Nigeria: Bada Advocates Return to Drawing Board
This Day (Lagos)
24 July 2007
Posted to the web 24 July 2007
Lagos
After Nigeria finished the just ended 9th All Africa Games here in Algeria with 51 gold medals to place fourth and surrender the title won in Abuja four years ago, Sunday Bada, technical/performance director of Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) said it is time for the country to go back to the drawing board to assess our handling of sports matters in the country.
The former quarter miler champion who is a serving police superintendent told THISDAYsports that from the performance of Nigerian athletes at this edition it is certain something fundamental is wrong with our sports.
"In track and field I will say we have not done badly despite the inability to meet the 13 gold medals target we set for the team. If you look at some of the problems we had with trying to connect with our America based athletes you will realized that there
was little to expect from them. If we had gone on the training tour we would probably not be talking of trying to perfect basic things like baton exchange.
But due to our peculiar situation, most of the athletes arrived Algiers here without the necessary coordination that ought to have taken place," observed the AFN board member.
As far as Bada is concerned, the fourth placing of Nigeria here is the result of how we prepared.
"It is time for us to go back to the drawing board to begin to think of how to revive our developmental programmes from the grassroots. Otherwise, we will continue to see situations like now when some athletes think that they are doing the country a favour competing in the green white green colours of Nigeria.
Right now, I can tell you that most of these athletes think first of what they can get out of competitions even before thinking of national pride. This should not be the situation. It is this kind of mentality that is responsible for the divisions we have in camps today,"revealed Bada.
Apparently referring to Olusoji Fasuba’s refusal to do a victory lap with the Nigerian flag after he won the 100m title in protest over the dropping of Endurance Ojokolo for Damola Osayomi, Bada said such misconducts should not be tolerated.
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“As a former athlete I know the pains involved in preparing for a major competition like this. For us to be able to in still the discipline that will remove unnecessary bickering, we must first be concerned with the welfare of the athletes so that the lure of competing for other countries will become less attractive. When we do this, there will be no room for excuses to warrant poor outings,” he stressed.
In the track and field events of the just concluded Games in Algiers, Nigeria won 9 gold medals, four short of the 13 hauled at the Abuja edition four years ago.
Apart from the 100m male and female won by Fasuba and Damola, Salim Nurudeen and Toyin Augustus picked the 110m and 100m hurdles.
