For the first time in a lifetime, I’m intentionally setting some New Year’s goals and resolutions for myself, but anchor them to a basic philosophy.
Philosophy does not join the chorus from home and is driven by the negative narrative of Nigeria. I’ve been doing that for a long time and it’s yielding little or no results. So, it might be time to change your strategy.
Now, we have entered a period in the life of the country that will clearly be difficult, very challenging for every Nigerian, and a critical addition to the story of a country like no other on the planet, blessed and blessed. at the same time, apparently, becoming ‘cursed’.
I have decided to start thinking about the future of Nigeria in a different way with the hope that the veil of poor performance and achievements will be removed from our eyes with a new attitude that will enable us to make new and better choices. We should not carry the burden of the past into the architecture of 2023.
For decades, the cobwebs of ignorance, politics, greed, corruption and ethnicity have stuck and destroyed the original vision of a great country, which has a very clear potential to become a global power in almost every field of human endeavour. These cobwebs must be removed so that we can clearly gather all the evidence around us of Nigerians excelling in other countries benefiting from this rich human resource, which can be deployed at home to develop the Motherland.
In Nigeria, we play the game of life and governance with the Third XI citizens of our country, celebrating and using some of the richest human stocks to shape the future. Otherwise, there is no other way to explain the poor condition and abysmal story of Nigeria today. As in ‘tales told by fools, full of sound and fury, mean nothing’.
Sticking to failed methods and processes is a constant cycle of despair, depression and inertia. Things are going ‘bad’ at the end of 2022 in sports, so we have to keep asking: how can the country sink?
The response comes as Tobi Amusan and Ese Brume remind us of their latent and endless potential by illuminating the ‘dark’ in Track and Field.
They removed the cobwebs in 1972, when, to host the All-African Games, the National Stadium in Lagos was built with first-class sports facilities in 28 different sports to be the foundation of the original sports development projectile. The icing on the cake was then establishing a modern sports science institution with clear goals and objectives.
The National Institute of Sports is the best institution in Africa, a replica of the German Institute of Sports in Hennef, Germany, which to this day continues to provide capacity development training for sports technicians, technicians and administrators from all regions. world. The Nigerian version is now a carcass, pretending to be alive, it has lost substance, focus and direction.
In 2002, not one sports facility from 1972 functions, not one!
Even the National Sports Institute, a think-tank for sports education and development that should build human capacity for sports development in the country lies prostate, irrelevant, lost in limbo, ‘as silent as a painted ship, against the painted sea. ‘.
Almost all of the more than 30 sports federations perform at the lowest ebb. Neither sport flourished. Sponsorship from the federation, programs and events were just a trickle. There are no facilities good enough for sports packages for large television consumption anywhere in the country, and sports without television are like tea without water and sugar.
So, nothing can be left from the past in Nigerian sports, not even lessons, because the thought of failures and lost opportunities only increases the morale, making the real stakeholders wonder when and how the country derailed and come to forgiveness . country; how the country got caught in this mangled mesh; how a country with recognized potential around the planet in other environments and climates can become unproductive, swimming in a state of impossibility and underachievement within its borders; how the sport of the country became infested with corruption in every fiber of its structure.
The story of Nigerian sports should be left behind and buried to avoid embarrassing pictures and comments. Nigeria’s story is one captured in Onyeka Onwenu’s famous TV documentary – the ‘chasing for riches’, a country that was blessed with plenty, but is now a slum.
So here we are at the dawn of 2023.
I have decided to end any unproductive ‘romance’ with the sordid old story of the worst Nigerian sports history.
I walk into 2023 reminding of the new path that will be taken in the future by Tobi Amusan’s world record achievement and Ese Brume’s incredible leap, two bright moments in the confusion that have become pointers to the new possibilities and potential that exist for Nigeria to become a major global player in sports, while developing a sports industry that will ‘feed’ millions of Nigerians.
The evolution of the new National Sports Industry policy has also led to new ‘songs’ and messages of hope from 2023.
Here are the basics of my New Year’s resolution:
I will not curse the ‘darkness’ of Nigerian sports because therein lies (however hidden) the best reward and honor of success.
I will be a match-stick to ignite, or instigate the light of another candle that will illuminate and open the gemstones that ‘dark unfathomed cave sea bear’.
I will join innovative and creative thinkers and help sports to rise from the ashes of past failures, and start charting a new path for development by deploying new technologies, and the entrepreneurial spirit of the younger generation, smarter and more technology-savvy.
I will join with others to revive the sports culture in academic and sports institutions, through events and programs aimed at the discovery, training and production of new talents and athletes.
I will join other like-minded people to develop a sports industry that will showcase the talents and achievements of these emerging athletes, by organizing, packaging, promoting and presenting first-class events and projects.
I will spend a lot of energy joining my colleagues and other stakeholders to set up special funds and programs to cater for the welfare of retired and aging Nigerian athletes.
I will join with others to implement a national policy that will change sports as a business in Nigeria.
I will achieve the ultimate dream in sports, lay the foundations of the bid and host the FIFA World Cup in 2034 with a delicate diplomatic instrument as the basic ingredient.
I will strengthen my personal project with additional infrastructure to support it during the period of challenges that the World will go through because of the irreversible challenges that are happening in the world in the new new World Order.
Finally, I will enter 2023 excited about the prospect of what lies beneath the superficiality of the coming ‘chaos and confusion’ in the political and economic space that will usher in a new Nigeria from 2023.
Happy new year.