By Ikeddy Isiguzo
LAST week I asked for involvement of the sports community in the politics that would produce leaders in 2011. It is obvious that sports would be neglected again if those who are its stakeholders do not prod candidates in the elections to create platforms to develop sports.

Contribution from Professor Emmanuel Ojeme of the University of Benin follows. I hope candidates would take sports serious for our collective good…

The politics of 2011 is already on the starting blocks and the starters’ gun is up for the race to commence. At this point, it is the concern of all Nigerians that this political process should run well according to the rules.

It is also our wish that credible and performance – driven winners will emerge for the overall good of our nation. We all have a role to play in ensuring its success. My contribution examines the role of sports in political democracy and the role of political democracy in sports.

Sports and political democracy are social institutions. There are obvious lessons that the political democratic process can learn from sports for its good and credibility. Sports as a game is played with strict adherence to the rules of the game. The first thing every player or athlete internalises, to ensure successful participation, is the rules of the game.

By playing in adherence to rules, sports impacts discipline and good conduct on players. Political democracy can be very successful if the politicians play it according to laid down rules as sports people do on the field. This is our admonition for the good of the Nigerian nation.

Second, in a sport situation or contest, only one team takes the gold medal or wins. There are usually winners and losers. Both losers and winners shake hands and embrace one another as they look forward to a future opportunity of engagement.

This value system is something politicians must learn from the sports institution. Given that the umpire has done his/her job well without bias and outcome is objectively reached, then, we must accept the result of any election as sports teams accept the outcome of games.

In order to win a sports contest, no coach can risk not fielding his/her first eleven or best performers. Political parties must in the same vein ensure that as they select their flag bearer, they will be objective enough to pick the best candidates for the different levels of the political contests, as sports teams do.

From all of these analyses, we can glaringly see that political engineering has much to learn from the sports institution. The implication of this is that political contenders can benefit from the expertise of sports epistemologists and practitioners as strategists for their political programmes.

I believe that modelling the political process after the sports institution is a sure strategy for political success. I can also assert that a synergetic and symbiotic convergence of the political scientist and the sports epistemologist can see a politician through his battles.

The second perspective of this paper is about the importance of integrating sports into a political manifesto. Sports is a means of achieving social cohesion and an activity that evokes great passion among the people. Using it, therefore, as a campaign issue can draw the sports adherents to political contenders.

Why not try it and see the result. Look at the yearning of Nigerians in sports and look at Vision 20_20_20 sports programme as well as the sports development policy.

There are issues to be tackled which can bring electoral fortune to a candidate in the political arena. As a national president of a professional sports group, I am encouraging my people to vote for any political contender who makes sports development a campaign issue.

A candidate that makes sports a campaign issue portrays him self or herself as a lover of young people, who is ready to protect their interests. Such a personality is definitely a good person. We will vote for him because Nigerians need to lift sports to a higher pedestal as an integral component of its development strategy

If Nigeria wins more Olympic gold medals for example, the impact and import on the nation is of inestimable value. Politicians have not always realised this and therefore, hardly talk about it in their political campaigns. This has to change. I know they talk of roads, schools, the economy and all that; they hardly talk about sports development. This has to change.

Sports must not be politically relegated as a social issue in the campaign process. Sports works in the dynamics of politics both as a part of political engineering and also an object of political and social development.

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