Afrigather The ‘new’ Minister of Sports activities Growth, Senator John Owan Eno, is an enigmatic, silent operator. You hardly see him, but, quietly, he’s impacting Nigerian sports activities in an enormous manner.
It might be too early for a scorecard of his efficiency, however observing him these previous few months as I’ve completed, requires some appraisal and commendation.
This week, the Nationwide Males’s basketball staff, D’Tigers, have been to be withdrawn from participation within the AfroBasket Championship happening in Tunisia from this weekend. The Basketball Federation of Nigeria didn’t have the funds to ship the staff to the championship. In the meantime, the outcomes from the occasion will decide the African nations that shall characterize the continent this summer season on the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games.
Such a withdrawal would have been a humiliation, the worst form of publicity for Nigeria, the biggest financial system in Africa, the ‘chief’ of the Black race on earth, one of many richest nations on earth with its pure sources, a rustic blessed with a few of the most gifted basketballers out of Africa within the residence of the game – the USA, African champions to the final Olympic Video games. It could have been a diplomatic fake pas!
Solely per week earlier, the entire world was witness to a terrific demonstration of the true essence of sports activities when Nigeria opened its vault to have fun, honour and reward the nation’s footballers, not for successful a trophy, however for attending to the finals of AFCON 2023, and within the course of uniting the nation and evoking the spirit of patriotism in all Nigerians.
The 2 eventualities above, taking place within the area of 1 week, don’t add up.
The matter of withdrawing the basketball staff was resolved a couple of days in the past by the Nigerian Sports activities Minister. With out elevating any mud on previous, lingering, elementary points on complicated relationship between the federations and authorities, he merely intervened within the matter, undertook to get the federal authorities to supply the wanted funds, and saved the nation undesirable embarrassment.
I’ve simply returned from AFCON 2023 in Cote d’Ivoire. With out being an official member of the Nigerian contingent, I used to be aware of many issues that went on there.
Nigeria participated below the auspices of the Nigeria Soccer Federation, NFF, an impartial and personal organisation like another sports activities federation within the nation, made up of soccer stakeholders with none authorities illustration.
Even because the ‘richest’ sports activities federation within the nation, with substantial monetary assist by its mother or father worldwide our bodies, CAF and FIFA, the NFF was in such dangerous monetary form that it couldn’t have funded the bills of the staff to the championship with out the Federal Authorities’s intervention.
Shortly earlier than the AFCON Championship started, quietly and with out elevating any mud about prevailing problems with roles and obligations of the federations and authorities, Senator John Owan Eno, as soon as once more, quietly intervened and efficiently secured approval of the federal authorities for the discharge of funds budgeted for the championship to the NFF. The funds coated price of preparation and participation, in addition to all excellent gamers’ allowances and bonuses, the excellent wage of the overseas coach, and different bills even unrelated to AFCON.
In brief, funding AFCON was the duty of the federal authorities. That’s why, all through the AFCON Championship, the NFF had their man ‘planted’ in Abuja urgent buttons to safe the discharge of the funds.
The gentleman Minister of Sports activities didn’t change into a ‘poster boy’ for his efforts, regardless of doing the yeoman’s job of facilitating your complete course of. Clearly, the Senator is just not an attention-seeker. He’s a silent operator, not concerned with being concerned within the endless brouhaha with the federation over who controls the equipment of administration and funds.
He hardly even confirmed up at AFCON, permitting the NFF to run their present and to take the credit score.
He was extra concerned with seeing that every little thing works!
That’s my curiosity within the man. He’s totally different and particular in his personal methods. AFCON got here and went with out disaster or scandals, charting a brand new path in the direction of a greater relationship between authorities and the federations.
The event with the basketball federation gives ample alternative to additional look at his new template.
After all, he’s conscious of the information of a lingering disaster between nationwide associations/federations and the Sports activities Ministry. It is sort of a smouldering volcano.
He’s totally conscious, from his actions, that there’s a clear statutory duty of presidency to fund some points of each sports activities federation’s participation in some particular worldwide occasions, a longtime practise till disrupted by the vaulting ambition of some directors to take over sports activities federations by dangling and proclaiming their ‘independence’ of their statutes and debar authorities from stopping their ambitions.
That, after all, comes with a value – funding of their programmes with out authorities. They fake they will increase non-public sector funding. All of them now know that Nigeria’s sports activities aren’t enticing sufficient, and the non-public sector not ‘refined’ sufficient to hold the burden of the sports activities growth in its current kind.
In brief, the federations are saddled with obligations they can not fund, creating blurred areas of battle within the roles and obligations between them and authorities, crashing your complete structure of grassroots sports activities growth within the nation within the course of.
There’s a must re-set the buttons as all of the federations, together with the Nigeria Soccer Federation that will get substantial funding assist from its worldwide our bodies, FIFA and CAF, nonetheless depend upon authorities to fund most of their worldwide competitions, and several other developmental programmes. All of them return to authorities for substantial funding, as AFCON 2023 clearly demonstrated.
The large rewards on the finish of AFCON 2023 are a sworn statement of presidency’s umbilical relationship with sports activities administration and the federations for the foreseeable future. This should change into a sensible platform to review and conduct analysis on learn how to marry or separate the roles and obligations of presidency and all federations.
I’m completely happy the brand new Minister of Sports activities is quietly, slowly however steadily going about his work, clearing all of the cobwebs of conflicts and confusion inside sports activities administration.
It’s heartening that Basketball Federation President, should now realise the futility of asking for blanket independence from authorities. His federation’s withdrawal from the Afrobasket Championship, would have created incalculable harm for Nigeria’s picture. Federations should be able to accommodate authorities as an integral a part of sports activities growth in Nigeria for now, and make authorities a accomplice, reasonably than proceed within the disaster and confusion created in the course of the tussle for who runs the federations throughout each election interval.
Senator John Eno, is completely poised now, to clear up the cobwebs within the administrative construction of sports activities in Nigeria. However reasonably than let the stakeholders to do their very own audit and prescribe options, the Minister ought to look outdoors the federations, at establishments with capability, coaching and talent to interrogate the subject material impartial of entrenched pursuits and biases, and provide you with sensible suggestions for the Federal, and State Governments and Sports activities Federations/Associations to develop a wholesome domesticated relationship-system for the nation.
In the meantime, I salute Senator John Owan Eno for efficiently navigating the Nigerian sports activities sector these previous six months.
