Egbunike points the way forward for athletics
By Tunde Eludini
November 14, 2010 12:04AM
With his dear country, Nigeria apparently heading off the tracks and her “top” athletes no longer rated amongst the best, one of Nigeria’s all-time greats, Innocent Egbunike, now coach in Qatar, offers a way out of the steady decline facing the country’s athletics.
Speaking to NEXTSports from his base in Doha, Egbunike said in the late 90s and early 2000, Nigeria was losing her athletes to other countries but today we are gradually losing them to drugs; a situation that highlights the dearth of the sports once regarded as the pride of the country.
“Nigeria is at its lowest ebb in track and field coupled with all the drug scandals currently rocking the sport. This does not augur well for the Nigeria we represented in our time. It saddens me to see what is going on, I believe we need to invest in drug education, find out where and who supplies them the drugs and establish a vision with long term training programs,” he said.
Good old days
“We had like four guys running under 10.10secs in the 90s and they were coached by mostly Nigerians, we need to let go of the slogan that when it comes to Nigeria “Charity begins abroad” and do like most nations and appreciate what we have and support our people. I see changes, thank God for the hiring of Samson Siasia, it tells me change is coming and soon we will change the slogan to “charity will begin at home.” Egbunike considers herself blessed to have won Nigeria’s first and only gold medal on the “Olympic tracks”. He coached the Sydney 2000 4 x 400m men’s relay team, which was not even ranked in the top 15 at that time, to first the silver medal winning feat before later being handed the gold medal after it was discovered that the America team spiced up their system with banned substances.
“We have what it takes to be the best, the problem is lack of vision by our administrators, a lack of commitment in regards to establishing a program, a lack of commitment in helping the athletes reach their goals, lack of funding for track and field, lack of incentives; for example promoting education, which was the core of my era, setting up standards and having different categories of sponsorship for the athletes; these are professional athletes and they need to be taken care of. Having been exposed to a lot of programs of most of the countries that are doing well, we need to establish a program that will befit us,” he said.
A cue from the past
Egbunike said the country needs to go back and study the history of what worked in the past, when Nigeria stood next to USA, Germany, and Britain and ahead of some of the countries that are currently doing well now.
“We need to invest in the athletes and in coaching; we have good coaches, but when last did they go for any coaching education course? I remember when the excuse used to be that we do not have qualified coaches, that was then but now we have the likes of Tony Osheku currently coaching in Libya, Pat Itanyi in the USA amongst others and these are well educated coaches that are willing to give back to our great Nation,” said the man that was christened ‘Innocent of Africa’ by President Arap Moi of Kenya in 1987.
“It is hurtful to say, but I believe in speaking the truth, athletics seem to have dwindled to its lowest level since the 1990’s. 1996 was good and I believed it could only get better but unfortunately that has not been the case.
I am not in a position to judge any man or woman, but I think we need to study our history so that it won’t continue to haunt us for the wrong reasons,” he intoned.
According to Egbunike, what helped the athletes of his era was the hiring of coaches that competed at the highest level.
“We had Coach Lee Evans the then world record holder, and also getting the athletes before us involved in the scheme of things.
“Shame on us when Nigeria hosted the African Games, they brought in athletes from other African countries to do the medal presentation and did not invite their old heroes. Where was the likes of the first African sprinter to run the 100m in 10s flat, Chidi Imoh, the 1984 4 x 400m team, the 2000 4 x 400m team, 1992 4 x 100m team,” Egbunike queried? Success breeds success, some of the athletes today do not even know who holds the African record,” he continued.
The London 2012 Olympics
Looking ahead to the London 2012 Olympics, Egbunike advised the athletics authorities to hire a head coach with some experience and international exposure. He said such an individual should be encouraged to perform maximally by giving him a free hand to run the sport.
“By this I mean that there should be non-interference (tribal, political or otherwise) in his managing of the sport. Interference in sports by the administrators is one of the major ills of this sport. I have been a part of different national teams and I have come to know the reason for their successes.
I believe that for us to succeed in the 2012 Olympic Games we need to earnestly start now. This will also give the coaches an opportunity to prepare ahead of time and help eliminate our athletes looking for short cuts”.
Offer from Nigeria
Asked if he will consider an offer to leave his high paying job in oil-rich Qatar for Nigeria, he said “For the love of Nigeria, it will be nice to give back to a country which gave me a great pedestal from which to start my blessed athletic career. I will make myself available by helping the country to find and nurture talents which she has in abundance but has not tapped into.
“I slept on the floor at the African Games in Nairobi, some of us slept at the airport and from the airport straight to competitions, we sweated, bled and hurt for our beloved nation and even turned down juicy offers from other countries. But despite all that I suffered, I still have the love of Nigeria in me, I am here in Qatar as a Coach because they recognised my achievements as an athlete and a coach in the United States and felt I have quite a lot to offer them. If Nigeria sees her past athletes and coaches in the same light then we can move forward,” he concluded.