Olympic gold medallist Enefiok Udo-Obong in this chat with JOHN EGBOKHAN, speaks on Blessing Okagbare’s attack on AFN and why he supported Habu Gumel’s return as NOC President. Excerpts
You have earned the reputation for always saying your mind, not minding who feels offended. What is behind this strong stance of yours?

Ans: The fact of the matter is that sports over the years is that part of human activity that is to some extent devoid of propaganda. Some people say that sports is the only part of the newspaper that is free of propaganda. Other parts are filled with propaganda. Sports is sports and we have to keep the integrity of the game intact. We are not only trying to keep the integrity of sports by not doing things that are detriment to the game like illegal betting, doping and bad administration. We must always say the truth especially when it comes to sports administration. I see it as a duty to always say the truth and try as much as possible not to be political but try to ensure that the message is given to the people to protect the development of sports.

Enefiok Udo-Obong

To what extent have you been apolitical given that you speak against those running our sports?

You have to be political at times because your words can be misrepresented and taken out of context, leaving you with no option than to try in a way to set the records straight so that damages are not caused.

You were one of those who moved for change at the NOC during the last elections in Asaba. What informed your preference for Habu Gumel over Sani Ndanusa putting in mind that the former had served for two terms while the latter was going for his second term?

Because of the way things are, I would not want to use the word change. I was not against the former Sports Minister but I felt that Gumel was someone I could support and I decided to throw my weight behind him. I spent a year in Switzerland, studying Advanced Masters in Sports at the University and over the years in Switzerland, I felt the impact of the influence of Engr Gumel has and the respect which he has in the international community and felt that if we could harness that influence and bring it to our NOC that we can grow our sports, help our athletes around the world. It is not a political thing

Sports is not a tenure thing. Joac Havelange was the President of FIFA from 1970 to 1998. Since FIFA was created, we have had only five Presidents. The Presidents do a lot of terms. Stability is crucial in sports administration. The IOC has put a two term limit of eight plus four years. We looked at the products of the tenures of these two men in Nigeria and discovered that there is some money that the IOC gives to countries but saw that the NOC in the last four years was not able to support our athletes in any way, meaning something was going wrong. They could not get sponsors. They went for the last Commonwealth Games in Glasgow with different kits.

Was that the responsibility of the NOC?

At international and continental competitions, the responsibilities of the team falls on the table of the NOC. The NOC has the autonomy to look for sponsorship for its contingent. At a time when I was competing, we had kits given to us by the ministry and kits given to us by the NOC. The NOC can get its own sponsors and the Sports Ministry can do what they have to do. But basically, the NOC is responsible for every team that represents Nigeria in international competitions. We know that the NOC was cash-strapped but it got to a point when we had to move in so that Nigerians would stop seeing the Sports Ministry as the all-in-all and see the NOC as the main thing.

Team Nigeria belongs to the NOC. We want a situation where people would be asking the NOC what they are doing to prepare the athletes for international competitions. We have a system of government where the sports ministry takes over the responsibility and hands over the team to the NOC at the last minute but that is just a false system. That is a system that is in place because that is what journalists are telling people. They are not telling them the real thing. The Sports Ministry controls sports by way of policy formulation but they do not control the athletes. The NOC owns the athletes. The Minister of Sports cannot walk to the IOC and speak to them. It is the NOC that they recognise. If you want to do anything with the IOC, you go through the NOC. If the IOC wants to do something with Nigeria, they go through the NOC. For instance, IOC gives grants to some of our athletes and they route the money through the NOC. There are about 13 of such athletes but the Sports Ministry does not even see the money. The money goes directly from the IOC to the NOC and then the athletes or sometimes, through the federations.

There is a chain of command, starting from the athletes, to the federations, to the NOC, to the international body, to the IOC and to the CAS. And that is how it is. There is no horizontal national body or federal government as the case may apply in our case.

We are now preparing for the All Africa Games and as I speak now, we don ‘t have a Minister of Sports but that does not mean that the NOC is not doing its work because it has a President, a Secretary-General and other officials, who are supposed to be working.

But Gumel is always abroad attending to IOC matters?

Not that he is forever outside Nigeria but it has to be said that the President is not a paid job. The scribe runs the NOC. The President is away from Nigeria doing IOC work but I can tell you authoritatively that there is no IOC job that he does that is not beneficial to Nigeria. And I can also tell you also that we need to involve the NOC more when we are bidding to host international competitions like the Commonwealth Games, which was mostly run by the government the last time we did. The NOC is key to sports. The Ministry is vital in terms of policy formulation. The Ministry gets finances which we believe should go straight to the NOC

Some of your critics see you as an attack dog. Are they right to see you this way?

I am not an attack dog even though it seems I am attacking people when I speak the truth. The President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Solomon Ogba is like my godfather, a big brother and I am very close to him. I don’t mince words when I tell him that he is not doing the right things. In private, the President and I have greater misunderstanding that what the press publishes. I respect him a lot but sometimes I feel that the track on which he is going goes way beyond what he is supposed to be doing. At a time, I told him please sir, slow down. He might not like the way I told but after two days, he would call me to ask how to do it. I like to work with him because he appreciates that I speak my mind. He does not like praise singers and that is why I can work with him.

Turning to Blessing Okagbare’s criticism of the AFN’s decision to poach on foreign athletes at the expense of home-grown talents, do you support her stance?

In specifics, at that point, Okagbare was out of line. Not based on the issues which she raised but in the manner in which she raised them and the kind of athlete that she is in our sports at this point in time. I felt she was out of line as she had direct contact with the Governor, the President, the Minister and a lot of persons who she could have spoken to. I spoke to her and she said that she had exhausted all means of communication and thought what was best was to speak out and I respect that because I am that sort of a person.

I have views too on the poaching of athletes. There are two sides to every coin. In terms of athletes, the first thing to ask ‘are those athletes Nigerians or non-Nigerians?’ If they are Nigerians, they deserve to be called. If they are not Nigerians, that is where I have my misgivings with the federation. I am not entirely against getting non-Nigerians but I am against when you do not have something to develop our sports. If you get 18 year old Americans to run for Nigeria, I have no issues with you because there are 16 year old Nigerians running for Qatar and Bahrain. So if the rules allow someone to leave America and come to run for Nigeria, fine but there are two or three conditions that I attach to the rules. One, they must be young enough so that our athletes can grow with them, so that they can inspire them and have a longer future to spend with us. Two, equal opportunities should be given to those coming from abroad and those in Nigeria. They must be given the same amount in camp. Then three, due process should be followed. If there is a way that you can naturalise to be a Nigerian, due process should be followed. I don’t want to see fast-tracked citizenship because someone is coming from America. I would not be very happy if you bring a 33 year old athlete, someone who has passed his prime to come and run because you feel he is running faster than the young athletes we have and you use the money we would spend on the three athletes to bring this spent American athlete. I am also against inviting people who do not pass through our national trials directly to international competitions. Everybody must run the national trials no matter who you are. I am also against spending a lot of money on these foreign athletes to the detriment of those at home. I love that we should develop our athletes and it is easy to say that as we have been saying in the last 15 years but where is the development.

The truth about why we are not developing is that everything collapsed in Nigeria. It is not just the sports sector. You wonder why we have not won the FIFA U-20 World Cup and are now struggling to qualify for the African Nations Cup. We did not qualify for the last edition held in Equatorial Guinea. It’s an embarrassment. Beating Burkina Faso or Zimbabwe now draws hurray from Nigeria. As a matter of fact, our Super Eagles do not have a home to play their games. In those days, you knew you were going to play at the National Stadium in Surulere. That was the home of the Eagles. And you couldn’t beat Super Eagles there, except you were extremely fortunate. So there are things that have changed and we have to understand that when we are trying to rebuild, it is a difficult process.

When we try to get back some Nigerian athletes back from abroad, we should not feel we are using aliens because Nigerians have integrated into other societies. When we won the 4X200m at the World Relays in Bahamas, a lot of people did not talk about the Nigerians in diaspora who were in that team. Three of the girls were the same ones who, a year ago at the Commonwealth Games, were chastised by us because we did not win. And I have issues with those who belittled our win in Bahamas. It is a new thing now but will be a big thing soon because the IAAF has given its backing to it and I believe the IOC will accept it later in the Olympics. Usain Bolt was at the world relays, so people should not belittle the championship.

It is a laudable feat and if we don’t put our acts together, no African will win that gold medal in the next 50 years. It is an event that if you win, the IAAF has earmarked $60, 000 to winners.

What are your forecasts for Team Nigeria at the 2015 All African Games in Congo?

As the chairman of the Athletes committee of the NOC, it is my responsibility to ensure that the athletes are well represented, catered for and supported with adequate funding and support. To emerge tops on the medals table at the All Africa Games is a tall order. We should be targeting an improvement on our last outing and even at that, the last time was not an impressive outing because we did not bargain for what we got. We can do much more, target top three and each individual federation should work harder and I believe that athletes can bring 13 gold medals.

And Okagbare would be the leading light for Nigeria but are you worried that we depend more on her to carry the Nigerian weight?

Not necessarily because we have other talented athletes and we should not put the burden on her. We know that Okagbare is not unbeaten in Africa. Ivorian sprinter, Ahoure is an exceptional runner in 100 and 200m . I believe she is even faster than Okagbare this year. So let us not think that Okagbare would just glide to the gold medal in Congo. She will face stiff competition from Ahoure. But don’t forget that it is not only Okagbare that we have. We have a woman in shot-putt people don’t mention. We also have a very good hammer thrower. The All Africa Games is wide-range, where we are talking of 15 gold medals. We probably would not win the men’s sprints, where we see some South Africans running 19 seconds in 200m. Then our medals will have to come from elsewhere. We have an exceptional athlete in Naomi who nobody talks about. She is an heptathlete . But it’s always about Okagbare for Nigerians, which is not good as it makes the weight of expectations too much for her to bear.

The Rio Olympics will be a big test for the current board of the NOC and whoever will be the Minister of Sports. I don’t think it will be all doom and gloom in Rio. I think we will win more than we won at the London Games.

Your agenda for the next Sports Minister?

We hope the next Sports Minister will be a listening one, more of a technocrat and a sportsman. We are preparing for the All Africa Games and I can tell you authoritatively that athletes are not allowed to train for more than two hours a day, twice a week in a stadium. To put it into context, as an athlete, I trained six hours a day, four times a week at the National Stadium. So you are giving two hours a day, twice a week to athletes who are preparing for the All Africa Games. That is unbelievable. So you are losing hours not training and it is not like the stadium has been privatised. So this is one of the things that the Sports Ministry has to think about. What support are they giving to the athletes. It’s not about the money. Access to facilities is vital to an athlete’s success, just like access to sports medicines is also key to athletes success. The Sports Medicine Centre was always treating us for free in those days when we went there. Access to technical support is also crucial. We had coaches in various zones who we could meet but we don’t have those ones now.