The massacre from London to Rio…Letter to Mr. President

“An athlete is selected to defend our country, all of our nationality. If he doesn’t have an attitude where we the people who created him can have confidence in him, then he will never have the right to represent Cuba in an international event. He not only must be physically prepared but, on top of everything, he must be patriotic, dignified and participate like the athlete he is.”
– Carlos Rodriqueze, Commissioner, Cuban Baseball, to the Delta Sports Delegation in Havana, 1998.
Last week, we analyzed the abysmal failure of the Nigerian Olympic contingent to Rio in a letter to Mr. President, at the same time making comparative notes on the success story of England, some of the tiny Caribbean countries and finally concluding with the example of the supremacy that was Delta Sports. Today, we continue by presenting our impressions of our on-the-spot tours to the Caribbean and, hopefully, from the revelations of those tiny countries’ sports programmes, Nigeria can take off and prepare for Tokyo 2020. In Bahamas and Barbados, these were my observations:
Barbados has extended the ferocity of the international tournaments, including cricket matches to its citizens in a measured, milder manner. While the nation would hope to win international laurels, the new trend is to involve its citizens to embrace sports not only to win but for them to participate in exercise and enjoy a nationally planned programme promising health for the whole citizens. This programme is, therefore, very revolutionary for the tiny island. Indeed, what is more productive than engaging the total population as the base for star athletic recruitment!
Cuba and Jamaica are two tiny, poor countries in the West Indies operating serious sports policies, focusing on and picking star athletes at very young ages. The Cubans continue to beat the world in Boxing, the jumps but stop at the Olympics. The six million people of Jamaica lead the world in both Men and women sprints. Usain Bolt, Elaine Thompson, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and others dominate the men and women’s fast lanes of our generation. Presently, the sports programmes of these nations propel them from irrelevance to super power status in the comity of nations.
Therefore, as reviewed last week, during our tenure of running sports in Delta, Cuba was ideal for the low costs of training for our athletes so also was the enticing offers from China for our table tennis and gymnastics. But Tennis as a whole was not our priority. On the other hand those sports cultivated over the years, attracting so many native advantages, we grouped as priority sports.
As an agent of social responsibility, we used the councils to push the local governments to contribute for once to the development of sports. We presented this third tier the opportunity to sponsor the state’s first ever sports festival. For the first time, the whole people of Delta State besieged the Asaba Sports Stadium in the Russian spirit of the ‘Spatacadia’, participating and enjoying the orgasm of the sports festival. That was the first and the last sports festival in Delta.
Your Excellency, the whole place was electrified. Delta developed a winning philosophy, moving from the 14th to the top, and all its stars were indigenous starlets. Our peoples were mobilised, Asaba, Ogwashi Ukwu, Warri, Bomadi, Abraka, Sapele and Oleh were designated Centres of Excellence. In six months the American Junior Baseball and African Baseball Championship came to Delta. Our football teams, the Delta Force, male and female, were building up to slaughter the Super Eagles, having destroyed Rangers and Bendel Insurance FCs in secret friendlies. We were monitoring our athletes, coaches, so we sent our administrative staff to IT courses before their counterparts in the ministries.
As of now, there is no discernable programme or policy stating how to run our local and national sports to support our international competitions. Most of the states with an overwhelming sports history, contributions and resources to the nation have neglected their sports industry. While the Western states invariably submerge their sports councils under the supervision of slow and corrupt ministries, the North was a natural base for producing some long distance runners. Plateau was the hope but for the current turmoil. The South-South states, despite their advantages have failed to break out in swimming and wrestling. Superlative sports competition collapsed in the Eastern states with the degeneration of Rangers International FC. It is unbelievable that Anambra State, my immediate neighbor, who for many years produced Nigerian tennis champions, namely Pa Oranye, Patrick Obi, Esther Onyekwelu, Anthony Mmoh, and so on, and the strongest men on the mat, Power Mike and Ben Lionheart Okoye, as well as in football, the inimitable Albert Onyeanwuna, Emma Okala, Obi Okoye, etc., has no sports programme, no football team and no state stadium. Alas, Rojeny Oba is now the maker of sports East of the Niger. As a result, in our programme in Delta, we are recruiting fine footballers from Onitsha, very strong-boned Akwa Ibom weightlifters and voracious stamina resilient cow Fulanis for our long distance races.
At this juncture Mr. President, it is worth mentioning that while the Delta Sports Council was independent of the ministry, it was mandatory that the budget was open and the Director or the Chairman would be accountable. Unfortunately, this independence and power was abused. My successors decided to live abroad, turn the council into a political marketplace, swallowed the equipment stores and destroyed the policies and the principles that led us to clamour for an independent sports council. For 16 years, Asaba Stadium remained a monument and is now a stage for religious evangelism. Similarly, Abraka and its university and swimming pool are a desert, cut off from any major sports competition for more than three decades.  The principals that were the products of the Delta Sports innovation easily made it to the national scene and moved our sports overseas from our native grounds. These chairmen, against the principles that made them, are the vocal advocates of foreign coaches and prefer training and preparation matches in Morocco, Belgium and Spain!
Mr. President, our sad outing in the last Olympics constitutes a serious damage and disgrace to you and to the nation. On behalf of Nigeria’s former internationals, we call on you to quickly act now and stop the charade that is daily bringing odium and destroying the sports reputation this country has built over the years. Sir, apart from that drab grab of the football bronze we did not win anything! The Minister, I must tell you, may not be entirely what they tell us he is. Having been there and knowing the antics of the barracuda surrounding him, I sympathise with him!
Sir, the Nigerian Waterloo in Rio is another downer recorded in your tenure. You may consider instituting a Presidential Sports Technical Committee not only to investigate the ‘Massacre in Rio’ but also to restore credibility and discipline as we prepare for Tokyo in four years’ time.