₦airaland Forum

chrisooblog:
nice one OP great memories lol i remember this story when growing up. so adenikan turned the tables on them? always thought they beat him agbaya somebories.

always admired such athletes like olapade should have won a gold in the 4x100 relay in the 1997 world championship if not for the great canadian runner donovan bailey who came out of no where to win it for them in the last leg.

really sad at the state of nigerian T&F particularly the 100m. remember how in the 90s both for men and women at least one athlete would surely get to the finals be it olympics or world champs but if we get to semis na miracle.

but why are not tapping from the knowledge of these guys? we have the ezinwa brothers, olapade adenikan, chidi imoh, mary onyali, falilat ogunkoya, etc yet nigerian athletics is now like this? doesn't add up.

Mikylopez:
I'd really love to partake in the Olympics I really have a tin for athletics...years back my aunt. used to sponsor me n I also used to represent my sch buh tinx Jes suddenly changed...anyways most of the sport in dz year Olympic was quite funny water. polo?

yuzedo:
god naptu! My everlasting respect, boss. We shall do exploits together someday, me and you.

ogaprime:
What's funny about water polo??

ogaprime:
What's funny about water polo??

[size=14pt]Ministry Of Sports Should Be Scrapped – Christy Opara-Thompson[/size]

Onukogu Kanayo Jubal

— Mar 7, 2015 7:27 am | 1 Comment

Christy Okpara-Thompson, a former athlete, is one of Nigeria’s ever-famous ‘Golden Girls’, a group of four women athletes – Beatrice Utondu, Faith Idehen, Mary Onyali and herself – who won bronze at the Barcelona ’92 Olympics, after coming third in a relay race. Now the proprietor of Soho24 Sports Garden in Abuja, the NCAA All-American long-jump record-holder speaks to ONUKOGU KANAYO JUBAL in honour of the International Women’s Day, on her new challenges and the poor management of Nigeria’s athletics.

 

You and three other women – Beatrice Utondu, Faith Idehen and Mary Onyali – made history by winning bronze at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, more than 22 years on. How do you feel when you see that picture of the four of you celebrating ever so wildly?

After the Olympics, I went on to win gold, silver and bronze in long-jump, the 200m and 4by 1 in Harare (Zimbabwe), the Commonwealth Games in Canada (1994), as well as a number of other track activities, before calling it quits in 2004, due to recurring injuries, but none of those medals stand out like that of the Barcelona ’92 Olympics.

What I feel when I look at that picture frame is pure joy. It refreshes my memory and makes me happier. It also saddens my heart that that was the highest peak of athletics in Nigeria. After then, the whole thing has gone down-hill.

 

How do you mean down-hill?

Since that year, Nigeria has not achieved the peak of success in athletics which she did then. Everything has gone kaput. That history made in 1992 is just sitting there unchallenged. You have mentioned Faith Idehen, Falilat Ogunkoya, Beatrice Utondu, Mary Onyali, Fatima Yusuf, Chioma Ajunwa and a number of others. Back then, you could pick more than 12 competent, intelligent, reliable, energetic, brilliant women athletes from the Nigerian team.

During the time of Endurance Ojokolo, Chioma Ajunwa, Mercy Nku, Glory Alozie and a number of others, they could not replicate what we did. Why? They were never together. Gloria was in Italy, Ojokolo was in Nigeria, Chioma was in Nigeria doing her police work. They were never together. In our case, about 80 or 90 per cent of us were on scholarship in America and we always got the time to meet and practice. We ran for the NCAA and were well prepared whenever we were called upon. Though we brought the glory home, we were never trained by the country.

Today, all you have is Blessing Okagbare. Where are the others? There is none up there with her.

Worse, today, Nigeria has refused to call upon any of us who represented the country well to see to the running of athletics in the country; not as a favour, but because we have a lot to give.

The others (Onyali, Idehen and Utondu) are in America and I have been in Nigeria for the past five years, but not once has any of us been called upon to come give some insight into how athletics should be run in Nigeria.

Nigeria is not interested in developing sports from the grassroots. Since that is the case, they should source it out; give it to individuals to take care of it. Sports in this country should be privatised and married to education. Only both of them can co-exist, so that talented young people can get scholarships.

Even those who took over and gave the impression that they had the interest of athletes at heart have failed to forsake their greed.

 

What do you think is the difference between the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) of your time and the one of the present?

Sincerely, this one is only different in the scale of corruption they engage in. As for every other thing, they have not changed. They are still behind the times. If you ask them how many functional athletes they have discovered from the National School Sports Festival (NSSF), the National Sports Festival (NSF), Nigeria Universities Games (NUGA), Nigeria Polytechnic Games (NIPOGA), Nigeria Colleges of Education Games (NICEGA) and the rest of the other sporting fiestas, all you’ll hear of are elaborate plans which do not come down to anything at the end of the day. The young and old are supposed to meet somewhere – on the training pitch – one, to impart and the other to learn. Unfortunately, the people in the ministry are not ready to do that. The ministry, for failing in its primary duty, should not exist.

There is deliberate corruption from the top to the bottom and everyone is no leech in the system.

Instead of striving to get funding for these sports, they just sit and fold their hands. If you do not have a budget, why should you still be there four years or more? How have you been surviving? Get out, resign if you are honest that the budget has not been approved.

As long as we are Nigerians, we’ll continue to produce great athletes; it is genetic. The only problem here is that the sport is managed by thieves who know nothing about their jobs description.

My conclusion, therefore, is that the Federal Ministry of Sports should be scrapped. It is useless. If they can’t get talent for every sport; if they can’t source funds for the things they need to do; if they cannot give the nation’s sporting sector some form of direction – breaches of which they are guilty, then the ministry should not exist.

When we were making history, many of them were too young. We are supposed to be coaching them today, but that is not the case. If you give the right job at the wrong time, say 10 years after it was meant to be, two things will happen; there will be loss of interest and so much anger and frustration. Put people where they belong, daily.

 

If you had not been a track and field star, what other sport would you have opted for?

Total football. Soccer was my first love and I am still good at it. The boys in the Soho 24 Academy can tell you that, despite their youth, I am still in top shape to run them ragged.

 

So, since you retired, what have you been up to?

Since I retired, I have been training athletes, consulting on fitness development, playing my role as a sports dietician, motivational speaker and sports administrator.

Soho 24 was launched in May 2013 and, since then I have been here, trying to raise this sports garden to something useful and community-friendly.

My focus is to cater for the sporting needs of this community and young people. What I had in mind when I began was to give back to the children who are interested in sports, but I have discovered that it is beyond one person. There is need for an army of others.

What are some of your challenges, so far?

The greed of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB), Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) and the Development Control people will not let me run this young business in peace and let it thrive.

These government officials think that they have the right to come here and bill me outrageous amounts, because they are used to taxing ‘nkwobi’ gardens which Abuja is popular for. This is not an ‘nkwobi’ garden, why should you charge me N250,000 for tax or something without even finding out how much I make? Why should you send me outrageous bills? Don’t you want this community to thrive and use this place? I have evidence here, so I’m not just blabbing.

I should be worrying about the hundreds of children I train daily for free and how to get their reluctant parents to pay something for their upkeep, no matter how little, but the government officials and their greed won’t let me be. Sadly, I can’t tell the children to go back to their parents; they must have some sort of future, because we all cannot be graduates of some sort. We need sportsmen, as well.

We need sport universities, more places like this, so that all those who want to be educated sportsmen can do that in peace while the rest who want to face academics squarely can do that. But that is only when the government is not stifling the process. The government needs to create a friendlier environment, so that things can get rolling.

[size=14pt]Memo To President Buhari: Time To Halt The Downward Spiral in Our Sports, By Innocent Egbunike[/size]

Premium Times ​October 7, 2015

EVENTS in Nigeria since May 29, 2015 have been bitter-sweet to me. The sweetness is the good tidings I get each time I call my 95 years old dad in Onitsha and my siblings in Nigeria, they confirm the good news I have been reading online about how things are changing for the better in Nigeria within a short period.

But am also bitter because President Buhari and the APC leaders seem not to have any plan for sports or they have wrong advisers.

Peradventure President Buhari is getting the wrong brief about the state of sports, my memo will not only give him the true picture, but also proffer solutions.

President Buhari must have been briefed that we just won the Africa Nations Cup in Basketball, but he should ask them what the state of basketball is at home or at the local league. Nigeria is probably the only nation in the world renown for football without a good football league. Tennis is completely dead, ditto boxing, volleyball and other sports. Table Tennis was a sports we used to dominate completely, now we play second fiddle to Egypt and Congo. I read that you congratulated our team for placing second in the All Africa Games, but the truth is, the All Africa Games today is merely a developmental programme for upcoming athletes.

ATHLETICS AS AN EXAMPLE

No other sports give me the opportunity to paint the sorry state of sports in Nigeria today than my sport, athletics, a sport that gave me global fame.

After watching the recently concluded Beijing 2015 IAAF World Championships in China, and the Brazzaville 2015 All African Games and reading up all the news articles, I made the decision to join the discussion and reflect on our past performances in comparison to where we are today.

Nigeria’s track and field records from the past speaks for itself, the Nigerian Record in the men’s 100m stands at 9:84, 19:84sec in the 200m and 44:17sec in the 400m, 48.50sec in the 400h,   8:27m in the Long Jump, 17:26m in the Triple Jump, 67:80m in the Discus Throw, 37.91sec in the 4 x 100m and 2:58:68 in the 4 x 400m.

On the women side our records are as follows:  100m 10:79sec, 22:07sec in the 200m and 49:10sec in the 400m, 12:44sec in the 100h, 54:40sec in 400h, 1:95m in the High Jump, 7:12m in Long Jump, 42:39sec in the 4 x 100m and 3:21:04 in the 4 x 400m.

Today, we don’t have male sprinters that can run under 10.00 sec in the 100m.

How did our athletes reach those splendid performances? The answer is found in the framework that was built in the seventies during the leadership of Isaac Akioye.

Now late, Akioye invested in sports national development programs, from Primary school, Secondary school to college level, with such examples as the Secondary School Sports, University Games (NUGA), National Sports Festival for junior and senior athletes , Armed Forces Games, and such national sports events, helped set standards in the development of track and field in Nigeria. I remember being at the same school sports with Sunday Uti, Yusuf Ali, Henry Amike, Daniel Ogidi, Rufina Uba and transitioning into the senior level with each of these individuals.

I remember that the first time I went to the National Sports Festival was 1979, Oluyole 79, I remember flunking the Xray exam for the junior team, but my state still took me to watch the competition and watching my team mate, Francis Ude, the great Samson Oyeledun inspired me to want to be on the national team.

To my recollection, everything was done right, there was a standard set for every event, for both junior and senior athletes.   Akioye brought in administrators and coaches that were given responsibilities and held accountable for their duties. Athletes were also held accountable with the code of conduct. It was a privilege to make the national team, because every athlete worked very hard and faced tough competition to make it to the national team.

EDUCATION AND SPORTS

Athletes were encouraged to go to college in Nigeria and overseas, we had the JJ Kio (dollar man) Ahmed Adio, just to mention a few that attended college in Nigeria, and the national team athletes Mary Akirimi, Kayinde Vaughn, Obusiemie Ensienu, Ikpoto Eseme, Iziaq Adeyanju, Lawrence Adegbehingbe, Samson Oyeledun who teamed up with likes of Felix Emadeye (Beautiful legs) Joe Sia Sia, Dele Udo, Charlton Ehuzelun, Modupe Oshikoya, Tom Nnakwe, Joan Elumelu  and Edward Ofili and Godwin Obasogie that attended  college in USA. One thing that these athletes had in common was the that they were treated the same way and were expected to respect and abide by the code of conduct.

The foundation that was laid in the seventies was the bridge to the performances in the eighties and nineties. In the eighties, Nigeria won the Commonwealth 4 x 100 with the great quartet of Ikpoto Eseme, Iziaq Adeyanju, Lawrence Adegbehingbe, Samson Olajidie Oyeledun, won her first Olympic medal, dominated the World university Games, showed her supremacy at the African Games. During the eighties, Nigeria won World Championship Silver and Bronze medals. The eighties started the who is who in track and field, the eighties gave us such athletes as Chidi Imoh, Moses Egbusisen, Rotimi Peters, Joseph Taiwo,  Sunday Uti, Airat Bakare, Henry Amike, Yussuf Ali, Paul Emodi, Augustine Olobia, Mary Onayli, George Igbede, Tina Ihegwam, Beatrice Utondu, Obinna Eregbu, Falilat Ogunkoya,  Olapade Adeniken, Davidson Ezinwa, Hope Obikaeze and the list goes on.

TRACK AND FIELD IN THE 90’s



During the nineties, we started  another trend of great athletes that trained in Nigeria, the likes of one of our best quater milers Sunday Bada, our Olympic gold medalist in the Long Jump Chioma Ajunwa, Bisi Afolabi, Charity Opara, Deji Aliu, Pat Itanyi, Uche Emedolu, Francis Obikwelu, and they teamed up with the likes of Fatima Yussuf Olukoju, Adewale Olukoju, Clement Chukwu,Osmond Ezinwa, Oluyemi Kayode, Olapade Adeniken, Chima Ugwu, Francis Obikwelu,  Faith Idehen, Udeme Ekpeyong,   Jude Monye, Christy Opara Thompson, Gloria Alozie, Tina Ihegwam, Batrice Utondu, Obinna Eregbu, , Falilat Ogunkoya,  Olapade Adeniken, Davidson Ezinwa, Hope Obikaeze, and Chidi Imoh.

Some of these athletes contributed to the success stories of Nigeria’s track and field that won 1 gold 2 silver and 3 bronze medals at the Olympic Games, 2 silver and 2 bronze at World Championships; the nineties gave us the most medals

In the 2000s, the nation saw Enefiok Udo-Obong, Nduka Awazie Olusoji Fasuba,  Aaron Egbele, James Godday,  Saul Weigopwa, Franca Idoko, Gloria Kemasuode, Halimat Ismaila, Oludamola Osayomi, Agnes Osazuwa, Blessing Okagbare rise to prominence and team up with some of the athletes from the nineties to win Nigeria 1 Gold and 2 Bronze at 2000 and 2008 Olympic Games.

Okagbare was introduced to the world in 2008 and she won Nigeria a bronze medal in the 2008 Olympic Games. Since then, Okagbare has done Nigeria proud by being the first Nigerian athlete to win a medal at the World Championships since 1999, and has been our only hope at every international competition, the only flag bearer for a nation of over 180 million people.

ATHLETICS FROM 2008

Now, the question is what happened to our sport since 2008? Why are we going backwards when the rest of the world is advancing including some of the countries we liberated like South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe just to mention a few, where did we go wrong, why do we have to rely on one athlete when we had had between 3 to 4 athletes running under 11:10 in the women 100m, between 4-5 men running under 10:05sec in the men’s 100m, we had 4 women that ran between 49sec and 50 sec in the 400m, 3 to 4 male athletes that ran under 45.1 at any given time. Things in Nigeria’s track and field have become so bad to the point that we only go to world competitions to register our presence . We had been medal contenders in the past and these days we celebrate making finals, we could spin things to make us look good but the facts are there, our best athlete is ranked top 4 in the world, which is the highest ranking for any of our athletes and the rest of our athletes in the events we dominated are not ranked within top 70 in the world and this is sad and unacceptable.

BRAZZAVILLE 2015 SECOND PLACING

As I read the articles from the African Games and reflect on our performance at the World Championships, we did well at the All African Games, but in comparing our performances to medal contenders, we are a junior team in comparison to the rest of the world. Congratulations to our athletes at the African Games, the question now is who replaces Okagbare when she retires? She has done well and it is unfair to see her carry the burden of a country on her shoulders, like she did at the World Championships,



I was saddened to see how far behind we are in comparison to the rest of the world. Some of the athletes that represented the other countries are a new breed of athletes, they rose to prominence within the past 4 years, some were juniors from 2012, and have become senior athletes and in some cases World Championship medalist in this just concluded World Championships. Most countries, at the just concluded African Games, sent their 3rd tier (junior athletes) while we sent our best athletes, we literality competed in what has become more of a development competition for the rest of Africa and big championship for Nigeria. We called ourselves the “Giant of Africa” and my question is how can we now stand to be the peanut of Africa and celebrate mediocre performance in Africa, when the rest of the World is celebrating victories in world competitions

I struggle with what is going on because of the chemistry of what is going on in our sport, while the rest of the world is investing in developmental programs we have invested in recycling our athletes from 12 years back, and are reduced to buying foreign athletes giving them Nigeria passport, is this what a country that calls itself the “Giant of Africa” should be doing? Our history shows that as a people have produced some of the best in the world in the past, in the past most countries were afraid of us, but today, we have become a laughing stock all because we decided to abandon our developmental program by going for quick fix programs. As a people, one of the things that holds us together is our love for sports.

We are over one hundred and eighty million strong with great intellectuals, hard working people with great minds and I believe that we should take pride in building our youth programs in all aspects of life and most of all, in sports. I grew up with the slogan “the young shall grow”. The young is surely grown but with no directions, everyone wants quick fix. We will need to overhaul the way we to look at our models from the seventies, eighties and learn from such countries as the USA, Jamaica, Bahamas so we can compete with the best in the world in this 21st century. We cannot afford to continue to regress and see everyone around us progressing.

WAY FORWARD

We need to plan ahead, a failure to plan is a plan to fail, and to avoid this downhill spiral, we need to stop all the bickering and bring in sports administrators with a vision, individuals with goals, willing to advance sports in Nigeria from day one when they take office, we need a Sports Minister that will set the standard, set up a code of conduct for the administrators and make sure they abide by every rule. We need a Sports Minister that is willing to lead, one that will have the trust of the masses from day one in office, someone that can be trusted and will be willing to work with anyone regardless of any personal differences. We need individuals that will respect the office of the position they are in, we do not need Sports Minsters or administrators that are there to impress the athletes, we need administrators that will hold the athletes accountable.

We are one Nigeria and no one individual is bigger than our nation. We need to contract our administrators with performance standard like we do with the athletes. It is about time we hold the administrators accountable the same way the administrators hold the athletes accountable. I will suggest that we go back to the nitty gritty and roll our sleeves and get busy in developing grass root programs, hire coaches with resume, coaches that have been tested, have good character and are willing to be good role models to our sport. To move forward, we need to have a Sports Minister that will be the President Buhari of Sports, who will overhaul the sector, and bring the change that started in the power sector to the sports sector.

Mr. Egbunike, an Olympic and World Championship medalist lives and writes from Atlanta, Georgia, USA where he is an athletics coach and trainer

daveP:
Naptu2, you did a great job here at least two-way; to relief Rio-pain(real pain) and at the same time cause pain for what we aren't having again based on what we've had before, i.e The best.


If Buhari can just reignite sports at secondary school level with full focus on its success, he'll be a hero asap.


I don't even know how and when we began to ignore this system and began to look for scrap. But will PMB even think of seeing a ball roll on tv(i don't think so).


Had a guy we called Crespo cos he played like him, the guy came close to a national shirt, but was dropped for one of the 'guys' of those big men in politics.


See how that Okay bare story didn't see the light of the day. so so bad.


Won't be surprise that Divine aka I never espererit, would fade off into gloom if he isn't encouraged asap. see the Bahrain defectors doing wonders in just weeks after defecting. which means the cost of motivation is not burdensome for those in charge. Yet al we continue to grow is Millions of algae and spirogyra in our pools across country. Nice piece!!!!

UjSizzle:
Noticed how schools today lack sport facilities? The education board should make this mandatory.

naptu2:
It's Saturday.

I remember listening to BBC Sports World in the early 1990s to hear Alan Green's commentaries on the English League and also listen to Mike Costello'[/b]s commentaries on the Golden League or IAAF Grand Prix. You'd hear Costello's commentaries from Rome (the famous Golden Gala), Zurich, Paris, Crystal Palace, etc and there was always a prominent nigerian athlete in the race. It was four hours of non-stop sports.

Goodness me, Mike Costello! Don't think any radio commentator will ever beat him

I remember when [b]Complete Sports started in 1995. They had a two page spread on Mondays that contained results of most of the football league matches in Europe, South America and Africa. It also contained results of the latest athletics meetings that took place that weekend, particularly results of races that involved Nigerians.

Remember complete sports too. Think they started in 1994. They used to report athletics too. I remember the week before USA 94 started, despite the football frenzy, they still had a middle page piece on the Mobil Athletics championships that was coming up even though this was just a commonwealth year. That was how big T&F was

I remember Segun Odegbami's show on NTA Channel 10 in the early '90s, which featured clips of the previous weekend's races.

Mikylopez:
swimming ain't easy tried several times wen am getting it I always dislocate my ryt arm I can only imagine wah those girls go through...I really wantu be an athlete

grpCaptain:
Thank you for this write up. It brings good old memories of my time in secondary school in Ilorin. I was lamenting during the Rio olympic how Nigeria grass root sport development has gone down the drain.

In 1986/87 I remember that the inter house sport in Mount Carmel College Ilorin was packed full of athletes who will later become national stars with Olapade as one.

I still remember the following

(1) Olapade Adeniken (C & S College Ilorin. I hope, I am right, I google it and sure I was!)
(2) Baba Malik (Govt. High School Ilorin)
(3) Obanze (Mount Carmel College Ilorin)
(4) Ali Baba ( I am not sure if I get the name right) FGC Ilorin

I remember the race for external Schools were 100 meters and 4 x 100 meters. All the 4 of them ran in the same race. I believe Olapade came first with obanze second and Baba Malik coming third.

The inter house sport event use to be a good festive moment and a time we normally look forward to. Thousands of people thronged the Oloje campus of Mount Carmel college to watch the race, I remember the best time was like 10.02 seconds. The Olympic record then was help by Ben Johnson or Carl lewis at 9.86 seconds and we knew these guys were up to the task.

You will not imagine that track and field was well established at the secondary school level with sports like short put, Javelin, long jump, high jump, pole vault, Disc, all relays (4 x 100m, 4 x 400m, 800m, 1500m and even marathon). We normally start with marathon and we usually start from Mount Carmel college School center and run upto govt. High School round about and back to Mount Carmel. Any MOCACO Alumni here to support me? (Set of 1984 - 1989). Mount Carmel had a very good Volleyball and basket ball team. Table tennis and long tennis were well establish. Oh my people

There is an article by Henry Semilore on facebook here

https://www.facebook.com/Kwara247/posts/276948825822436

that chronicle the golden era of sport in Kwara state. I was able to confirm 2 of the athletes on my list from his own. By the way I remember one of my senior at Mount Carmel with the name "Muyiwa Semilore" as the name Semilore rings a bell, but I am not sure if they are related (Muyiwa and Henry).

The article simply sum up all what I needed to say and wish we could go back to the golden era.

UjSizzle:
Noticed how schools today lack sport facilities? The education board should make this mandatory.

daveP:
Only Grammar and public schools boast of at least a large space called football field.

UjSizzle:
Naptu2, is this the same Father Slattery that owned St. Dennis Catholic Church at Akoka?
I attended his primary school-- Our Lady of Fatima. It explains why we always had our inter-house competition at St. Finbarr's college.
Wow


Hehe I just remembered the corny song we used to sing in Green House (Father Slattery house) The song does say he's a sportsman.

naptu2:
He founded St Finbarr's and he was its first principal. He led them to win many principals cup competitions in the 1960s and '70s (before the government took over the school).