There is a local parlance among Nigerians of Yoruba decent which says “obe ton dun, owo lo pa”. In pidgin English we say “better soup na money kill am”.
Most times Nigerians, especially our political leaders don’t realize the saying that ‘garbage in, garbage out” is a truism. 
They think that you can win medals at sports competitions without serious planning backed by adequate funding.  I don’t blame them really because they see sports as recreation which is allotted very little amount of money.
That is why a very popular sports administrator who was once sports commissioner of Oyo state during the military dispensation said that football and Shooting Stars Football Club in particular is a propaganda machine for the military government of the state then. I don’t think that position has changed even with the civilian government of today 
He said this when a suggestion was made for the government to see the club as a business venture by selling shares to the people to help it generate funds.
That is why the governors who are in-charge of most of the state run football clubs hold on tight to their management and install their relations and stooges as managers 
They do this mainly for football clubs because in Nigeria, football has become the opium of the masses which politicians use as conduit pipes and instruments to keep the people happy even in the face of poor governance.
Recently Nigeria finished second behind Egypt at the 13th African Games held in Accra, Ghana and many Nigerians queried why the country, touted as the giant of Africa, should be playing second fiddle to any country in sports despite her abundant human resources.
The answer is not farfetched. It boils down to inadequate funding and lack of proper development of talents from the grassroots.
One man who should know because he played the game and is also administering it now is Dr. Daniel Igali, the president of the Nigeria Wrestling Federation.
He opines that until the government start budgeting money for sports Federations like it’s done in other countries serious about sports, Nigeria may never go beyond the level we are in.
Apart from football which gets direct funding from the government which is budgeted for and approved by the National Assembly, other sports depend on the meagre handouts they receive from the sports ministry which also receives the least allocation from the annual national budget.
To start with, the federal government should hands off the running of Sports Federations and concentrate only on the provision of standard facilities across the entire states. 
Equally government at the state levels should concentrate on providing standard facilities across the 774 local government areas in the country while the 774 local governments should also provide quality facilities across the towns that make up the council.
That way, budding athletes will have facilities to train with all the time. With this, corporate organizations and sports loving individuals will key into it by identifying the sport to follow as well as the talent to nurture to stardom.
That was exactly what happened to Igali when the Canadian authorities identified his talent and provided him with the support he needed to excel.
If Nigeria ever wants to match Egypt medal for medal in future African Games or Kenya in world championships and the Olympics, it must attach seriousness to the management of sports.
Egyptian government provides facilities for all sports they have registered in addition to the ones provided by various clubs. And sports are not tied to the apron strings of the government but run by clubs which are mostly privately run.
Take Al Ahly and Zamalek for example. The clubs have other sports ranging from handball, basketball, athletics and volleyball, among others, other than the popular Al Ahly and  Zamalek Football Clubs, the two most successful teams in Egypt, These clubs have junior teams from which younger talents are honed to succeed the aging senior players. Thus they never lack players to keep the tradition going.
It is not so in Nigeria. Here the sports ministry gets involved in the running of Sports Federations and impose people who have little or no knowledge of the sports, mostly politicians and friends of men in authority, to run their affairs.
That is why Igali said that what we have in Nigeria is competitions mentality as the ministry doesn’t have programmes to develop young talents discovered. They never bother to also develop the coaches who will nurture the discovered talents.
The time has come for the government to fully democratise the Sports Federations so that people of like minds who have passion and the funds to run the various sports could take over the management like it is done in more serious climes.
If corporate organizations see that government is no longer running sports for leisure or like a parastatal and see that people who run them do so transparently with accountability, they will surely want to identify with it because they too need sports to reach out to their target audience with their products.
Corporate organizations are not Father Christmas who dole out  money for charity purposes. They need returns on their investments and the money they put into supporting or sponsoring sports events must be accounted for.
Lack of accountability among Nigerian sports officials is one of the  major reasons corporate organizations shy away from supporting Sports Federations. This must change for our sports to grow and rank among the best in the world.