Athletes bigger than administrators

I won’t join the motley crowd pushing for Sports Minister Solomon Dalung’s exit. The Sports ministry should work with the board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) because both groups owe it as a duty to ensure that Nigeria becomes Africa’s Mecca for soccer. We have the talents. Without the athletes there can’t be administrators. Indeed, sportsmen and women are bigger than administrators in terms of what they have to offer. What we need is the enabling environment for soccer to thrive, not an environment that is perpetually troubled by allegations of fraud, with the minister and the ministry doing the jobs of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Football is a money spinner because of its immense followership. Much of this claim can be understood, if we examine how the hosting of the 2018 World Cup from June 15 to July 16, boosted the Russian economy. The Mundial added more than $14 billion to the Russian economy, about one per cent of the country’s gross domestic product, the tournament organisers stated on Tuesday in Doha. Indeed, what countries, such as Russia, do is to appoint business-oriented people to run such projects, knowing that their pedigree in the business world is enormous to convince the big players that their cash won’t be wasted.

Alexey Sorokin, the CEO of Russia’s World Cup Organising Committee said: ‘’The figure the report comes with is quite surprising.’’

Sorokin told the football conference held in Qatar, host of the 2022 World Cup that his country calculated the impact the World Cup had on Russia’s GDP between 2013 and 2018 to be 952 billion roubles ($14.5 billion, 12.5 billion Euros), which was the equivalent of one per cent of the GDP.

Sorokin went on: ‘’The tournament created up to 315,000 jobs per year and would still have an impact on the economy over the next five years.’’

Honourable minister, this isn’t rocket science, if one considers the fact that Nigeria hosted the second biggest soccer competition organised by FIFA. The reason we haven’t hosted the Mundial rests largely with the bickering between the ministry and the NFF. Whereas, other federations do their businesses with insignificant interference from the ministry, NFF appears to be the territory most ministers must conquer to show supremacy – to the detriment of other sports. Ministers must rise beyond the NFF to compete with their counterparts in other climes. There wasn’t any conflict between the Russia sports minister, the World Cup CEO or the Russian FA boss during the Mundial. They worked seamlessly. There was mutual respect, not suspicion that one was corruptly enriching himself.

Back to Nigeria. Dalung has the right to supervise the soccer federation as part of his job, but there are limits, which must not be exceeded, so as not to destroy the collective goal of making the beautiful game the number one sport that should bring Nigerians out of their homes to match venues. Soccer is the opium of the people, ‘’a vote catcher,’’ a unifier, a phenomenon devoid of creed or race and an employment generator (a topic for another day).

Federations have the sole right to fund their operations. But when such ventures lead to representing Nigeria in international competitions, it is the ministry’s duty to get the government to fund the athletes’ participation.

It is Nigeria’s anthem that is sung when the sportsmen and women mount the podium to receive their medals. It is the country’s flag that is hoisted behind them during the medals’ presentation; the pictures and visuals appear in the media. On the medals’ table and such platforms of identification is Nigeria, not NFF or Musa Kida or Solomon Ogba, for instance. Our sports ambassadors go through a lot to represent us. It is only appropriate that their entitlements should be done with dispatch, not made an issue to settle scores among administrators.

Most of them lose their places in their teams when they come home for our matches. They are forced to work harder to win back their shirts, yet the stipends which we promise are not paid simply because someone wants to show that he is the boss. We need to remind this boss that when the players come here, their relations are hopeful that some of their needs will be met. And the players will easily settle such family requirements as bread winners, if the $5,000 is paid after the games that are won, and $2,500 for drawn ones.

Our athletes shouldn’t be made to rely on philanthropists and sports loving governors when they require funds to prepare themselves for national assignments. Other countries have several avenues to source for funds, such as the Sports Lottery Schemes and fund-raisers where the President sits at dinner with the corporate world to show the level of commitment towards such an exercise. Blue-chip firms are given tax incentives for what they pay into the projects’ coffers. The president’s speech will spur others not at the ceremony to join the queue.

This writer isn’t happy that corrupt people are not being made to face the wrath of the law. One’s angst is hinged on the way the minister is not interested in working with the new order at the NFF, so much so that he was absent at the last game against Libya in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. It sends the wrong message to those entrepreneurs sitting on the fence, watching if things have normalised. We can only talk of a new dawn in sports marketing when there is a synergy among the federations, not just the NFF or the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) or the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) and the ministry headed by the minister.

It is shameful reading media reports on Nigeria not being able to pay players’ estacodes and entitlements. It gives the impression that the government doesn’t care about sports. We know that government budgets money every fiscal year for sports. And most of the federations source for cash to run their affairs from the corporate world. The ministry should ensure the prompt release of funds for our ambassadors, even if it means informing President Muhammadu Buhari about the importance of such competitions.

Honourable Minister sir, Aruna Quadri is a sure gold medal bet at the All Africa Games. Yet, he has not enjoyed any form of financial support from the government, even when his feats are tied to the country. Is it fair? I know that the ministry will be listing Quadri as one of her medals’ hopefuls. The minister is the first to congratulate Quadri after every achievement. What if he decides not to represent the country, when a simple task of getting him a coach has remained unattended for long.

It is not enough to have chairmen who have the clout to convince the corporate world to fund sports. It is the government’s duty to sponsor teams representing us at major competitions. Money sourced internally by federations should be used for their operations. Our basketball girls qualified for the quarter-finals of the Women World Cup, with the minister in attendance. What that presupposes is that the government supports the sport. Is it by the minister’s presence? The men’s team are poised to attend the men’s version of the World Cup. The body’s president is expected to finance it.

Howzat Ambode… not out!

A friend in government is lost because his retinue changes. You can’t access him like in the past. Since Akinwunmi Ambode became the governor of Lagos State, our paths have not crossed and it is understandable. I knew it would someday and I expected him to tease me. Ambode aka Ambods, enjoys doing that. Don’t ask, please, if he takes jibes back.

And so when former The Guardian Sports Editor Olukayode Thomas asked me to join a group at the Lagos State Government House, I planned to sneak in and out of the place. I knew there would be introductions at some point in the interactive session. I could handle it by quickly standing up for recognition but sit down faster than I got up. Deep inside me, I knew that Ambode won’t fall for the trick. He didn’t. He spotted me before the individual acknowledgement as he looked through the gathering. Good friend, Ambode will always be for me.

The governor isn’t one who does not find a way of interacting with ‘lost’ friends. The moment Ambode walked round to greet his visitors, I knew he would throw jibes at me. All kinds of thoughts ran through my mind about what to say. Of course, the schoolboy days were gone – some 39 years ago.

‘’Hmmm, Ade you don dey old o; how you dey? You dey? Good to see you again,’’ Ambode whispered. I smiled. He must have been surprised I didn’t tease him. Ambode was his warm self.

Several years ago, I saw him walking on other side of the road from his office. I remember he told me he was the Accountant-General.

Once I recognised him, I called his cricket alias to be sure it was Ambode; he stood curious, and when he spotted me, he shouted: ‘’Ade Ojeikere!’’ He crossed over to embrace me. How did I know it was Ambode? He kept rolling the sleeves of his white shirt, typical of Ambode while walking down the street. His measured steps flashed back reminiscent of how he walked onto his crease in a cricket game in 1979.

Thank you, anie gift. and you  best.