In recent days, two sports federations, para-sports and traditional sports have had torrid times in the hands of Nigerian sports authorities, precisely the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development. This is happening a few weeks to the commencement of the 21st edition of the National Sports Festival (NSF), also known as the Nigerian Olympic Games.
During the 20th edition of the Games which suffered several postponements before it was finally held early this year in Benin City, over 15,000 athletes from from across Nigeria competed in different sporting events like football, basketball, volleyball, handball, swimming, judo, badminton, athletics and a host of others. Among the events were para-sports for the physically challenged athletes and traditional sports which covers indigenous sports like Ayo, Abula, Dambe, Langa and kokowa. Medals were won by outstanding athletes in these events.
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However, ahead of the next games scheduled for Asaba, the Delta State capital from November 28 to December 15, the sports ministry which had promised to expand the festival, without compelling reasons, has announced the exclusion of para-sports and traditional sports from the biennial games.
It was for this reason that penultimate week, the city of Lagos almost caught fire as physically challenged athletes staged peaceful and violent protests to demand that they be returned to the NSF. The protest by the para-athletes yielded the desired result as a few days after they shut down the Surulere area of the city to draw public attention to their plight, the sports ministry made a U-turn and did the needful. Although not all para-sports were returned, para-athletics, para-table tennis, para-powerlifting, and Deaf sports of athletics and table tennis will be part of Asaba 2022.
It must, however , be noted that the victory by the physically challenged athletes wasn’t without a price. They were tear gassed and rough handled by some Policemen from the ‘Area C’ Command who went to quell the protest. There are pictorial evidence of Police attack on the protesting athletes. But hard way was the only way for the special athletes who proved in words and deeds that there is ability in disability.
Sadly, while there are shouts of victory in the camp of para-sports, there is indeed gloom in the other camp as traditional sports stakeholders are still grappling with the problem of their exclusion from the 2022 NSF.
Therefore, the leadership of traditional sports and games is passionately appealing to the Federal Ministry of sports to reconsider its decision to inexplicably delist indigenous sports from the 2022 NSF. Those administering traditional sports in Nigeria have said they were not consulted before the unpalatable decision was taken. And as things stand, they do not know, if the exclusion of traditional sports from Asaba 2022 is going to be permanent. That is, nobody knows whether traditional sports which debuted with medal events at Imo 1998 will return for future sports festivals.
Before now, I was also a passive fan of indigenous sports but when I had a brief conversation with one of the founding fathers of traditional sports, Malam Elias Yusuf, my perception changed immediately. And that was how I was recruited to fight for the reinstatement of traditional sports in the National Sports Festival.
Yusuf said any National Sports Festival without traditional sports will be incomplete. He argued that if the sports festival is being organised by Nigeria for Nigerian youths, then sports indigenous to the country must be given priority attention. In fact, he noted that even All African Games is still not complete because African traditional sports are still relegated to the background. He maintained that Nigeria, and by extension Africa, must support, develop and make their indigenous sports attractive enough to be embraced and practised by people of the other continents.
I couldn’t agree less with Malam Yusuf because games like football, karate, judo, taekwondo, cricket, table tennis, volleyball, basketball, rugby, hockey, lawn tennis and a host of others are alien to us. However, today we are competing in such games because those who invented the sports in their countries diligently nurtured and exported them to us.
Unfortunately, here in Nigeria, the reverse is the case. Those who should love, adore and nourish our traditional sports which are part of our heritage as Nigerians, are the ones working against them. It is indeed a misplaced priority to have a National Sports Festival without any indigenous sport. As a matter of fact, the NSF should be a breeding ground for traditional sports.
Malam Yusuf, who is already looking beyond the reinstatement of traditional sports, also said something that is very instructive and I hereby second his motion. He moved the motion that instead of blocking trado sports from the NSF, they should be made compulsory. Yusuf said states should be directed to register for a minimum of two traditional sports, one individual and one team event. He also said, if any state chooses to feature in all the five notable traditional events earlier mentioned, that should serve as the icing on the cake.
This is how leaders with foresight reason. If Yusuf’s proposal is taken by the relevant sports authorities who are most times bereft of ideas, in no time, traditional sports will be found in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.
Like Malam Yusuf, I am also confident that the Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare, a man with a listening ear, will respond positively to the passionate appeals by the leadership of Traditional Sports Federation to have indigenous games re-admitted into the 2022 NSF. In fact, there is no reason whatsoever, for us to preach about made in Nigeria products and turn round at the same time to hate things that are made in Nigeria.
Therefore, I join other well meaning Nigerians in appealing to the Ministry of Sports and the National Council of Sports to please re-admit traditional Sports into the NSF and also give the federation all the necessary support to develop these indigenous sports with the hope that one day Britons or Americans too would happily compete in Dambe, Langa, kokowa, Abula or Ayo at the Olympics.
This may sound like a talk about building castles in the air but it can be achieved, if we resist the temptation to destroy our indigenous sports. So, #Bring back our traditional sports campaign should commence immediately. Arise all compatriots, for this patriotic call must be obeyed.
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