The reaction of political office holders to the frustration of Nigerian youths illustrates the superficial, unrealistic and “behind the times” thought processes prevalent in government. While feeding fat off the nation’s treasury they almost unanimously urge youths to embrace farming and agriculture. It seems lost on them that modern agriculture is no longer a mass employer of labour. It’s now a highly mechanised undertaking and the solution to food scarcity is mechanised large-scale farming, not labour intensive manual peasant farming.
A far more intelligent solution to the problem of unemployed youths is to massively invest in sports as in integral part of any agenda to create employment and improve the economy.
The sports industry makes a positive impact on unemployment because most of the functions within the industry are service based, which means that unlike modern farming or factories, it’s labour intensive and not operated by computers or machines. In addition to discovering sporting talents which gives youths the opportunity to earn legitimate wealth, the sports industry has the potential to create a vast array of jobs ranging from coaching to performance analysis, sports journalism, facilities management, physical therapy, business and financial management, sales, marketing, Information Technology and various jobs in the broadcasting industry.
Although soccer is the most popular sport in the world with an estimated four billion fans globally, the Professional Golf Association (PGA) is the world’s largest working sports organisation employing more than 28,000 people dedicated to organising promoting and managing professional golf.
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While ignoring sports, Nigerian federal and state governments continue to quite irresponsibly squander billions on white elephant infrastructure projects such as unviable airports, lavish government houses, and illogical road construction, none of which create mass employment.
Successive governments have appeared blinkered in not recognising sports as a field of work. In the European Union sports related employment represents over two per cent of total employment which approximates to 4.46 million jobs! In Nigeria the lack of investment in sports has resulted in mass youth unemployment and poorly paid Nigerian sportsmen and women who suffer dilapidated or non-existent training facilities!
In Paris 2024, 86 Nigerian athletes (63 women and 23 men) will represent the nation. That they aren’t expected to excel isn’t a reflection of their athletic ability. The truth is the Nigerian government is routinely treating athletes poorly, and our leading sportsmen and women prefer wear the colours of other nations such as Bahrain, Qatar, USA, Norway, Italy, Portugal, and Britain who have all been represented by “Nigerians” excelling at their sport.
In Paris 2024 Joel Chima Fujita a 22 year-old footballer born to a Nigerian father is captain of the Japanese National Olympics Team, and despite being a target of racial discrimination regarding her right to represent Ireland, 20-year-old Rashidat Adeleke, born in Dublin to Nigerian parents, who holds seven individual Irish national records hopes to become the first Irish woman to win a gold medal in athletics. She has been praised by Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, who called her “an inspiration and proud representative of Ireland”.
While Nigerians are expected to excel in sports when representing other nations, it’s pertinent to note how poorly the Nigerian contingent is expected to perform. Members of our Olympic team have vowed to prove World Athletics wrong in its assessment that we will not win any medal in the 100, 200 or 400-meter individual or relay events.
In times gone by Nigerian sportsmen and women gave the nation memorable Olympic moments, such as in 1964 when boxer Nojeem Miyegun won Nigeria’s first Olympic medal. In 1972 Isaac Ikhouria won a medal in boxing, and in 1984 we won our first ever Olympic athletics medal in the 400-meter relay event. In 1992 our Paralympic athletes made their debut at the Paralympic games and in 1996 Chinua Ajunwa won Nigeria’s first Olympic gold medal.
In 2000 Gentle Offoin became the first Nigerian swimmer to qualify for the Olympics, and in 2008 Chika Chukwumerijie won the nation’s first medal in Taekwondo. In addition to all this, in 2012 our national male basketball team, the D’Tigers, became the first ever African nation to qualify for the summer Olympics.
Sadly nowadays Nigerian athletes are more likely to be disqualified than to win medals. In the Tokyo 2022 games ten Nigerians were disqualified for not meeting the required number of pre-Olympic dope tests, and now in Paris 2024 Cynthia Ogunsemilore has been disqualified after testing positive for a banned doping substance.
To battle our decline in sporting prowess President Bola Tinubu has been commended for approving the immediate take off of a Federal University of Sports in Ebonyi State. Disappointingly Obinna Ogba the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Sports missed the real point when he said the university will “bring development, create employment opportunities and contribute positively to the state”. He made no reference to the need for a total overhaul of the nation’s sports policy so that employment opportunities will be available for graduates of the university.
It’s imperative for government to understand that the sports industry occupies youths, and encourages patriotism. In nations such as Nigeria, where there is a high level of religious intolerance, ethnic diversity and unemployment, the sports industry has the capacity to create mass employment, encourage tolerance and builds the much-needed national goodwill which promotes national unity.
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