Adekunle Salami 
Last week, in the first part of this piece, I wrote about the 10-year football masterplan document that was prepared by the former President Muhammadu Buhari regime and it is important to have a good template over- all for sports so that there will be adequate planning and systemic approach to all issues in the sector.
Again, there have been documents prepared in the past for sports policy. The recent one was headed by tennis/sports administrator, Godwin Kienka, while there are some other ones in the cabinet of the sports ministry. All that should be done is to bring these documents together and create a policy to move sports forward. It is so funny that we do not have a working template till date in the running of sports in Nigeria.
The President Tinubu administration should be resolute on this so that every administrator will follow what is met in the books and they will also be evaluated by the public if they fail to follow the template. Another important issue is to take sports as business such that many things that are seemingly difficult will be done easily. Today, sports sponsorship is so tough because of the economic situation of the country.
Top organisations including multinationals shy away from sports not only because of the money involved but due to the high taxes they also pay. Government can however encourage them by giving guarantees for a tax relief to make the companies fund sports. There is also a paper to this effect by the Buhari administration on private participation and the incentives for them to make them help develop sports.
This is an aspect that the Tinubu administration can develop upon such that sports will be taken more seriously and be given its place of pride in the country. Government’s involvement is not supposed to be 100 percent but it is important for states to invest more by creating the enabling environment. This means having sports centres and mini/functional stadia for athletes to keep fit and prepare for competitions.
Some states are so bad such that athletes in the state travel to other states for training. States should have gymnasiums, sports halls and functional football fields so that athletes in various sports disciplines can comfortably train on a daily basis. Bayelsa, Lagos, Delta and Edo are some of the states that have good facilities for their athletes. Bayelsa is home of wrestling, Delta is home of athletics while Lagos and Edo embrace all sports generally, especially with the modern facilities at their disposal.
More states should think beyond football and develop other sports with adequate facilities so that talents from grassroots can be prepared adequately for national challenges. The recent turnaround in the domestic league has been wonderful and the new administration should further work with the Nigeria Football Federation to sustain the good works of the Interim Management Committee that has brought the league back on track under Chief Gbenga Elegbeyele.
The NFF should also be encouraged not to over rely on foreign coaches and players. If a foreign coach but be hired it must be a very good one not below average like the current one Jose Peseiro. The money being paid to the foreign manager is big enough to be paid to two or three Nigerians who can do the same job if given the opportunity with patience. The Senegalese federation stayed glued with Aliou Cisse, who has been in charge of the national team since 2015. It was only last year that he was able to win the AFCON trophy after many failed attempts.
He was the country’s U-23 coach for three years before he joined the senior national team. Age-grade competitions are events used to identify talents early and nurture them to stardom but such are no longer prevalent. For football, there are inter-school and tertiary institution competitions. The same could be done in other sports like athletics, wrestling, weightlifting, gymnastics, table tennis, etc.
There could be junior and intermediate zonal, regional and national competitions in each and every sport. Overall, one will expect to see the return of National Sports Commission in the ministry of sports. This is very important because it will bring ‘experts’ to be in charge of various sports disciplines rather than just conventional ministry officials who have little or no background in sports.
The NSC arm of the ministry will further drive sports better and make the template set by government work at all levels with proper supervision based on the wealth of experience of those in the commission The next minister of sports should be the one that will carry out most of these ideas to move the country forward because the talents are here but how to get them perform well for the country is the challenge. Time to fix this is now with the new regime of President Bola Tinubu.
