Nigeria: Challenges Before Sports Federations
3 June 2009
opinion
Lagos — The nature of the recent elections into the boards of 21 sports federations in the country is a pointer to the fact that the regeneration of Nigerian sports may have started.
For the first time ever, the elections were not only devoid of the bitterness and rancour of the past but were spared the usual over bearing influence of government as the board members chose their leaders freely without impositions on them.
Also, in what could be described as a radical departure from the past, the candidates showed maturity and sense of purpose, right from the zones to the final round of elections in Abuja, a disposition, which, if maintained, would, indeed, sign-post the dawn of a new era in sports administration in the country.
As with elections worldwide, some incumbents were displaced, others were retained and new faces made it to the top. The high point was the anti-climax of the anticipated big battle between Benue State governor, Gabriel Suswan and Delta State Sports Commissioner, Solomon Ogba. Suswan withdrew and endorsed Ogba for the coveted Presidency of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN).
As the winners savour their victories and the losers wait for another day, we hasten to notify the new helmsmen that the task before them is Herculean and Nigerians are now in no mood to entertain any excuses for failure.
It is common knowledge that most of the sports federations up to the time of the elections existed only in name. That must change because they must wake up to the fact that they are to be the pivots of the development of the different sports in the country and this calls for radical action since Nigeria cannot continue to be the laughing stock of even less endowed nations in the sports arena.
Several reasons have been advanced for the comatose state of most of these federations, but the time for them to arise despite odds has come.
With the possible exception of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF)which enjoys some measure of autonomy, the other 33 sports federations have had to grapple with the problems of maladministration, poor funding and internal squabbles, which have manifested in poor planning, lack of vision, ill-motivated sportsmen and women and poor performance. Sadly, these problems have been most felt in the sports federations which are not only saddled with the task of discovering and grooming future world-beaters for Nigeria, but which must play key roles in the efforts to turn our sports fortunes around.
Given the moribund state of our sports, the new boards must get down to work immediately, and get it right this time round. The abysmal showing of Nigeria in major competitions such as the Olympics and Commonwealth Games in the recent past, should be a source of worry to every well-meaning Nigerian, not least, the sports federations. The country’s performance chart, indeed, leaves much to be desired.
It is often said that he who fails to plan, plans to fail. Over the years, the sports federations have tended to cut corners in their bid to get results, rather than put in place long-term, grassroot-oriented sports development programmes. The result of this strategy has been the inability of sports administrators to find capable replacements for the nation’s ageing or faded stars. Nigeria’s penchant for wanting to host international sporting events without serious consideration for the actual development of sports, has not helped matters.
While it has been acknowledged that funding remains a key issue in Nigerian sports, it would be the height of unseriousness for the federations to rely solely on government to run their programmes. We say so because given the capital intensive nature of sports and competing demands on government by other sectors, government cannot fund sports alone. Besides, sports has become increasingly private sector driven.
But as stated in our previous editorials, the right atmosphere must be created for private sector participation. No corporate organization worth its name would want to be associated with a body that disregards accountability and transparency. The prevailing global economic crisis calls for better management and marketing strategies by the federations if they are to thrive. Government on its part, should encourage private and corporate concerns to invest in sports by granting them tax reliefs as is the case with the major sports powers of the world.
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The absence of a comprehensive and effective blueprint for sports development in Nigeria has, regrettably, resulted in frequent policy somersaults. Also, instability in the leadership of sports in the past, as well as the decay of sports facilities across the country, have posed major challenges to the health of sports federations and it is expected that the new heads would tackle these issues so as to move sports forward.
Daunting as the challenges before them may be, however, we restate that they must not rest on their oars but must be more creative, more proactive and selfless in their quest to get our sports out of the woods. Fortunately, these sets of board members are a cut above the others who did not know why they were elected in the first place.
With the New Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games barely 13 months away, and the London 2012 Olympics promising to provide stiffer challenges, the leadership of the sports federations must put on their thinking caps and evolve strategies that would put Nigerian sportsmen and women tops on the medals tables of these events and restore Nigeria to her place of pride as one of the major sporting nations of the world.
