UNHINGED By Ben Efe: Don’t you wish your kids are just like Tobi and Ese

Sports minister Sunday Dare and his goons company limited, have all the bragging rights. Some guys have all the luck and they are free to brag.
It is been a roller coaster for Nigerian sports at the World Championships and Commonwealth Games that came a week apart. The Nigerian team made country so proud.
So proud, everyone is feeling good about how great our sports men and women are. Nobody remembers the pain these athletes had gone through to achieve their goals. It’s a good thing the team brought Nigerians joy and also reminding us what a great country we have. Even though we all lament about it, being shackled and drawn and continued to be drawn by sorry ass and insanely corrupt political ruling class.
The heroic exploits of the athletes also gave the nation the publicity, Lai Mohammed cannot buy or pay for on Cable TV. The athletes with their performances told the global community, that Nigeria is not all about a country where people are being slaughtered like cows in a daily abattoir business. There are great people here who can do great things, if given the right conditions and motivation.
Tobi Amusan did just that at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon USA. She had every parent wishing they had a daughter just like her after she smashed the 100 hurdles world’ record twice, shocking and rocking the athletics world in the process. Nobody saw it coming.
Ese Brume who was the only Nigerian athlete to reach the final of all the track and field events entered at Rio 2016 Olympic Games also prove that she is a force be reckoned with in the women long jump with her consistent performances.
Brume (bronze) and Blessing Oborodudu (silver) in wrestling were the only medallists for Nigeria at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games held last year due to the worldwide Covid’19 pandemic. Hey Blessing, are you there, have they settled all your entitlements from that Games?
The chaotic and toxic environment with which Nigerian athletes carried out their campaign in Tokyo 2020 is still fresh in the memory of concerned sports enthusiasts, while of course it has disappeared from the recollections of the dollar mined sports administrators, they need ‘memory management’ so that they can function properly for Nigerian athletes to bring out their very best.
Everyone was shouting Tobi Amusan, Tobi Amusan, Ese Brume, Ese Brume after the world championships in Oregon. But those who have been privileged to know or hear the inside story of how these two athletes, carried on and achieved their historic feat, would sure want shout down the top shots of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria and the Sports ministry each time they open their mouth to yap about the success.
The team at Oregon Worlds had no matching uniform, no warm clothing, disjointed and disorganised travelling arrangements that made some of the athletes to report on the day of their events, they suffered lack of motivation and self belief. On the night of her jump, Brume was so concerned about her clothing. Tobi also had her own concerns, team leader Rosa Collins overwhelmed by the prevailing conditions, became a prayer warrior, a psychologist and a motivator, luckily for her, the God that ‘answereth by fire’ showed up and become her God.
Seriously, the AFN and sports administration generally in Nigeria needs to grow up, it has been the same story over the years. The Sports Minister’s special assistant on athletics or whatever, Mary Onyali can attest to this. She was once in the centre of the storm during the 2001 World Championships in Edmonton, Canada, that was a story the world never got to hear.
It is not just Onyali alone, all the former athletes close to the seat of power have not been able to arm-twist, cajole, romance or even sweet tongue the square pegs in the round hole politicians to do things right. Instead they walk hand in hand waiting till it’s one week to a major event before they put the wheel in spin.
Of course the sports officials cash on the disarray to make some quick ‘Mulla’ for the themselves. It happened at the Birmingham 2022 CWG where a local sportswear firm was contracted to hurriedly manufacture kits for the Nigerian team, thank goodness they didn’t spell for us ‘NIGERA.’ Surely Favour Ofili cannot ‘ki herself’ for Naija matter.
She was one of the ten athletes who were prevented from making their Olympics debut last year after they were disqualified due to non-compliance to ‘Whereabouts’ dope test. It was a matter for the AFN to handle and handle well. But because everyone was engrossed in the politics of who goes and who does not go to Tokyo, such simple details were not in the diary of officials.
The AFN must wake up to the new realities, the time for shenanigans is past. There has to be men and women on the board who will make the right decisions to push track and field in the right direction. Not like the present arrangement where the president is on a puppet string pulled by the Sports ministry and Solomon Ogba. By the way did anyone asked Chief Ogba what has happened to the “Boris” team? They did not show up in the last Winter Olympics Games in China.
This is part of the discussion, the AFN should now move away from the arrangement where individuals use the athletes and the federation to enrich themselves. There has to be planning, re-planning and follow ups with action. This can only happen when there is a proper board where people are engaged in cross fertilisation of ideas. It shouldn’t be like trial and error gate crashing thing, but a clearly planned program of action. The present board of the AFN was deliberately programmed to be ineffective so that the big guys can run their rackets.
Nobody should be sending 25 years olds to World Junior championships, there abundant talents in the primary and secondary schools that can be discovered and groomed. It is a thing of joy to note that Amusan and Brume are products of grassroots athletics, they rose from the ranks to become world champion and vice champion.
There is work to be done if Nigerian is desirous of sustaining the progress made by these two athletes and others who are equally knocking on the door of success. This is not the time to sit back and wait for another four years, before Nigerian start preparing her athletes. There should be competitions, not the type where athletes would finish competing and they would be looking for transport money to go back to their homes.
Athletics has a big following and the AFN must tap into this and make the sports viable for those who have taken to it. The days must start to count for the era of waiting for the Sports Ministry to dole out money to end. There should be nothing like “go and come back we would reimburse your money.” This is like an open sesame to corruption.