Interview/Feature
On Sunday, January 10th, 2021, Funmi
discussed sports with a 12-time Paralympic Gold Medalist, Ahmed Koleosho, and
Olympians and members of the Nigerian Olympic Committee, Chief Falilat
Ogunkoya, and Enefiok Obong.
With a mostly young population and a
youth bulge that is spoken about across the globe, Nigeria might be one of the
leading countries in Sports. Not only in performing sports, but sports as an
industry. An enterprise and driver of development. However, since the 90s,
which were the glory days of sports, it would appear that this has not come to
pass.
A documentary revealed the
excellence and versatility of Nigerian athletes. The sports industry has been
plagued by corruption, poor administration, poor policies, and more. This has
led to a huge number of talents seeking opportunities in other countries. For
sports development, one of the most important ingredients is the ability to
spot talents from local communities and competitions, but with a lack of
funding, sports centres and stadiums have become dilapidated. And there doesn’t
seem to be any plans to build new facilities or fund grassroots training.
Funmi let us in on the fun fact that
it was her dream to be a sports person, but she did not have the stamina or
willpower to continue. So, she became a sports journalist but quit as it became
painful to watch other people doing what she wanted to do.
Then, star-struck at being in the
presence of Ahmed Koleosho, Funmi asked, “Where do you hang your medals?” In
his humble manner. He replied, “In my room. I wake up, look at them, and hope
to add more medals as time goes on.”
Ahmed told us his origin story, “I
joined sports after graduating from the University of Lagos in 2010. I’d
studied computer engineering. I stumbled on Para Table Tennis by accident.
Afterwards, I asked where I could practice. I eventually went to the stadium
and trained with one coach. He told me I was better than most people in the
sport, and I should pursue it further. From there, I joined them for the
National Sports Festival as an observer. The arena was challenging, but I liked
the experience. From there, I decided.”
“But special sports has its
challenges. The first is stigmatization. Accepting us as a major part of sports
in the country is an enormous problem. And that has affected many things,
especially sponsorship, setting up competitions for us, having access to
facilities. It’s an enormous challenge for us. It costs me four or five times
the amount to get facilities to train compared to my able-bodied counterparts.”
Then Funmi posed the question. “Why
has no one who has played sports, run sports in Nigeria?”, to Olympians and
members of the Nigerian Olympic Committee, Chief Falilat Ogunkoya, and Enefiok
Obong.
Falilat’s simple answer was, “We
have been cheated. They decide without us, but when something happens because
the people deciding are unqualified, they come running to us. Put us there and
see what we can do to change sports. We are going there from our hearts. It is
what we love. It is what we do.”
According to Enefiok Obong, “Sports
is run side by side with politics. But when you have sportspersons who are not
politicians, it’s very difficult to get a slice of that. We won’t be entirely
correct if we say that we have not had a sportsperson in power. A few years
ago, the Director-General of The National Sports Commission, Chief Patrick
Ikeji, was once a footballer. Still, the country has not as at yet, taken
sports with the seriousness that we need to bring a technocrat in or someone
that cares to change things.”
Public Eye airs every Sunday at 5 pm
on TVC News. You can catch them on any of these television channels: DSTV
(channel 418), Startimes (channel 307), GOTV (channel 45), or channel 572 on
Sky.
Public Eye is supported by the
MacArthur Foundation.
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