SPORTS DEVELOPMENT: THE CROSS RIVER EXAMPLE

Thursday, 16 February 2012 08:00

There is no gainsaying the fact that sports in Nigeria is at its lowest ebb. Since the early 1990s,the downward trend in sports and sporting activities have continued unabated with many governments, both at state and local government levels paying lip service to its resuscitation, as it were.

Even the federal government is not spared as the National Sports Commission, the body set up to be solely responsible for providing the framework for the renaissance many Nigerians are craving for has failed to provide the leadership needed at that level.

Many Nigerians, especially former Nigeria internationals have identified the return to school sports as the foundation to build the rebirth on. Many gleefully remember the good old 1970s and 1980s when our schools provided the bulk of the athletes that made Nigeria a household name in global sports.

Many still remember today that Henry Nwosu played for the Green Eagles at the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980 in Lagos as a secondary school student while Adokie Amesimaka played for the senior national team as an undergraduate student at the University of Lagos. In track and field, the likes of Mary Onyali, Falilat Ogunkoya, Tina Iheagwan, Davidson and Osmond Ezinwa were discovered in schools and went on to bring honour and glory to Nigeria.

That is no longer the case again. In fact 99% of players in our U-17 football teams are secondary school graduates thereby calling to question their true ages. Many of the athletes who represented Nigeria at the 2011 IAAF World Youth Championships are secondary school graduates. The desire to get quick result irrespective of how it is achieved has been the major factor that has caused the downward trend noticed in our sports since the 1990s.

While many state governments and sporting federations have identified this as a clog in the wheel of sports development in Nigeria, most of them have not made any realistic effort to address it. Many states have come up with different models all aimed at discovering talents that can be nurtured to national and international stardom.

While some states have thrown money at the problem believing inadequate funding alone is the root of the problem, others have adopted novel models like the adopt-a-talent model. Some others have embarked on massive development of infrastructure believing that provision of these will lead to the unearthing of hidden talents who hitherto have been looking for avenues to showcase their talents.

None of the states except Cross River under the leadership of Senator Liyel Imoke has adopted a more pragmatic approach to solving the problem by looking at sports as a social instrument. Senator Imoke believes investing in the youth of Cross River today will ensure that they are healthy and well equipped to manage the critical life transitions ahead of them.

He has provided these youths with opportunities to have fun and be active, reinforcing their desire to make physical activity a lifelong habit. He has thus seen sport as a tool to promote child and youth development, enhancing physical health and development.

The state, through its consultant on sports, former Nigeria track and field international, Dr Bruce Ijirigho did a proper analysis of the problems of sports development in Nigeria and came up with a model that not only ensures talents, which abounds in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria anyway, are discovered, but also ensures they are properly nurtured to become great and cultured sportsmen and women.

Like many Nigerians have agreed, discovering talents is just a minor part of the problem. But unfortunately, many of the models adopted elsewhere have only concentrated on solving this problem. Many of the talents so discovered have not gone beyond that stage and that is why an athlete can compete in an U-17 championships three times in say six years!

The states, except Cross River have failed to come up with a workable solution to the major problem of sports development which is nurturing them to become not only great athletes but also responsible citizens. What most of them have done is just to develop sports for sports sake hence their recourse to hiring mercenaries to compete and win in National Sports Festivals.

The Cross River state model started by Senator Imoke a few years back is hinged on the return to school sports where education and sports can be combined to produce truly great and responsible champions. This model, I there say is unattractive to many because the results may and are not immediate but are nevertheless enduring.

Senator Imoke set up three model institutions equipped with modern training and teaching facilities with one located in each of the three senatorial zones in the state (Ikom, Calabar and Ogoja) to ensure every talented athlete in the state is given the opportunity of gaining access to the model schools where they are given scholarships to study as well as train.

Abu write from Calabar