would be eager to run the place like a business concern but with the support of the government in their sponsorship initiatives. Those in the commission would then pick the best sports policy in the system which should be the blueprint for sports development across the country. To avoid needless conflicts which could derail the operations, the NSC must seek the government’s support to get the state commissioners of sports to key into the commission arrangement since most states still operate with the commissioners acting as lords.
The government can get all the states to run the commission system through a proper legislation, a workable template would have been established to run the industry as a business. If this is done, the moribund sports competitions can then be revamped with those needing cash from the private sector repackaged and sold to interested concerns. Sports can only start to thrive if the schools through the states’ ministry of education integrate sports into its curriculum. This would make it mandatory on the school authorities at all level to embrace sports.
Sports belong to the people, most of who are the youth that you find in the school system. With schools embracing sports, there would be the need to get the games masters and mistresses to the kids the rudiments of the games. Of course, the state sports commissions would also deploy their coaches to the schools to teach specific sports, according to the dictates of the school’s authorities.
