By Desmond Ovbiagele

Last weekend had elements of both the bitter and the sweet. With the National Youth Sports Festival coming up in Abuja in December, I had looked forward to monitoring the final preparation drills of the local athletics group that I’m associated with.

Only to receive the disheartening update that the sponsoring State Government had suddenly elected not to feature any representation at the high profile event due to lack of funds.

Now, admittedly, this is not an unfamiliar refrain in the world of Nigerian sports. Over the years, countless opportunities for our sportsmen and women to test their mettle against the best of their peers have been scuttled for the same exact reason.

A table tennis game between Rivers state and Delta State on the second day of the 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos. PHOTO; Kehinde Gbadamosi.

Still, it made the news no more palatable. If the venue of the competition were in China or some other faraway place, one could perhaps sympathize with the excuse of funds constraint. But, come on — in our own backyard in Abuja?

My angst stemmed from my awareness of the several months that the young athletes had spent in training, with the objective of executing all the knowledge they had painstakingly acquired on whatever professional platforms were available for them to showcase their talents and commence the building of a resume that would be key to career progression.

And then, just like that— gone. Months of toil and sweat —all in vain, with no tangible end product to measure (talk less of justify) the effort. What student would be overjoyed at the cancellation of an exam, months of studying had gone into preparing for? And in the face of uncertainty over when the exam might eventually take place, what motivation would there be to continue studying?

For any athlete (especially an upcoming one), participation at quality competitions (whether local or international, it makes no difference) for your discipline is a necessity, not a privilege. It is vital to professional growth and development to engage in live battle and learn as much as possible from the experience.

Chances of an athletics scholarship to an international university (a coveted opportunity to fast track individual progress and maximize ability) would be considerably influenced by one’s track record on the local sports circuit; absenteeism at such events would be a significant professional disadvantage (not to mention the negative implications for morale).

But when I lamented to an acquaintance nearby over the apparent insensitivity of the State’s chief decision-maker to the plight of the youths, he reminded me that as usual in this country, there might have been more to the decision than met the eye. After all, who knew what cost estimates for the trip had been presented to the Governor?

If regressive precedents for similar situations in the past had been adopted, then a grossly inflated budget that included expenses for up-scale hotel lodgings, transportation, feeding, etc, for a disproportionately large number of sports officials (as compared to the athletes themselves) may well have been the chief nail in the coffin of the youths’ thwarted dreams.

Which caused me to reflect for the umpteenth time on why this nation continues to labour under the curse of dysfunctional leadership? *Why are our precious resources always under the stewardship of the most inappropriate guardians? The country is replete with individuals sufficiently possessed of the requisite qualifications and goodwill to judiciously administer our God-given endowments for the benefit of all.

But by diabolical design, they always seem to be excluded from any arena of meaningful influence. Instead, on far too many occasions we are invariably afflicted with public ‘servants’ who convert their privileged positions of trust and accountability into predatory toll booths that levy a charge on any transaction that requests passage through — or else.

In truth, it is akin to posting a wolf (of all creatures) on guard duty at the door of the sheep pen. Yes, it may vaguely resemble a German Shepherd, but there the similarities strictly end. In reality, its natural instincts are very different; its interests in direct and violent conflict with those seeking to depend on its services of protection. It is cruel to repeatedly find that the critical stations of our administrative systems are manned by the very last people who should be entrusted with such responsibilities, to the detriment of the nation as a whole.

These dark ruminations were not improved by the sight of my athletics group being displaced from the track of the training facility by an U-13 zonal football qualifier that had apparently pre-booked the venue. At a loss with what to do with an apparently wasted morning, I dropped onto a concrete ledge and began to aimlessly watch the juvenile proceedings in progress.

And became quietly fascinated.

Because I saw these adolescents knocking the football about with a verve and confidence I didn’t know existed at that age group anywhere, talk less of in my own backyard. I don’t consider myself easily impressed, but honestly, these children were playing ‘one-touch’ soccer in the tradition of the mighty Barcelona —and doing so in a very matter-of-fact fashion (the stadium was virtually empty so there was no crowd to impress) as though it was as natural to them as breathing.

To say they were well drilled puts it mildly—their teamplay bordered on telepathic, such was their understanding of what to do with ball when in possession. I mean, on a pitch that has hosted a senior international match, I literally saw a tiny runt score from a freekick taken outside the 18-yard box by lobbing the reasonably well-positioned goalkeeper!

And make no mistake—these were tiny runts. Not of the naturally short-statured variety who in times past scraped head and chin in an effort to beat the radar of age-detection even as their hard eyes revealed the true mileage of their physical frames.

No, these were authentic U-13s; in fact, several looked under 11 and probably were. A fact that was dramatically underlined in the subsequent match that featured a team of 11 against a team of 8. Caused not by a multiple sending-off, but by pre-match disqualifications taken by the apparently eagle-eyed officials against over-aged representatives.

From both a technical and ethical perspective, there was great reason to cheer. It appeared that there was a quiet revolution going on (at least at that level) in Nigerian sport and it boded very well for the future – if only it would not be derailed in the process of time.

And that was my only twinge of disquiet – the fact that there didn’t appear to be much media publicity being given to what seemed to be one of the few oases of excellence in the howling desert of administrative ignominy. Because the spotlight of public awareness is a useful tool in regulating behaviour that might otherwise succumb to counterproductive influences that are rife in a less transparent setting.

I pray their good work continues. And I pray that wherever next the country may require an Alsatian, we do not wilfully or accidentally contract the services of its wild cousin instead.