Legendary Afrobeat King, late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was a prophet who was never recognised in this country. Songs he sang many years ago when most Nigerians were still with the illusion that their country was the giant of Africa, are beginning to make sense to them now. Since my early days in sports journalism, sports administration in Nigeria has never been engulfed by the spate of confusion which has pervaded the sector since November last year when President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Barrister Solomon Dalung from Plateau as the country’s sports minister. Many Nigerians have held that position and not all of them were vast in sports administration. Some learnt on the job and did fairly well. That was because they met technocrats on ground who planned all the strategy and guarded them through it professionally. I remember the days of Directors- General like Babayo Shehu, Amos Adamu, Patrick Ekeji, Umar Bindir, Gbenga Elegbeleye and Alhassan Yakmut. These men who served at different times brought something to bear, no matter how, as sports was never left to grind to a halt like it is today. No matter what anyone would say about Adamu (he had his own faults as a human being though), during his time, our athletes had some preparations because he knew how to get the funds out. Ekeji had the confidence of the private sector from where he sourced funds after approval was given by the government. They were sure they would be reimbursed once the money gets to the ministry or National Sports Commission, as the case may be. And he never faltered. Athletes welfare were uppermost in his heart. When Yakmut took over from Elegbeleye, he followed the tradition. He was kind of lucky to have funds released to him by then newly elected President Buhari. The ill-luck he had, unlike the Adamus and Ekejis, was that the Minister who was appointed soon after he became the DG, didn’t want to be led. He acted before thinking hence the confusion that has pervaded the sports sector today. Check out these scenarios. The first thing he did was to over-rule Yakmut who didn’t want to renew the contract of two American athletics officials who have been variously criticized by stakeholders in athletics for not contributing much to the development of the sport. Dalung, instead of calling Yakmut to know the reasons for his actions, believed the Americans who reported to him. That was the first crack on the wall. Next he accused the sports family of denying him of his estacode as a member of the government delegation to the Africa Nations Cup in Mali in 2002. He also dabbled into the football territory, craving to unite the ‘warring factions’ in the football family. Before Dalung came, the Chris Giwa group had simmered after they got cold shoulders from the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) where they had taken their grievances to for adjudication. That pronouncement caused Giwa and his group to once again sharpen their weapon of war which culminated in the near fisticuffs between Giwa and the NFF president, Amaju Pinnick right before the minister inside the ministry’s conference room at the Abuja National Stadium. The confusion in the Sports Ministry today is worsened by the fact that the minister has no technocrat to guide him as the permanent secretary, Mr Christian Ohaa himself is a complete novice in the sector he has been given to run. A case of two ‘blind’ men leading a group. Of course they are headed for the cliff. When President Buhari hosted Nigerian athletes who brought honour to the country in the short time that he assumed office, the ministry bungled the whole ceremony. President Buhari had relied on his minister to brief him properly but as someone who knows only about football maybe, Dalung rated the Golden Eaglets over the senior men’s basketball team, D’Tigers who won the 2015 Afrobasket Championship, the equivalent of the football Nations Cup. Even if it was his subordinates that prepared it, if he knew, he would have corrected it. When confronted with this and that some officials who were on the delegation were also deleted from the list, the permanent secretary pleaded ignorance and asked that he be advised on what to do. Till today, nothing has been done. Because Dalung and his permanent secretary didn’t know what to do, they sat down waiting for the release of the money the federal government has earmarked for the Olympic Games. The minister had consistently denied there was any money for the training of the athletes despite Yakmut’s insistence that he left over N640 million in the coffers of the ministry. He once said that they should not use the result of the Rio Games to judge him as the team should have been preparing for the Games over four years ago. He was already looking for an alibi. With money not forthcoming, some federations had to go out of their way to prepare their teams. Rather than being commended, Dalung threw pot-shots at them. He did not only deny Samson Siasia and his U-23 team, he accused the coaching crew of trafficking in humans. The AFN had to write the foreign-based athletes to go to Rio instead of coming down to Nigeria since Team Nigeria were not going as a group. Because some athletes didn’t trust the present dispensation which has alienated them, they took to the Social Media to appeal for funds, sarcastically though. Again the minister denied asking the AFN to write to the athletes, stressing that his ministry was capable of taking the athletes to and from the Olympic Games. The confusion which has portrayed the country in bad light was as a result of lack of communication between Dalung and his directors on one hand and the federations sending athletes to Rio and the sports ministry on the other. Even the Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC whose duty it is to take Team Nigeria to the Games, after the contingent were handed over to it as the IOC tradition demands, is in a quandary because Dalung still doesn’t want them to perform their statutory duty. The confusion will continue and if not checked now, will dove-tail into the Olympics. At that time he would have brought international embarrassment to President Buhari, the sports family and Nigerians at large.
Legendary Afrobeat King, late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was a prophet who was never recognised in this country. Songs he sang many years ago when most Nigerians were still with the illusion that their country was the giant of Africa, are beginning to make sense to them now. Since my early days in sports journalism, sports administration in Nigeria has never been engulfed by the spate of confusion which has pervaded the sector since November last year when President Muhammadu Buhari appointed Barrister Solomon Dalung from Plateau as the country’s sports minister. Many Nigerians have held that position and not all of them were vast in sports administration. Some learnt on the job and did fairly well. That was because they met technocrats on ground who planned all the strategy and guarded them through it professionally. I remember the days of Directors- General like Babayo Shehu, Amos Adamu, Patrick Ekeji, Umar Bindir, Gbenga Elegbeleye and Alhassan Yakmut. These men who served at different times brought something to bear, no matter how, as sports was never left to grind to a halt like it is today. No matter what anyone would say about Adamu (he had his own faults as a human being though), during his time, our athletes had some preparations because he knew how to get the funds out. Ekeji had the confidence of the private sector from where he sourced funds after approval was given by the government. They were sure they would be reimbursed once the money gets to the ministry or National Sports Commission, as the case may be. And he never faltered. Athletes welfare were uppermost in his heart. When Yakmut took over from Elegbeleye, he followed the tradition. He was kind of lucky to have funds released to him by then newly elected President Buhari. The ill-luck he had, unlike the Adamus and Ekejis, was that the Minister who was appointed soon after he became the DG, didn’t want to be led. He acted before thinking hence the confusion that has pervaded the sports sector today. Check out these scenarios. The first thing he did was to over-rule Yakmut who didn’t want to renew the contract of two American athletics officials who have been variously criticized by stakeholders in athletics for not contributing much to the development of the sport. Dalung, instead of calling Yakmut to know the reasons for his actions, believed the Americans who reported to him. That was the first crack on the wall. Next he accused the sports family of denying him of his estacode as a member of the government delegation to the Africa Nations Cup in Mali in 2002. He also dabbled into the football territory, craving to unite the ‘warring factions’ in the football family. Before Dalung came, the Chris Giwa group had simmered after they got cold shoulders from the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) where they had taken their grievances to for adjudication. That pronouncement caused Giwa and his group to once again sharpen their weapon of war which culminated in the near fisticuffs between Giwa and the NFF president, Amaju Pinnick right before the minister inside the ministry’s conference room at the Abuja National Stadium. The confusion in the Sports Ministry today is worsened by the fact that the minister has no technocrat to guide him as the permanent secretary, Mr Christian Ohaa himself is a complete novice in the sector he has been given to run. A case of two ‘blind’ men leading a group. Of course they are headed for the cliff. When President Buhari hosted Nigerian athletes who brought honour to the country in the short time that he assumed office, the ministry bungled the whole ceremony. President Buhari had relied on his minister to brief him properly but as someone who knows only about football maybe, Dalung rated the Golden Eaglets over the senior men’s basketball team, D’Tigers who won the 2015 Afrobasket Championship, the equivalent of the football Nations Cup. Even if it was his subordinates that prepared it, if he knew, he would have corrected it. When confronted with this and that some officials who were on the delegation were also deleted from the list, the permanent secretary pleaded ignorance and asked that he be advised on what to do. Till today, nothing has been done. Because Dalung and his permanent secretary didn’t know what to do, they sat down waiting for the release of the money the federal government has earmarked for the Olympic Games. The minister had consistently denied there was any money for the training of the athletes despite Yakmut’s insistence that he left over N640 million in the coffers of the ministry. He once said that they should not use the result of the Rio Games to judge him as the team should have been preparing for the Games over four years ago. He was already looking for an alibi. With money not forthcoming, some federations had to go out of their way to prepare their teams. Rather than being commended, Dalung threw pot-shots at them. He did not only deny Samson Siasia and his U-23 team, he accused the coaching crew of trafficking in humans. The AFN had to write the foreign-based athletes to go to Rio instead of coming down to Nigeria since Team Nigeria were not going as a group. Because some athletes didn’t trust the present dispensation which has alienated them, they took to the Social Media to appeal for funds, sarcastically though. Again the minister denied asking the AFN to write to the athletes, stressing that his ministry was capable of taking the athletes to and from the Olympic Games. The confusion which has portrayed the country in bad light was as a result of lack of communication between Dalung and his directors on one hand and the federations sending athletes to Rio and the sports ministry on the other. Even the Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC whose duty it is to take Team Nigeria to the Games, after the contingent were handed over to it as the IOC tradition demands, is in a quandary because Dalung still doesn’t want them to perform their statutory duty. The confusion will continue and if not checked now, will dove-tail into the Olympics. At that time he would have brought international embarrassment to President Buhari, the sports family and Nigerians at large.
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