BY JUDE OPARA, Abuja

A few days ago, the sporting media was awash with the rather infamous statement credited to the Minister of Youth and Sports, Barr. Solomon Dalung that Nigeria should not have any business campaigning to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. His reason was as outrageous as the statement itself.

The minister, who stunned his audience in the interview he granted to the Hausa Service of the Voice of America (VOA,) hinged his argument on the fact that Nigeria is not favoured to win the trophy hence there should be no need to ‘waste’ public funds in a championship that has remained elusive

He also re-echoed the sing-song of the present administration, which is curbing the spate of corruption, by insisting that even the process of hosting and winning the world cup was riddled with corruption.

Of course the backlash that greeted that statement which was not well thought out has been as loud as its impact on the nation’s football should we listen to his counsel. Little wonder that the embattled Dalung rushed to a local television station to do a damage control which at best failed to convinced any discerning mind that has been following the antecedents of the Plateau State born administrator.

Most of those who reacted to that statement wondered why the minister was expressing that kind of thought at a time when the country was showing a bright chance of qualifying for the mundial after a superlative performance of securing the six maximum points from two matches.

Dalung

They also recalled some of the past actions or inactions of the minister which had rather created more problems for the nation’s sports instead of solving them. For instance mention was made of the role he played immediately he assumed office in the crisis of leadership that has rocked the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF).

Recall that on assumption of office, Dalung curiously reopened the issue of who was the true president of the NFF between Amaju Pinnick and the proprietor of Giwa FC, Chris Giwa. In fact, that singular action emboldened Giwa who had earlier agreed to allow the sleeping dog lie. Today, that matter has remained a legal issue that nobody knows its end.

As that was dying down he entered into another round of conflict with the erstwhile Director General of the defunct National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Yakmut Alhassan over the spending of the N2.9 billion naira which President Muhammadu Buhari released for the nation’s participation for the 2015 All Africa Games, the Youth Olympic Games as well as the preparation for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

While Dalung claimed he was never briefed how the money was spent before his appointment, Yakmut who was in charge of the NSC then insisted he promptly briefed the Minister as soon as he assumed office.

One will also not forget in a hurry his running battle with the sporting media whom he curiously formed the habit of calling names any time he sees a report that never fancied his interest.

Frankly speaking, many analysts were not surprised that the latest ‘accolade’ of Minister Dalung was on the way after what seemed like a few weeks of respite.

However, what confounded their reasoning was the fact that this time; he chose to hit at football.

It is rather preposterous that such diatribe was coming from no other person than the chief sports officer of the country who ordinarily should be the beacon of sports development in the country.

Another school of thought is of the view that Dalung inadvertently exposed the real fact that he is in a strange field where he is only using ‘ogboju’ to manage to hang on to his office. Certainly, that argument may not be far from the truth due to a number of reasons.

The world cup is the world’s largest sporting competition after the Olympics. It is also competed for by over 200 member nations of the governing body, FIFA.

Unknown to our minister, the world cup competition has started with the qualifying matches and what will happen in Russia in 2018 is only the finals where the 36 countries that will make it from their continents will gather to compete for the ultimate prise.

Again, any country that qualifies to go to Russia in 2018 including those that will crash out at the preliminary stage of the competition will at least get over N8 million dollars from FIFA.

Apart from the fact that such gathering of the whole world should be the envy of every nation to be, the joy which the citizens of these nations derive just because their country in at the world cup cannot be quantified in any monetary term.

It must also be mentioned that the young players who will be at the championship will have another opportunity to showcase to the entire globe that they have what it takes to hire their services. So it is never out of place to see progressive movement of players from one club to another shortly after the tournament.

For the young Nigerian players who will have the opportunity of representing this great country if we qualify, it will be another golden opportunity to stake their places in the respective clubs abroad and by so doing, they will be in the position to earn more money to help and support the families.

The list of the benefits inherent in qualifying for a championship like the world cup is endless, so the issue of who will win or not win the trophy is really secondary because sports is not only for winning but also to foster friendship among nations and players.

Well even as the Minister had made some rather feeble attempts to deny what he was quoted as saying to the foreign channel, we will like to advise that next time caution should be applied before making certain statements because once made, they may be difficult to be taken back.