Nigerian coaches across all sports have called on the Nigerian sports authorities to engage them proactively in preparing the nation’s team to international events.
This clamour is coming on the heels of Nigeria’s poor outing at the Paris 2024 Olympics; Nigeria failed to make any podium appearance across all sports even as the country has abundant medal potentials.
The coaches who volunteered their opinions on the issue pointed to the fact that coaches are not involved in policy decision making in most of the federations and this crucial role has been left to the whims of board members and sports ministry officials who have little or no technical acumen.
They argued that coaching is an important branch of the athletes’ discovery and grooming chain; pointing out that “you cannot have a classroom without a teacher.”
“As we are talking most of the sporting federations do not have head coaches,” said coach Gabriel Opuana who is the Nigeria Coaches Association president.
“Head Coaches are supposed to drive programme development and training in each of the sporting federations and also direct training and retraining of coaches that would handle the athletes from grassroots to the elite level.
“But coaches are relegated and nobody in those federations is talking about their importance and their inputs. In the past the Sports Ministry used to sponsor coaches to Europe for technical courses. When was the last time this happened?
“This is why we the coaches have taken it upon ourselves to form the Nigeria Coaches Association, one of our aims is to train coaches in modern methods. But sadly for almost a year now an official in the sports ministry has been stalling on sending us a recommendation letter so that we can go to the corporate affairs commission to get the body registered and then approach corporate and individuals for sponsorships to carry out our objectives.”
Foremost rugby coach in Nigeria, Ntiense Williams in his contribution noted that the sporting federations hire and fire coaches at will and the Sports Ministry who are in firm grip of the administration of the sporting federations do not reckon with coaches input.
“Nearly all the national sporting federations do not have a national coach. Unfortunately, the sports ministry does not employ technical persons again. They only employ Secretaries and complimentary staff, and leave out the core technocrats in the sports Industry,” coach Williams popularly known as Mr. Rugby said.
“Coaches are only hired for specifics and fired at will. To the best of my knowledge, all Employed National Federations Coaches have retired now and none were employed thereafter. Thus we don’t have technocrats in most of the sporting federations.”
He noted that there was a need to go back to the days of the National Sports Commission where emphasis is laid on technocrats and those who know the sport.
“I think we should respectively return to the National Sports Commission where we can be guarantee a bit of professionalism instead of the normal Civil Service practice. Performance should be the watch word for Nation Building in the Sports Industry.
“Technocrats are meant to lead the Sports Industry and the especially the Policy Making Body of Government and a Seasoned Sports Technocrat should be at the helm of affairs to avoid too much sycophants in the form of Advisers
On training of coaches and preparations of athletes.”
Williams added: “This is very much lacking in our Sports Industry. You can not leave these trainings to individual coaches and their respective NSF.
“The Nigeria Olympic Committee has a number periodical programs for specially selected Coaches. This should be a very regular item in Nigerian sorts development agenda. It should be a priority policy for the sporting federations and the sports ministry.
“The International Sports Federations have specific training and retraining programs which every sports federation should key into and the the Sports Ministry and the Nigeria Olympic Committee should have a pool of National Coaches who should be pencilled down for these Program for every sports.
“When I came into sports I saw some National Coaches and some Foreign National Coaches too. But since the late 90’s this changed due to the embargo on employment into the Civil Service.
“But when it was lifted the responsibility was shifted to the sports federations who do not have such a budget because there is no funding from the sports ministry.”
He added that facilities should also be upgraded to meet up with interntional standards.
” Firstly, we do not have world standard facilities and equipment in the country. Most of the Programs we learn from International Training can not be implemented in Nigeria. Most times we improvise on these training programs..
“Nutrition is another serious issue. Vitamins, Medicals and not forgetting Phycologist. These are the tonic for a winning team.
“We need to dig deep. We need to start early in the Schools. There should be a very healthy synergy between Education & Sports Ministries for us to make a good beginning.”
Athletics coach and statistician Olalekan Soetan said most of the sporting federations are not technically organised.
“Majority of NSFs in Nigeria really are not organized. The position of Technical Director is wrong to begin with. A Director is directing other subordinates, so why do we have a Technical Director without other technical officials fully involved with day to day activities of the NSFs?
“For federations to have Head Coaches, they should have National coaches in all the 6 geopolitical zones first. And in Athletics, we deal with up to 44 events (male and female). But we can categorize them into fewer classes. Each of these classes would have its head coaches who would then report to their National Head Coach.
” With the current setting, the position of head coach is occupied by Technical Directors of each of the NSF.
“Having a head coach or not in Athletics is inconsequential since it’s an individual sport that pure performances are used in selection of best athletes that’ll represent Nigeria.
” And personal coaches are the ones really responsible for such feats. Maybe having Senior,Junior and Youth head coaches would minimize the pressure on TDs.
On training of coaches Mr. Soetan added:
“Coaches should develop themselves. For example, World Athletics has an e-learning Lab online. Virtually all trainings with regards to coaching and officiating are online.
“If each NSF can bring more webinars to their coaches CONSISTENTLY, Nigerian coaches would be up to speed on current trends in scientific research in Athletics and other sports.
“My sport Athletics is doing great in this aspect. We have many knowledgeable coaches who constantly attend trainings. Especially during major championships, there are always virtual sessions for coaches where many issues are discussed. WA Coaches Education and Certification System ensures each WA Member Federation have their coaches certified and upgraded by asking their bests to attend physical courses at African Athletics Development Centers around Africa. The English speaking African countries utilize that of Nairobi AADC.”
