Sports Minister Solomon Dalung apparently enjoys hearing his own voice which translates to doublespeak on matters concerning the industry. He is quick in reminding us that he isn’t a football minister, yet nothing good can come out of football, if he isn’t handling it. Dalung negotiates all football deals. If he doesn’t know about it, it won’t happen. He shunned church services on Sundays to beg President Muhammadu Buhari to release cash for the Super Eagles. This kind minister sef!
Would it, therefore, shock Dalung to hear that it cost the Table Tennis Federation less than $19,000 to prosecute the African Championships where Nigeria emerged champions in the women singles, winners of the male doubles event and runners-up in the men’s singles and mixed doubles? Nigeria was also runners-up in the male team event. Sir, Super Eagles are a distant 11th in Africa, in spite of your expert intervention and interest. Sir, $19,000 is less than what we paid four bench-warming Eagles players for beating Tanzania in a meaningless last game of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in Uyo.
It will interest Dalung to know that Nigeria star Aruna Quadri is number 25 in the world. Yet the minister’s cherished Eagles are 60th. Shouldn’t these facts challenge the minister to pay more attention to the game like he does to soccer? Or should I enumerate Segun Toriola’s table tennis exploits? Shortly before the Olympics, Oshonaike cried blue murder over the ministry’s neglect of the team. She was stampeded to do a retraction; she would have been dropped from participating at the Rio Olympic Games, if she didn’t. Nothing changed. Oshonaike repeated everything she said before the Olympics when she got to Morocco.
Stories of how other sporting federations don’t attend key competitions, including qualifiers for the Olympics, are legendary. But the minister couldn’t be bothered for as long as it isn’t football. Need I waste space to enumerate instances where Nigeria was absent from competitions because of lack of entry visas?
Is it not one of the duties of the ministry to sponsor teams which qualify for international competitions? At these world events, Nigeria’s flag is hoisted, her national anthem sung and the medals’ table has the country’s name, not that of the players. So sir, why can’t the ministry fund their trips? What did the minister do for the table tennis squad when the news came that only Funke Oshonaike was in Morocco to represent Nigeria in the female events? If we had our female players there, they would have finished runners-up in the singles and doubles events at the worst – that is if they don’t win some of the events, like Oshonaike did in the singles?
Why didn’t the minister forgo going to church on Sunday to appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to release the cash the ping pongers needed to participate in the competition, like he did before Nigeria’s last game against Zambia in Ndola? We saw how the minister headed for Atlanta to pay the footballers their dues. We also saw how the minister personally supervised the payment of our contingent in Rio and only recently in Zambia. This wouldn’t be the first time that the table tennis contingent would attend competitions as orphans. They virtually paid their way to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. The pair of Oshonaike and Segun Toriola wanted to address a press conference in Rio to announce their retirement from the game because of this and other reasons. But their federation president Enitan Oshodi prevailed on them not to retire but to help him nurture the younger ones he was introducing to the game. What a genius Oshodi has turned out to be, considering what Oshonaike achieved in Morocco last week by becoming the best female table tennis player in Africa at 42.
What is clear to us now is that Nigeria doesn’t have a sports calendar, where the minister can plan how funds should be disbursed to contingents heading for international competitions beyond what Dalung and his men read in the media on football. Indeed, it is the duty of the federation to organise tournaments to discover, nurture and expose those discovered to bigger competitions. If there is one federation that has made its mark in terms of organising competitions funded by the corporate world, it is the table tennis federation.
Dalung wouldn’t say that the table tennis federation’s chieftains have not done their beat like he does with football. He must therefore apologise to the players, their officials and the coaches for the humiliation that he has subjected them to since he became minister, like he did to the footballers in Rio.
Had Nigeria organised an Olympic Games’ fundraising event before the multisport event in Rio, there would still have been cash left for the table tennis contingent. Let me inform the minister that our players earned points which would help them to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games from the tournament in Morocco. This is the hallmark of sports- forward looking and highly dynamic. It has such terminologies like wild card meant for borderline players and achievers in the games. What it also means is that there would be a lot of competitions leading to bigger ones like the Olympics.
Now that the table tennis, basketball and boxing federations’ chieftains have shown that they can prosecute their programmes with corporate sponsorship, it behooves on the minister to make these three sports pivotal in our quest to excel at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. It should start today. After all, the three sports were at the Rio Olympics.
It isn’t enough for the minister to doff his hat for Oshodi. Rather, the minister should sit with him to see how past sponsors of the game can return, with assurances that their cash won’t be misappropriated, now that they have credible members.
We can use table tennis, basketball and boxing (the Lagos Boxing Hall of Fame project) for the pilot schemes to lure the corporate world to support sports. Subventions from the government to these three bodies could be increased. It could also include not sending cash to non-functional federations, which should kick their bumps to start their programmes.
The Algerians are talking
The media are awash with quotes from the Algerians promising the Super Eagles a tough time in Uyo next Saturday. Such mind games help the fans to storm the stadium to watch the match. They have acknowledged the depth-in-strength of our stars just as they think we are beatable inside the Nest of Champions Stadium.
We aren’t expecting the Algerians to clap for us in Uyo. It is for this reason that we plead with our players to report to the team’s Abuja camp, so that the coaches would have more days to prepare them for the tie.
This idea of our players sneaking into Nigeria, only to report to camp two days to the game is unacceptable. They were granted permission to head straight to the camp, not their homes. Thank God the coaches have asked them to report in Abuja. Surprised? The players lied about connecting flights from Lagos to Uyo, which forced them to report late. I wonder what they would tell the coaches now. They could either fly straight to Abuja from Europe or to Lagos. The flights that take off to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from Lagos are uncountable.
Again, we need to plead with our players not to fill the hotel rooms with their guests who distract them. They don’t accommodate guests in the hotels where their European clubs camp. Why do they exhibit such attitude here? Our players should be told that Nigeria’s flag must be hoisted in Russia in 2018. We have the players to help achieve that objective. Anyone who isn’t ready to play by the camp rules can excuse us.
Going for World Cup tournaments should be our birthright in Africa. It should be a stroll in the park, given our players’ exploits in Europe and the Diaspora.
Ambode’s bull’s eye
Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s decision to open the gates at the Teslim Balogun Stadium was a bull’s eye shot. It showed that the governor understood the essence of such a cup final.
Large turnout of spectators at the stands helps the corporate world to identify their products and services with such human activities. The bill boards and the inner perimeters of the playing pitch should have advertorials that would further convince the big companies to advertise, knowing that for 90 minutes they would enjoy international attention in the media.
Corporate firms always ask what is in it for them if they splash their cash. I’m excited that one of the teams (IfeanyiUbah FC) would be wearing West Ham FC of England’s colours as enshrined in the deal struck by the two parties. I wish Nasarawa FC players could also be clad in a Nigerian firm’s shirt. It could have also formed a talking point for the neutrals at the stands in deciding which of the two teams to support.
May the better side win the trophy and represent us well at the continental level next year. Take a bow, Akinwunmi Ambode for the wisdom in throwing open the gates at the stadium. Globally, the country’s FA Cup games are the biggest and the oldest. The people cherish watching them because of their tendency for upsets. It is in the FA Cup that minnows shock the giants. And Nigeria’s FA Cup game between Nasarawa FC and IfeanyiUbah FC epitomises this.
Ambode’s decision should propel the NFF to pick good referees for the game and ensure that the television coverage is world class, such that viewers at home are shown the fans celebrating at the stands, not just focusing on the personalities at the State Box.
The NFF security committee members must ensure that the gates are locked once the stadium is full. Latecomers can be encouraged to head for the National Stadium, Surulere complex, which is opposite the Teslim Balogun Stadium to watch big screens inside the premises. Effort must be made to ensure that the gates are flung open with 20 minutes to the end of the game to avoid any stampede.
Thank God the two teams are not the traditional ones with immense followership. So, their fans won’t be fanatical. They also won’t cause any confusion when either of them loses the trophy at dusk today. It is a breath of fresh air having new teams in the finals. I hope that they give the fans the value for their money.
