The Obikwelu lesson
Tai Emeka Obasi
E-mail: [email protected]
They promised us ten gold medals. I’m
still counting.
Maybe by the time
this piece gets to the public, Mary Onyali - Omagbemi would have won the 200m
gold. Don’t tell me you saw her beat only the Liberian in a pool of seven
in her heat 4. I dreamt the same dream too.
I’m convinced we’d soon all
wake up, after all, God is a Nigerian.
Don’t remind me Francis
Obikwelu’s silver belongs to Nigeria. He had the colours of Portugal and
that is as far as history would carry it. Don’t count out another medal
by a Nigerian that will go the way of Spain, talking of Gloria Alozie.
The question is - why is it that Nigeria
has never won an Olympic Medal in the 100m? The Chidi Imohs, the Ezinwas, the
Adenikans; none got near the podium for individual honours. Last Olympic games,
Obikwelu was hot but disappointed hopeful Nigerians. Today, he has a silver
that was nearly gold simply because he changed nationality.
Let’s ponder over it. Would Obikwelu
have grabbed a medal if he was wearing the green-white suits? Could the AFN
have made adequate build-up and preparation for him to benefit from? If
we’d remember, we’d recall the fact that Deji Aliu and Uchenna
Emedolu were giving the ‘Portuguese’ a good run for his money while
in our shores. Today, Obikwelu is miles ahead of his ‘brothers’.
Today, the sports minister wants a foreign
coach to tinker the Super Eagles. Right now, he is telling me that the NFA is
getting it all wrong. Can somebody tell the minister that the only worthwhile
performance in Athens came from the stable of the football body, talking about
the Super Falcons? Yet the ministry will like to interfere, bamboozle, muscle
the NFA into unwholesome acts.
The Super Falcons I saw in Athens is a team
that has conquered that complex. The female national side can now contest for
any female trophy in the world if we build on this promising performance. Take
it from me, the next time these ladies line out against any opposition, the
world will be watching.
That would be possible if the sports
ministry did not come up with the idea of distorting the continuity. It needed
one mad moment of sacking Ismaila Mabo for Sam Okpodu for the Falcons to lose
grip, losing for the first time to an African opposition, and on home soil for
that matter, messing up the gains of the previous Would Cup in the 2003
version. In that outing in USA, the Falcons returned to the days of conceding
goals by cricket scores despite the excellent performance of Precious Dede.
Today, we are on the verge of employing a
foreign coach for the male version, the Super Eagles. Likely the man will be in
town before our game in Zimbabwe on September 3. Let’s all keep mute and
allow the ministry to announce this new man but whatever we do, it will be
suicidal to put that man in charge of the Super Eagles in Zimbabwe.
But Christian Chukwu has been lambasted so
much that even the ex-Kenyan coach would easily slip into number 2 spot if the
ministry so desires in Zimbabwe. Besides this, Chukwu may be pushed completely
aside, if we, like is the usual past practice, give the new man the free hand
to choose his assistants.
Nothing stops the minister from telling the
new manager to pick his number 2 outside the present crew.
Of course, it’ s no hidden fact that
Mohammed prefers Kadiri Ikhana.
That will likely happen and if it does,
it’s good-bye to Germany 2006, take it or leave it. If interference from
the ministry in football matters will be a thing of the past, definitely not in
the days of the incumbent minister.
Funny enough, a lot of people believe
Chukwu’s gentlemanly posture is a sign of weakness. Many believe
Chukwu’s un-quarrelsome conduct is a gimmick to keep his job. If Chukwu
has managed to keep mum, as a patriot, pursued his goals diligently without
telling the press who and who forced this and that player on him, how many
months he’s being owed in salary, bonus and allowances, is it not
commendable?
Even Samson Siasia of yesterday is already
shouting about his salary and unseriousness of the NFA. Sounds more to me like
one in a hurry to pass the buck.
I maybe a Chukwu apostle, yes, but
certainly any man that can work conveniently with the NFA for two years without
blabbing deserves an Oscar. The ex-Green Eagles captain has done it and it has
given the Super Eagles the consistency we have always lacked since the exit of
Clemens Westerhof.
We may not have won the Nations Cup but we
have a great team on ground. This new manager only needs to work hand in hand
with the present crew for us to shake the world in 2006. With Nwankwo Kanu,
Julius Aghahowa, Austin Okocha, John Utaka, Joseph Yobo, Seyi Olofinjana,
Obafemi Martins, all starting the season in blistering forms, any manager would
be delighted to have them on his stable. How well we manage this team in order
not to rock the boat depends on the wisdom (or lack of it) of the NFA and, of
course, the interference from the sports ministry.
BEFORE I FORGET.
Can somebody please tell the minister and
Pat Ekeji that today’s Olympic games started four years and not four
months ago? Did they realise that this is no All African Games and that
it’s Athens and not Abuja?
Can somebody educate them that the route to
any gold medal in Beijing 2008 starts immediately after Athens 2004? And in
immediately, I mean from September 2004.
Zimbabwe has a gold in swimming. A black
athlete won silver in swimming. We have suddenly abandoned weightlifting. Who
says Nigerians can’t win a medal in shooting?
If we have so unceremoniously lost grip of
athletics, what stops us from developing other sports? Basketball showed enough
promise and so would volleyball if harnessed. There’s still handball,
hockey and badminton.
There’s no way a country of over 100
million people can not muster at least five gold medals at every Olympic year
if planning is in our character. Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco, even Mozambique have
made claims.
In the history of Olympics, spanning 108
years, the ‘giant of Africa’, the most populous black nation on
earth, has only two gold medals to show for her cumulative efforts in a
four-yearly event that is dominated by black men. Yet, we are blessed with men
and women capable enough to share in the stakes.
Check them out, I’m certain there are
‘agberos’ in Ojuelegba that can beat those Cuban boxers black and
blue if called into the gym. There are okada riders in Ijesha who can wrestle
and lift to medals if somebody takes time to explore and raise the hidden
talents.
There
are swimmers in Ijaw who would gun for medals in Beijing if somebody
took their minds off mischief.
Time to wait for them should be jettisoned
for now since, it has become clear, that none starters usually showed up at
different stadium for participation in sports. The real talents most probably
can’t pay their ways to sporting arena’s and those that can are
probably not interested because selection is by ‘IM’.
Promising 10,000.00 dollars or a million
naira for gold winners without adequate preparation is akin to promising Tai
Obasi a billion dollars to beat a 1990 Mike Tyson.
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