RE: IN IT TO WIN IT - IDEAS ON SPORTS FUNDING

It’s a great article by Feyi Fawehinmi on how to develop sports and maintain a competitive edge. It is impressive to be able to look at the Nigerian challenges then honestly propose a solution to it without sounding cynical. That takes an effort. His article acknowledges that there is not a unique solution to our sporting woes and problems. One hopes at least Mr. Fawehinmi’s articles stimulate a desire to look for answers to the problem of our sports. Not the bunkum we are being fed by Nigeria’s Minister of Youths and Sports (hope I got his designation right, if not my apologies). His article and proposals are filled with half-truths that are more dangerous than outright lies. My gut feel is that his commentary is designed as a money making venture rather than a desire for serious sport policy development, which would improve the standing of sports. I digress. 

Unlike the article by Mr. Fawehinmi, however, I am probably too skeptical that any solution proposed in the current Nigerian system would work. So I would deign to propose any new ideas. However, I do have a few points to make on the article’s solutions to the problems.

 Neither retreat nor surrender

Well, well, what can I say? As easy as it sounds, walking away doesn’t solve our problems. It would be easy to just walk away from our problems. It would save countless headache. However, the failure in our current Olympic endeavour is symptomatic of a deeper rot in the Nigerian polity, not just sports. Walking away from it is really no option here. Except we are prepared to walk away from getting good governance…oh, I know we have been walking away from these problems a long time. 

 

Crowd Sourcing

Using crowdsourcing websites like www.kickstarter.com to fund sports wouldn’t work for the long term. The reason crowd sourcing wouldn’t work is our typical short attention spans. If an athlete has a bad year he would be promptly dropped like a hot potato by the crowd…Crowd sourcing as a way to invest in our sports would be driven by short-term gains rather than a long-term view - (which unfortunately the government is in a better position to take) - I am rather libertarian in my views, but the government does have its uses. 

 

Sports development needs long term funding, commitments and facilities. Even in the UK where the lottery funds the athletes for a large part, the government pitches in a ‘meagre’ 40%. This is aside from the various community centres with well-developed sporting facilities that a  monetary value cannot be easily placed on.  As a short-term bridge though, crowd sourcing might work while a permanent solution is worked. Crowd sourcing would help us gloss over the problem while we wait for a system to nurture and develop talents. 

 

The Other Things 

The Nigerian government doesn’t have plans to develop sports aside from the lip service being paid to it. Athletes are developed from the grounds up. I am not trying to sound sarcastic, the current government is good at setting up committees, it might be worthwhile setting up committees with a view to looking at how Jamaica, South Korea, Grenada, China and Russia have successful athletes. I recommend the committee members do not work on pro bono basis, but rather be paid full estacodes equivalent to what our senators and minister. 

 

Serious countries like the UK have started a post mortem for why some sports were unsuccessful e.g. swimming. Countries have started planning towards the common wealth games in 2014 taking place in Glasgow. We do not need to wait till it is 3 months to the date before we start assembling athletes when we know the dates for the games already. 

 

Last Points

This might be controversial but it is a fact in its own way: we are not a sporting nation. We like watching our sports on DSTV, we are very competitive…why else do we buy I better pass my neighbour for chrissakes? Maybe we used to be a sporting nation, however, at the moment sports are not our priorities. 

How many Nigerians actually exercise? How many participate in sports for the fun of it? I know we stare in consternation at those who actually jog and exercise for fun!

 

Some Other Things

While I am not best placed to propose a solution to the problems of sports in Nigeria, there are few things we could do.

An idea would be to concentrate on the easy pickings, sports which require little outlay. Concentrating on such sports as archery, running, shooting, weight lifting can be a good way to start developing our quest for excellence. We are not going to be able to compete with the developed countries in sailing, or dressage (who made that event an Olympic sports anyway?) 

People with natural talents for the sports or interests in the different games should be encouraged. For a long time ABU unarguably had the basketball team amongst Nigerian universities. This was because it was a sport actively encouraged and promoted with different incentives. Contrast the treatment to athletes from some other schools where they where they had to go for the Nigerian University Games Association under the threat of failure…

 

It Ends

Most times, the problems of Nigeria have easy solutions. There are many ideas floating out there on how to improve sports in Nigeria. Implementing these solutions is the difficult part. No matter how many discussions goes on about the state of sports, without the will to implement the suggestions, there would never be growth or improvements if the first step is not taken to implement improvements. 

 

Our problem is not the dearth of solution, it is the dearth of honest will.