I WONDER if you were among the old codgers who detected an error on this page last week.

We included Emma "Vancouver" Ifeajuna among the four high jumpers who jointly established a high jump record, one sunny Saturday afternoon, at the Obalende Police Grounds in Lagos.

The name in the fourth slot, actually, should have been Guobadia who, ironically, happens to be my relation. With Edobor, Bello Osagie and Majekodunmi, they erected a ceiling of 6 foot five, at the high jump, over all Africa.

Ifeajuna came barely a year later to make it all more respectable with an additional quarter of a foot. Thanks to J.B.Ogufere and Peter Osugo, genuine old-timers, who quickly pointed it out. Now, anyone who does not know who those two are, may retire right away to the Business Page; he has no business here.

Go over those high jumpers' names very slowly again, and you will observe that no less than three of them are Edo names. That was the way it used to be. The record that was broken earlier belonged to Garrick, also from that part of the country, a record he set at 6 foot 3.5 when he was still a student in King's College, Lagos.

That was also a West African record. In fact, the area that would later became known as Bendel - an acronym devised from the combination of Benin and Delta, virtually ruled the country in the jumps. What is more, Nigeria likewise towered above the Sub-region in the field events.

This was the legacy that has gradually dwindled almost to nothingness, whilst the experts into whose incompetent hands it fell continued to watch helplessly.

Today, we are left with only the sprints to boast about in African athletics. The Kenyans and other East Africans have persistently dominated the world in the long distances without having much to show in the sprints or in the field. But they hold on to what they have and continue to improve with time.

The secret of their success is an open one: They retain their focus and preserve their sights on a cherished objective upon which they have built their pride in international athletics - victory in the long distance events.

That was exactly what the former athletics officials - the coaches, the organizers, the managers et al - were also preoccupied with.

The sprints were glamorized, the jumpers were lionized, and other events and performers were only there to make up for the count. Perhaps that was when we should have done something also about the middle and long distances which we seemed to have carelessly neglected. But it would have mattered little if only we had retained what we had.

Now, when you consider this woeful mismanagement of talents and opportunities, one is not witch-hunting in any way, but merely seeking to deposit the responsibility where it rightly belongs.

The organization was in the hands of volunteers and officials of the Welfare Department, and they were men whose enthusiasm was matched by their vision. But when ministries were introduced to take the place of departments, it was felt that sports had come of age enough to have a niche of its own.

And rightly so. That was what brought in the "experts" who continue to proclaim their worth only on the merit of their university qualifications, as our fortunes declined indeed by degrees.

We need to assure our sportsmen and women at this time that, critics as we may be characterized, this page only aims, and will continue to aim, our shafts of censure specifically at those who should take the responsibility for the comprehensive decline in our sports.

So, when that FIFA member, WAFU President and Director-General of the National Sports Commission all rolled into one, my good friend Dr. Amos Adamu, attempts to befuddle the issue of criticism as to its direction, we would advise him to look into the mirror. We have always made it clear that we do not believe that he is an asset to the progress of our sports development.

There is nothing personal about it. He is a fine gentleman, for all we know. But his connection with our sports fortunes has brought us little joy. We can make so much room for his being a human being and so liable to human errors, but we are entitled to demand certain standards of achievement from him as the over-all boss of ALL sports in this country.

Between him and his protege whom we helped him to install in charge of football, too many gaps of insufficiency are left wide open to our disgust. Sani Lulu never hesitates to demonstrate his abysmal ignorance of what his office entails as the chairman of the game we all love. His latest gaffe is his absence at the grand testimonial football match staged in honour of Austin Okocha last weekend.

His apparent indifference to the entire affair is at par with his customary unawareness of his obligations. Famous footballers and administrators from foreign countries who were in Warri for the occasion, could not help asking about the participation of the NFA in such a worthy event. Lulu, we are told, sent a member of his administrative staff.

And what has his boss and protector got to say about that? In fact, where was Dr. Adamu himself when the glory of football was being celebrated in Warri by those who really know the score?

Probably passing through the corridors of the National Stadium, Abuja, with hasty steps to escape from the stench of the place.

Oh yes, the glittering National Stadium has begun to stink. Whose fault is it?

The Stadium Manager's? The buck does not stop at his desk. It skates on and finds its resting place naturally at Adamu's table. If he doesn't like it mentioned as his chore, let him see to the cleaning of the toilet that stinks up the place. The problem, we understand, arises from the shortage of water supply which has been cut off from the stadium because the bills have not been paid.

The Stadium Manager does not pay the bills. That is purely an administrative task. Where else can we turn but in the direction of administration? That is what we mean.

The Captain of a ship does not only keep her afloat and pointed to the assigned destination, but he also ensures that she is kept spick and span as a good skipper. And he may not be an accountant, but he has to supervise the operations of the purser.

The Director-General is the man in charge, and all demerits and transgressions, all the plaudits and commendations, on him fall.

It is futile to deflect to any other direction, the proper attention that is constantly focused on is his inadequacies.

On his performance hang our hopes for success in sports in all its totality. One would like him to explain, for instance, why the 100 metres event for women was recently timed by stop watch in Abuja. Now we don't know how to assess the fabulous (fabled?) time of 10.8 seconds recorded by the winner.

That would have been an African record. It is as much his duty as it is that of the Athletics President to explain to the public what actually went wrong. And if we are making enquiries, as we are indeed entitled to do, it has nothing to do with the athlete. No one is criticizing her. Rather, we are putting the officials involved on the carpet, where they rightly belong.

It is a well known fact that ministers are not appointed in this country on the basis of their antecedents, or the relevance of their knowledge or experience to their assigned ministry. This has been particularly true of the Ministry of Sports. It is not the least of the burden that the D-G of the Ministry of Sports has to bear. But bear it he must.

That fact will never be admissible as an excuse for failure. He is a bureaucrat first, but a technocrat last. He must also develop an absorbent texture to criticism.

We can claim little credit for the preparations which are now beginning to swing for Beijing, though it is doubtful that proceedings would have become as noticeable as they are now if we all folded our arms and waited for events to take shape on their own.

The relay exercises would seem to have achieved all they were meant to achieve now. It is time to collate the results which can only take the shape of a reliable quartet ready for the Olympics.

The emergent rivalry in the sprints should yield half of that, so the need is for three more spitfires. The consciousness of the runners about the baton change-over would have by now been sharpened by the recent relay races, and we might say we are beginning to have something to look forward to in Beijing.

Did you hear?

"If we have not paid the money, what is his business? They are our athletes and we will pay them at the end of the day. We don't want anybody in camp who is not an athlete or a coach.," Dr. Amos Adamu reacting to Gabriel Opuana's enquiry about the payment of the athletes who won medals at the Africa Championships in Ethiopia.

Opuana was subsequently sent out of camp on the pretext that he was not qualified to be there. Adamu apparently did not realize that Opuana was neither a coach nor an athlete until the question of the reward for the athletes came up. Meanwhile, several top athletes have also left the camp.

More later.