Daily Independent (Lagos)
2 January 2009
Had 2008 not turned a disaster for Nigerian sports, perhaps by now those privileged to run its affairs would have been making emphatic and promising statements about what the New Year has in store for enthusiasts, athletes and stakeholders.
This has been the practise from time. However, many of them are yet to recover from the shock of the out gone year, which kick started with the outing of the Super Eagles at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana in January and culminated with the terrible performance of the female national team, the Super Falcons at the Africa Women Championship in November in Equatorial Guinea.
Owing to the dismal performance of the previous year, many have become circumspect on what 2009 has to offer. The imperative of being cautious in dishing out hopes to Nigerians has become even more urgent considering that there are no clear-cut policies to be seen. "This is why we canvassed for a policy for sports in Nigeria. A sports policy serves as a blue print that will guide our administrators. But till date we are yet to adopt one," argued onetime President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Dan Ngerem.
Ngerem is not the only voice walking that path. Prominent sports enthusiasts have always clamoured for a policy, saying it is the way out. This is where the Minister of Sports, Sani Ndanusa, is expected to put on his thinking cap to help revive the sector. Luckily, Ndanusa cannot be regarded as a novice when his background as the former president of the Nigeria Tennis Federation that he single-handedly revived is considered.
Ndanusa's intentions may appear genuine, but he needs the efforts of all.
"Tennis was one sport, but now he is the Minister of Sports, which means all the sports federations will be under him. So, he needs wisdom to run the ministry well and the cooperation of all," advised Reverend Moses IIoh.
Africa Youth Championship
For Ndanusa, his first opportunity to be tested will be the Africa Youth Championship in Rwanda this month. Already, there are fears that the U-20 national team (Flying Eagles) may not perform excellently because the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has a long history of want of objectivity in the appointment of coaches. In most cases mediocrity has been enthroned above merit. For instance, the choice of Coach Ladan Bosso has continued to provoke comments and debates among critics. Bosso, it will be recalled, led the team to Congo Brazzaville two years ago on an uninspiring outing despite winning the bronze.
"In order not to sound unpatriotic, it is my wish that the U-20 team does well. But the handwriting on the wall does not suggest that they may pick any of the three tickets reserved for Africa to ensure its qualification for the FIFA U-20 World Cup finals in Egypt in September," sports analyst Nnamdi Okafor told our correspondent.
"Well, you can blame anyone if people are expressing such fears. I guess they are in order if we are privy to the happenings of last year. For instance, women football brought glory to the country anytime there was nothing to celebrate in sports. But they (Super Falcons) have been dethroned by Equatorial Guinea. So you can see there is still that spillover," FIFA women committee member, Ayo Omidiran, said.
National Sports Festival
Another contending issue is the National Sports Festival, which Kaduna is expected to host in February. Ndanusa was in Kaduna last week to inspect facilities and make sure the festival is not shifted. His worry is that any delay can discourage sponsors from partnering with the games.
"That is why I have personally travelled to Kaduna to make sure that the facilities are ready ahead of the opening. If it is delayed again, then it will not speak well of the organisers, neither would sponsors be willing to partner with them," the minister said.
World Cup Qualifiers
This may be the only good news emanating from football this year given the indices on ground because the Super Eagles are more than determined to secure the group ticket for the 2010 FIFA World Cup finals in South Africa irrespective of the opposition comprising Tunisia, Kenya and Mozambique when the second phase of hostilities resume in March.
"We know that the battle line has been drawn and we are not prepared to lose focus at this time. We missed the World Cup in Germany in 2006 by whiskers and we do not want that happening this time," Super Eagles Captain, Nwankwo Kanu, said.
Africa Basketball Championship Qualifiers In Libya
After the encouraging performance of the male national team, D'Tigers at the World Championship in Tokyo, Japan in 2006, many had expected that the momentum would be sustained. This was, however, not to be as the team has been inconsistent in its performance for inexplicable reasons. Regardless of what has happened, the mind of stakeholders remains opened and their fingers crossed as they look forward to the qualifiers in Tripoli in August. Should it be among the teams into winning ways so that it is among the three top countries that would represent Africa at the World Championship in Turkey next year?
World Athletics Championship
Given the permutations of athletics followers, the nation's contingent to the World Athletics Championship in Berlin, Germany this year are unlikely to return with a medal, except there is divine intervention.
One major reason for this state of hopelessness is that the athletes expected to fly the nation's flag are not there. In addition, the way the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) is run leaves much to be desired.
Internal rumbling, intrigues and bad administration have characterised the Violet Odogwu-Nwajei led executive.
U-17 World Cup Finals
By all standards the junior championship, which Nigeria will be privileged to host in November is without a doubt a major event. Although it is a junior event, which may not have the trappings associated with the World Cup proper; attention would still be on the Local Organising Committee (LOC) to see how well it will successfully host the world.
As host Nigeria has already qualified for the championship. This is despite the fact that it failed to qualify from the African zone having lost the ticket to Republic of Benin last year. It was the aftereffect that led to the sack of Coach Alphonsus Dike with former international Henry Nwosu stepping in.
However, the question is whether Nigeria can retain the coveted trophy it won in Korea two years ago.
"Well, we saw it coming but the authorities failed to act fast. One thing they failed to understand was that the coach to handle a team like the U-17 is quite different from the coach that handles the senior team. They should have taken that into consideration. Why do you think Samson Siasia is doing well? Because he is at home with the players," explained Pepsi academy co-coordinator, Kashimawo Laloko.
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