Oluseyi Oyebode is a foremost grassroots sports promoter, who has been championing the need for government to pay attention to school sports. A former head of Sports at Lagos-based Greensprings School said that talents abound across Nigeria but there must be conscious efforts by those in charge of sports to give attention to grassroots sports development.
Why do we struggle with sports development in Nigeria?
Nigeria could have been a nation that would have made a lot of income in sports due to the array of talents that God has endowed us with, in both individual and team sports. One of the reasons why our four fathers had many children was for defence in times of war or for farming, knowing that many different children with various talents. Countries like USA, China and India with large populations will use this to their advantage but unlike Nigeria, our population has become a burden to us. One of the biggest earnings in the USA and Britain today is sports and entertainment and they have used it to resolve many of their social economic problems. As many states in Nigeria will different natural resources, so will villages and individuals. The riverine areas for an example will be a boost to swimmers and it is believed that swimmers should be discovered from the axis, yes, that is true to an extent, but we need to realise that there is a sharp difference between survival swimming and competitive swimming. Many global swimmers could have been discovered if a proper swimming development programme, supported with facilities, early discovery, good coaching and exposure is put in place. Nigeria will continue to struggle to the level of globalisation in sports development.
How can we identify talents in sports?
The formative years of a child is very important, every child will have talent; it is the way we go about that is very important, in child education, three aspects which includes cognitive, affective and psycho-motor will definitely play a big role in child growth and development, this is the level that determines the traits and features in a child’s growth both physically and psychologically, this happens to be the best time to notice some of these talents and nurture them to greatness, most of the world class athletes are discovered at this stage. Age plays a major role in sports, though there could be some other factors, but age serves as the total determining factor in performance. A sport like Gymnastics, swimming, athletics, football and others needs early discovery supported with good coaching. Parents play a major role in observing some of these talents, home serves as the first agent of socialisation and immediately a child is discovered, it behooves on the parents to do the needful by giving the child the necessary supports and exposure. Parents in western nations now create more time in nurturing the talents of their children by taking to sports academies within their domain and I think that is the habit our parents needs to inculcate by creating more precious time for their words. The government also need to provide the basic sports infrastructures in order to enhance the development of these talent, there are some techniques that ought to be taught and learn at the tender stage of sports development which can be characterised by good facilities, equipment and coaching, once the highlighted factors are missing, rarely can we discover a great talents and that is the major reason why many of our athlete are not doing well abroad. Our sports programme should be tailored towards combining education with sports, many parents don’t want their children to participate in sports due to the fear of losing their education to sports because there is life after sports and that is why education is very vital.
How can we harness the sporting talents?
A good thought will definitely produce good result, Like early stated, a good plan with a good structure will yield massive productions, the school sport structure in Nigeria needs to be properly reviewed, many talents can also be discovered through the school sports system, the school need to have a virile sport department with good personnel in order to harness talents, The University system that produces sport teachers are been faced with the challenge of not having the genuine sports persons for Human Kinetics courses, the system is now eroded with drop out from other discipline without any affiliate with sports even becoming lecturers, hence “you don’t give what you don’t have” . Many schools in Nigeria today, don’t have the required space within the school premises for talents to harness, and this could be blame on the lack of quality measures and standard by the Education ministry in giving approval to schools, if the ministry sees sports as an integral part of education, then there is need to revisit the above issue.
Nigeria sports seems to be on the slide and how can we stop it?
Nigeria will continue to go down, not until when our orientation is totally changed towards a globally acceptable sports development structure, our focus should be a shift from sports jamboree into a more specific coherent structure of sports administration and development, Emphasis should be on a carefully articulated programme of sports growth, talent hunts, modern techniques, acquisition, foreign exposure and improvement. More sincere invested needs to be injected into sports development through a well-articulated programme by private, religious and government, Trainings should be organised in many specialised areas of coaching and administration by various Federations, there should be a generally acceptable seasonal school sports and grassroots programme in Nigeria, The issue of age cheating needs to be properly addressed, we need to identify our strength in sports and focus on them rather than becoming a Jack of all trade and master of none, Our sports structure should be a means to an end, not an end to itself.
What is lacking in school sports?
The school sports in Nigeria today, lacks the real and genuine personnel to drive the school sports agenda, if we don’t produce PE graduates that who have passion or do work affiliated with sports, then we have a big problem, those that are driving our school sports need to have passion, school sports is a specialised area in general sports development and hence we need specialised people to drive it, In the western nations, sports administrators are trained for special purposes and not until when we get to that level, lots of things will be lacking in our school sports system. All my life, I have trained and worked in school sports, I have always seen that as my area of passion and specialisation, now we run an academy called Dynaspro Weekend Sports Academy at University of Lagos Sports Centre where we train children from age 4 -16 the basic rudiments in Kids Athletics, football, basketball, table tennis, swimming and tennis every Saturday morning and you need to see lots of revelations and discoveries. We also have a global platform where we present and expose these talents and very soon, some of these talents we explode.
How can we attract sponsors to sports?
Many corporate organisations are not willing to sponsor or invest in our sports today due to lack of good agenda and corruption, many of our administrators prefer short term or a crash programme instead of long term programme that will yield a good development due some personal gains. Unlike in the western nations where we can see the effects of a long time project being sponsored by their corporate organisations, reverse is the case in Nigeria due to the above highlighted points. If we have a generally acceptable and purposeful sports development programme with people of integrity driving, sponsors can be encouraged.
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