The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is Nigeria’s biggest political party. Unfortunately it is unregistered. All the intrigues associated with our political parties are embedded in the affairs of the Glasshouse in Abuja. The only difference is that there has been no death or carnage arising from electoral skirmishes. God forbid. Touts have not being recruited to enforce decisions.
There have been rancour, bitterness and the after-elections’ court cases among contestants are just as it is in politics. The significant difference is the carpet crossing in the sense that those who jump ship after elections don’t need to say it openly. Nor is it expedient on them to inform their power blocs (political parties), since such things don’t exist in football affairs.
In the larger polity, the rules for elections are enshrined in the Constitution. But for soccer, the extant rules rest with chieftains of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA). These statutes are such that render countries’ laws otiose in terms of interpretation. FIFA is a society, whose rules are binding on countries willing to participate in its competitions.
Many people have asked why NFF elections are troublesome. Those who have benefited from the largesse in the Glasshouse don’t ever think it is right to remove them from office. Ironically, they were elected because the previous boards failed to deliver on the promises to make all our soccer team, the platform to export our local players to Europe, Asia and the Diaspora.
In spite of the brouhaha associated with the NFF elections, soccer earned Nigeria a bronze medal, even with the wahala the Dream Team encountered, starting with their denouncement by the office of the Minister of Sports. I reckon that the minister knows better now, and he appreciates the fact that asking our national teams to prepare for competitions outside the country arose from the derelict state of our sporting facilities and to ensure that our sports ambassadors are not distracted. Those ambassadors are relocated to these countries whose athletes are world beaters.
Nigeria has joined the league of countries that have won all the medals (gold, silver and bronze) available in a particular team sport. In 1996, Nigeria won the football gold medal. In 2008, we won the silver medal, losing to Argentina in Beijing, with the Argentines happy that they avenged their 3-2 loss to Nigeria in Atlanta in 1996. We clinched the bronze medal in Brazil last year despite all the intrigues associated with the team’s preparations.
What stands out clearly from our bronze medal feat in the soccer event is that with good planning, our athletes are capable of great things. I expect the minister to have learned a few lessons. He will understand better when told that a team wants to camp in serene places for competitions. It is true that our athletes should be able to train here. But with the derelict conditions of all our facilities, coupled with the recession, it will be cheaper to camp overseas. Did I hear you say how? Most of our good athletes live overseas. It is cheaper for them to A soccer gold medal is achievable, especially with the uncanny manner in which Super Eagles manager Gernot Rohr is luring Nigeria-born players in Europe and the Diaspora to play for their fatherland. Many will emulate others and join the play-for-Nigeria train.
In sporting countries, attention is paid to the maintenance of facilities, with particular focus on updating them to meet with the prevailing standards, unlike in Nigeria where we watch them rot away. These facilities will remain useful, if those who are running our sporting federations truly know the rudiments of the games.
Indeed, the Table Tennis Federation has stood out in terms of registering our ping pong players in competitions. With regular attendance of competitions, it is easy for these events to be staged in Nigeria. Such big events ensure that the facilities are upgraded. It also exposes our grassroots players to see how the game is played on the international platform, aside having to watch their idols play.
It won’t be out of place if chieftains of the Sports Ministry pick table tennis as one of the sports where Nigeria can win gold medals at the 2020 Olympic Games. Segun Toriola, Aruna Quadri, Funke Oshonaike, Babatunde Obisanya, Sunday Eboh, Atanda Musa, Kasali Lasisi, Bose Kaffo, Cecilia Arinye, Olawunmi Majekodunmi (pray where is Majek now?) et al are some of the tennis stars, who have done well for this country. We have a pool of players who can be persuaded to coach the national teams.
Something is fundamentally wrong with the game here. Our coaches lack the requisite knowledge to match their European and Asian counterparts. There are two sides to help them, such as sending them on training courses or getting the foreign coaches to come here to train our coaches and players. In the short term, there is the urgent need to get one of the best coaches to help Aruna become a World Cup winner. He is so close with his innate abilities. But the finer details of helping him win trophies includes to get him a coach who will sit on the bench to offer him useful tips during his games.
Aruna is our best bet for the gold medal. We need to repackage his outfit. And such repackaging can be targeted at the corporate world to provide the cash to fund the missing pieces in his game, starting with employing a competent coach. The package should include setting up training camps for him and perhaps the country’s kid stars penned to replace him soon.
Oshonaike has towed the path of fame with her pet project targeted at producing new table tennis stars. There is no reason why she shouldn’t be in the new Nigeria Table Tennis Federation. Federations need such icons to help the game grow. It says a lot about development of the game if members, such as Oshonaike, visit the corporate world to sell the federation’s programmes. Not a few blue-chip firms will accept to fund the event, no matter how small, using Oshonaike as the signpost for doing it.
All that the federation needs is to get Oshonaike to highlight the gains of such sponsorship package based on her experiences. It won’t be out of place if Oshonaike becomes a coach. She understands the rudiments and can easily learn from more exposed coaches in Europe and Asia where ping pong is played as a means of livelihood not for mere recreation, which is how our administrators want it to be perpetually.
Talking about getting Oshonaike to become a coach reminds this writer of the Wrestling Federation president, himself, an Olympic gold medalist for his adopted country then, Canada. Step forward Daniel Igali for your insightful education of the minister before the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. I won’t blame the minister for trying to prune the list – in the spirit of the government’s prudent spending.
But Igali’s argument for the wrestlers to travel with their sparring partners explained why they returned to Nigeria empty handed despite their high rankings at world events prior to the Rio Olympic Games. A little lesson for the minister, only if he remains in office to prepare for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Ighali has shown examples of how to lead by example. He wrestles with his athletes. He monitors their progress and advises them to change how they wrestle on the big stage. As an Olympian, he is respected by the international body, unlike what we see in federations with directionless leaders and lickspittle members.
Basketball federation is embattled. I don’t want to delve into its problems. Rather, one would advise that the officials agree on the guidelines for its election. It is the only way to build on the back-to-back Olympic Games’ qualification feats. The current board has achieved a lot. But this shouldn’t be the reason for anyone to perpetuate himself in office with a mandatory two terms. No matter what the board achieves, after two terms, its members should bow out honourably. If there is synergy among the members, they should work towards getting one of them to aspire to being the body’s president.
Those eager to ease out this board have credible credentials to run the federation and achieve results. But these stakeholders must not allow their ego to destroy a federation they toiled in the past to get to this height.
It won’t be out of place if a former international becomes the president of the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF). This will be in sync with the paradigm shifts in the leadership of international sporting bodies globally.
Basketball stakeholders will develop interest in the new dawn if such an international played in the National Basketball Association (NBA). I wonder why the basketball giant Akeem Olajuwon hasn’t been cultivated to bring his immense contacts to develop the game here. If the face of Nigeria’s dunking sphere is Olajuwon, the benefit this basketball colossus will bring to our game arising from his clout is enormous. He is a Nigerian even though he made his mark playing in the NBA and for America.
How much is the NBBF worth? Such questions will be laughable, with Olajuwon, for instance, as the NBBF president. This is the new direction our sports should go – less dependence on the government for cash.
Can Nigeria win a gold medal in basketball? Tall dream, but a silver medal won’t be beyond our reach, with proper planning and understanding among the stakeholders.
