Every Nigerian knows everything concerning all sports (except perhaps the administration as no one ever laid claim to this) but yet out of about 180million people the country can’t deliver any World champion in any sport.
Of course every Nigerian can also boast of intellectual database considered the envy of the World over in several endeavors but yet the country never produced any car, heavy machinery and other infrastructural necessity. Now, who are we deceiving and why shouldn’t we step back and rethink our educational resources rather than focusing on throwing money around without a solid reasoning behind the direction we aimed to go.
The above statement was made to show that it’s not just institutional problems the country faced in sports but qualified and adequate manpower as well. Nigeria’s Universities graduated thousands of Physical Education students yearly but yet the sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi maintained that they are not qualified just as much as attendees of the National Institute for Sports (NIS) coaching programs. His view was based on the fact that the country does not have any World Champion in any sport; therefore, he sought the advice of coaches in other countries.
Why Was Tobias Igwe And Tony Osheku Not Advising Bolaji Abdullahi?
Recently, Mr. Abdullahi invited the media to observe and instantly published talks on the weaknesses of Nigeria’s sprinter Blessing Okagbare in her 100m final between himself and one Afilaka, who is a former 10.7seconds sprinter that coached British athlete Adam Gemili until sacked by UK Athletics last year for failure to produce Olympics medal. This talk was made publicly even as the competition in other events has yet to commence and Blessing was to compete in them.
To say the least respectfully both Afilaka and Mr. Abdullahi simply got no clue that what they were doing aids opponents as such they are both novices on sports matters. If Afilaka has done this to his athlete during competition, the athlete should seek other coach. Athletics (track and field) strategy and training includes your opponents’ strategy and weakness just as in football and all other sports. Is Igwe and Osheku not in a better position to advise Mr. Abdullahi as their coaching credentials included Olympics and world championships’ medals?
The fact that Mr. Afilaka was sacked by UK athletics for failure to deliver Olympic medal on athletes he was assigned to speak volumes that Nigeria ought to emulate because in Nigeria, perpetual National Coach or administrator is the norm and as for the British team Gemili qualified for 200meters final at the World Championship in Moscow slated for tomorrow (Saturday 16 August 2013),“British sprinter Adam Gemili's coach Michael Afilaka made redundant by UK Athletics. He has also been denied the option of continuing as a contracted coach on a reduced salary because Gemili did not make the 2012 Olympic final in London, according to Gemili's camp.” Here is the link to the article; http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/9700257/British-sprinter-Adam-Gemilis-coach-Michael-Afilaka-made-redundant-by-UK-Athletics.html
Again to what benefit should the sports Minister be dealing with people that cannot deliver the goods the country needs?
Some Coaches were also offering advice that were so archaic that makes modern coaches to wonder what planets these people come from. For example, (lawyers view aside) who can devise a competition strategy without guessing about opponents possible strategy, lane assignments and how to mitigate such and who can call themselves coaches without viewing opponent frame by frame video in designing your own athlete performance strategy. If Sports Minister continues to rely on these old styled coaches then Nigeria will never recover from the death of her sports and remained mediocre except perhaps Blessing Okagbare for one more year.
Other Talks
Former AFN President Toni Urhobo opined that Blessing should not have been entered in the 100m event due to fatigue but unfortunately his timing for making such statement was ill-advised as the athlete’s opponent may have zero-in on such statement as Blessing weakness. He also noted that the athlete required 48 hours to recover after long jump and to that I say then why was Carl Lewis doing the same thing about 30 years ago along with others? Such views though reckless when Blessing still got other events to go but also so archaic in reasoning and undemocratic. Blessing got a right to determine her own destiny, she qualified to compete in 100m at the World Championship where thousands of dollars in prize await her in addition to sanctions Nigeria’s athletics (AFN) will face for denying her right to compete as well as her fundamental right to seek a living. So, respectfully, I fully disagree with Coach Urhobo statements.
It was also very upsetting to hear from individuals who never delivered any athlete of the caliber at the World stage to second guess a Coach (John Smith) with over 200 Worlds’ and Olympics medals along with world records from his athletes. That’s my respectful view on Afililaka.
And as to our dearest Coach Urhobo who funny enough consider opposing views to his writing as insults unfortunately, he may have thought, the country is in a dictatorship, nevertheless I ‘ain’t’ mad at him. We are supposed to oppose wrong views in a democracy and challenge the speaker on his theories whenever we feel so and if the speaker don’t like it, then let him remain mute, sorry to say this. I’ve been opposed worse than disagreement about my views and it was cast in stone permanently by the Sports Minister and Solomon Ogba cronies like Eneefiok Udo Obong, Tunde Akinlabi, Yussuf Alli, Gabriel Opuana and few others. Freedom of speech is fundamental in any democracy and everyone must respect it.
Furthermore, not once do these so-called Coaches ask the imposed federation boss Solomon Ogba, a basic question and that is why is the nation relying on one athlete alone since he came on board? To clarify further, Moses Oyiki and Pat Itanyi asked this basic question, that’s why I mentioned it here. Again, respectfully one cannot bite the hands that feed him is the response I got on this question and that was the reasoning of using Blessing blame as diversion from the incompetent administrators.
The country also heard from Mary Onyali suggesting a guarantee medal in the women 100meters in the same vein as Mr. Abdullahi, knowing full well that on any given day that event can be won by any finalist. Was such guarantee aimed to deceive Nigerians? Absolutely, YES.
Falilat Ogunkoya on her part was busy praising the Minister as ‘juju’ man for turning the country sports back into the reckoning and to that one cannot but laugh because Falilat was at the Olympics along with her Age Mr. Abdullahi and the million dollars question is where was that juju? Of course, Falilat was Mr. Abdullahi chosen one to the athletics federation without any election imposed by the Minister.
This indeed is what we talked about; culture of dependency, incompetency, novices and foolishness. The country can now see that the leadership in sports got no clue about functionaries of sports, the coaches relied upon got no teeth to effect changes in order to deliver real performance as their reasoning are quite archaic and the federations are just there for the cash grabs.
Dissecting World Athletics Championship
Some athletics soothsayers suggested that Bolaji Abdullahi is the best Minister in Nigeria because he showed up for national trials as opposed to his predecessors, clearly untrue but I ask where was he in 2012 trials and where was he in the past 20years if he loves athletics so dearly. Let us be clear again, before the Olympics Mr. Abdullahi never attended athletics competition in Nigeria in the same vein as previous Ministers until this writer began his campaign for action every week since. However, the country is glad he is making himself available for ‘photo-opt’ these days to appease the population but that does not translate into positive action.
Mr. Abdullahi was in Moscow for the World Championship earning his extacode listening to the advice of sacked coach from UK (Afilaka) who never produced Olympics champion as opposed to a true multi decade’s producer of many gold medalists and world records that also delivered Nigeria’s medalist at the World Championship few days ago.
Way Forward
NIS must be handed over to the Education Ministry.
The NSC must be restructured immediately.
Six Commissioners must be appointed to the NSC.
New sports policy must be developed by the six Commissioners.
Commonwealth games athletics entry must be reduced drastically and if all possible the country should focus on the junior from now on except perhaps Blessing for the time being.
Sports federation must be explicitly abandoned while NSC setup direct funding to athletes world ranked in any sport not just six sports.
The NSC must create a sports academy for youths during the holidays as I advocated previously like the Mobil athletics camp for youth is a step in the right direction. Adopt an athlete programs of Lagos State was also my invention for those who does not know.
No more funding to sports federation, is showing good result because now it is clear that federations are simply crippled without NSC contrary to the media hype that Solomon Ogba was spending his own money rather it was NSC funds illegally obtained for costs paid by the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) that he spent.
Again, the readers are always invited to write a letter to the Sports Minister for what you think is wrong but be honest enough to name ‘names’ as that’s the only way to sort out this administrative loggerheads turning the country to pre-colonial era. His media aide email contact info: alpha.julius@gmail.com
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