Abubakar Olubukola Saraki has invested his resources, time and passion into sports for almost three decades. As he turned 54 on December 19, it is time the Senate President uses his position to make legislations that will revive a comatose industry, so that it can fulfill its potential to employ millions of Nigerians and contribute billions of Naira to the economy.
When the story of the Super Eagles’ 3-1 defeat of Algeria in a Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying match at the Godswill Akpabio Uyo Stadium, on November 12, 2016, was written, not a word was said about the contribution of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to the success of our boys.
But for Saraki’s intervention, some of our boys who were disgruntled because the NFF owed them bonuses, allowances and flight ticket refund would probably not have honoured the match or would have played without commitment.
Concerned about the likely side effects of the players’ discontent, some members of the football family met with Saraki a few days before the match and his intervention calmed frayed nerves.
The result was a glowing performance against a star-studded Algerian team.
Saraki’s romance with sports predates public office. I experienced it first hand in Cologne, Germany in April 1998, when he came with a retinue of friends and aides to watch one of the Super Eagles’ build-up matches to the France ’98 World Cup. Courtesy of my senior colleague, Gboyega Okegbenro, we had breakfast with the future Senate President and discussed sports at length and what it can do to solve social-economic problems, apart from winning trophies and medals.
It probably runs in the family. His father, Abubakar Olusola Saraki, a tennis aficionado, was one of the backbones of sports in Nigeria before he died.
An ever present face at grand slams, the elder Saraki sponsored many people to these events, paid for many to attend tennis academies and generally supported sports.
Saraki surrounds himself with people who are knowledgeable about sports. When the history of sports in this republic (1999 till date) is written, it will show that two sports ministers who were outstanding performers, Hon. Ibrahim Isah Bio and Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, were nominated by Saraki.
Bio it was who started the revolution in football that sent the untouchables in the industry to Kuje Prison. If President Goodluck Jonathan had not bowed to pressure from PDP bigwigs who were godfathers of the football cabal to halt Bio’s reforms, he would have laid the foundation for the rebirth of our football.
Abdullahi too had good plans for our sports. From youth development to reformation of the football league, establishment of a High Performance Centre, responsiveness to the welfare of athletes and enthronement of good governance in sports, Abdullahi started well, but like Bio before him, again, Jonathan bowed to pressure from PDP chieftains and removed him. Since his removal, our sports have been in a free fall that even the coming of change has not transformed its fortunes for the better.
As governor of Kwara State, Saraki also recorded remarkable achievements in sports, including but not limited to the establishment of the Kwara Football Academy, the redesign and remodeling of Kwara Stadium, adequate funding of premier league club – Kwara United, the establishment of his privately funded football club – ABS, the funding of Oloye Cup football competition among Kwara Schools, the provision of scholarships to Kwara Football Academy to outstanding players, etc.
Concerned about manpower development, Saraki brought the Special One, Jose Mourinho; Clemens Westerhof; and other soccer experts to train the trainers.
Saraki also sponsors golf, tennis and other sports competitions. His passion for sports as a financier and aficionado strain the descriptive power of many adjectives.
An Important Industry Being Run by Inept Managers
Nigeria sports today needs a leader who understands that sports goes beyond winning medals and trophies and can be a powerful tool, as in Western Europe, America and other parts of the world, to curb crime, boost tourism, trade and commerce, and serve as a powerful tool for international diplomacy, solving social economic problems and raising global icons.
Where will the following global icons be today without sports – Venus and Serena Williams, Cristiano Ronaldo, John Terry, Michael Jordan and many others.
My hero, Muhammad Ali, managed to graduate from High School. What would Ali’s place in history be without boxing? Perhaps he would have ended up a painter like his father, in Louisville, Kentucky. Boxing turned him into a global icon, the most famous man in the world.
Nigeria, with an abundance of talents in virtually all the sports needs a strong political leader who understands the power of sports.
President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, apart from not having strong sports pedigree, seem preoccupied with the nation’s security challenges, economic recession and other problems in other sectors.
The nation’s number three man, Saraki, who has a clear understanding of the industry, must take the driver seat in reviving our sports.
Sports in Nigeria Today
The state of sports in Nigeria today is deplorable, to say the least. To say Nigerian sports is in a coma or is dead is to be modest. Let facts speak.
Nigeria is known worldwide for football, yet the only thing that is working in NFF is destruction. Administration and management have broken down completely. Even in death, coaches like Shaibu Amodu and Stephen Keshi are owed salaries, ditto Sunday Oliseh, and others.
On the field, it is one humiliation after the other for Nigeria, from non-qualification for the African Nations Cup back to back, to failure in other areas.
Just when we thought the Atlanta travel disgrace was the absolute worst by the NFF, Amaju had a special Christmas present for Nigeria with the non-payment of the Super Falcons’ bonuses and allowances.
The Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development is more concerned with preparation for the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, All African Games and other major games and championships, events and competitions that are none of their business but that of the Olympics Committee and Sports Federations.
The other thing they will tell you is, “We are waiting for government for funds”. Ask what they have done with the ones they were given, they won’t have any clear explanation. Ask why they are not getting sponsors, it will be another round of excuses.
How can an organisation without a functional media and marketing department get sponsors?
How can an organisation without a functional media and marketing department get sponsors?
League writers, who are supposed to tell the world the truth are now paid appointees of the LMC, working as match assessors and league officials so they see no evil and hear no evil.
Imagine Martins Samuel of the Daily Mail or Amy Lawrence of The Guardian being match assessors in the Premier League!
Worldwide, businesses of football are conducted in the open but not in Nigeria. Contractual agreements are signed with sponsors without the clubs and the public knowing details. There is need for legislation for Open Football so that all the stakeholders will know how much is paid for television rights and what is due to the clubs.
Officiating in the league is terrible; most of the ills are covered by league writers whose loyalties are to the LMC.
Athletics, the sports that gave Nigeria her first Olympics gold medal, is not better. In the 1990s, the legendary athletics coach of the University of California, John Smith, who has produced more Olympics medalists than several nations dreaded Nigerian athletes.
Smith believed Nigeria would challenge American supremacy on the track but today, track and field is off the track. At the last Olympics games in Rio, Brazil, all the eight finalists in the men 100m were black yet the most populous black nation in the world did not have an athlete in the semi-final.
The situation in volleyball, basketball, tennis, and other sports is not different. There are no facilities, equipment, sports science is non-existent, I could go on and on.
As you turn 54 today, I will be grateful if you could move from being a passionate lover of sports to a sports reformer and use your good office to make legislations that will strengthen our sports institutions so that misfits who cannot run corner shops successfully will not sneak into the management and administration of a massive supermarket chain called Nigerian sports.
As Senate President, you should use your position and relationship with the president to ensure only men with understanding of sports as a tool of empowerment and an economic force are appointed.
This will not only ensure the revival of the industry but it will etch your name in stone.
Olukayode Thomas, a journalist, writes from Lagos.
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