Adekunle Salami 
The Nigerian sports scene has witnessed so many ups and downs in the last 12 months. It is important to evaluate all with a view to look at the way forward in the New Year 2023. Football, the most followed sport in the country, did not fare well in the year under review.
The transition in the administration of Nigerian football was prevalent in the better part of the year. Former President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, soiled his hands in many ways due to maladministration and inconsistency in the system.
There were many issues calling for attention in Nigerian football. Many could not understand why the successes recorded in age-grade football could not be transited into the senior cadre. Sad enough, the domestic scene is not better because there is no sponsorship and the league is not on television.
The calendar imbalance in which the country’s league has no definite take-off or ending date is another big issue. Nigeria’s senior national team, the Super Eagles, failed to qualify for the Qatar 2022 World Cup and that was a big setback for whatever the Pinnick administration stands for. Pinnick told the world that it was was unthinkable for Nigeria to miss the Mundial because of the bilateral relationship between both countries but, eventually, Nigeria missed out. It was Ghana’s Black Stars that edged out the Eagles on the away goals rule to deny Nigeria a ticket.
It was indeed a sad tale especially as many of the Super Eagles stars were in top form in the run-in period of the World Cup. The domestic scene did not fare better as Nigerian clubs failed to make an impact at the continental stage, crumbling in early stages just as the country’s domestic national team, CHAN Eagles, failed to qualify for the continental finals for the domestic national team players. As if all these were not enough the Nigerian Federation Cup, the FA Cup, swam into crisis.
The calendar imbalance affected the event such that at the quarterfinal stage, the Confederation of Africa Football was asking for the winner to be injected into the continental club competition. The NFF under the Pinnick regime had to pick Kwara United as the country’s representatives at a time a winner is yet to emerge in the competition.
It is so sad that even till date the competition was abandoned in the quarterfinal stage because the timing was wrong. There were efforts to salvage the situation with incentives dangled before the last eight teams but somehow this again did not work as the clubs do not trust the federation.
The age-grade teams of the country competing for global honours are still on the cards for the FIFA World Cup as the U-17 team under Nduka Ugbade and the U-20 team under Ladan Bosso will be all out in 2023 seeking final slots in FIFA competitions after earning qualification into the continental finals. It was however not all gloom in 2022 as the country’s talents in athletics exploded to shock the world. Tobi Amusan and Ese Brume have been consistent over the years but as fate would have it, they were glorious in the year under review. After her narrow podium miss at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games staged in 2021, Amusan was all over the place in 2022.
She emerged champion in the Diamond League, African Championships, Commonwealth Games and the World Championships in 2022. It was no surprise that the Confederation of African Athletics crowned her as the Athlete of The Year. Brume also won silver at the World Championships and a gold at the Commonwealth Games. It is important to also state that Nigeria recorded the best-ever performance at the Birmingham Games under the tutelage of Sports Minister Sunday Dare. Dare’s Midas touch affected the country’s sports as he was able to see off two editions of National Sports Festival — Edo 2020 and Delta 2022 — with ease. Dare also was able to revive the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja through his Public Private partnership initiative and the Adopt-A- Pitch scheme.
Dangote Group rehabilitated the National Stadium in Abuja just as the National Stadium, Surulere is about 80 per cent ready for use courtesy of Kessington Adebutu’s Premier Lotto partnership with the ministry of sports. Many other athletes excelled at the Commonwealth Games in various disciplines like wrestling and para sports with the minister having input in the development of most of these athletes through his Adopt-An-Athlete scheme. No doubt, the talents are all over the place in Nigeria but there must be a deliberate effort to identify and expose the in readiness for global challenges in the colours of NIGERIA.
