At the moment, over 11,000 Nigerian athletes from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory are taking part in the 2022 National Sports Festival in Asaba, the Delta State capital. The 21st edition of the sports festival, which commenced on November 28, will end today at the ultra-modern Stephen Keshi stadium in Asaba.
Nigerian National Sports Festival is a biennial multi-sport event organized by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Youths and Sports Development. The sports festival was first staged in 1973 at the National stadium in Surulere in Lagos.
It was originally conceived as a “unifying tool” with the main purpose of promoting peace and cross-cultural affiliation in Nigeria after the Nigerian Civil War in 1970. The sports festival also serves as a talent hunt as well as development and training event to aid athletes prepare for continental and international meets.
In order to achieve its main objectives which include building a robust talent pool of athletes, enhancing and developing spots at the grassroots, establishing a standard programme for athletes succession, curbing age cheating in sports, promoting national unity among others, the sports festival was restricted to Nigerian amateur athletes.
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This means only amateur athletes were eligible to represent their respective states. It must also be said that the NSF succeeded in unearthing raw talents who went on to represent Nigeria and win laurels in international competitions. However, after so many editions, the festival was thrown open to accommodate even professional athletes who are based abroad.
The decision to throw the festival open didn’t go down well with many sports stakeholders who felt strongly that the main objective of the games, which is the discovery of budding talents, would be defeated.
Despite the criticisms that trailed the decision, the Ministry of Sports under the former minister of sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung, stuck to its guns. His successor, Sunday Dare, has maintained the status quo and that is why the 2022 edition has seen the influx of foreign based athletes.
Apart from throwing the games open, the ministry of sports through the National Council of Sports, has allowed for use of ‘mercenaries’. This means, an athlete must not be from the state he is representing in the festival.
Based on this, states with the much needed financial clout easily poach talented athletes from the less endowed states. Without undermining their commitment to sports development, Delta, Edo, Rivers, Lagos, Bayelsa and a few others have been formidable in the sports festival because they can afford to pay for the best athletes.
Sadly, the decision which has paved the way for poaching of athletes and use of ‘mercenaries’ has continued to impact negatively on northern states because most of them lack the wherewithal to hire athletes or poach from their rivals.
However, some states in the north also benefit from this decision as they also manage to lure athletes from other geo-political zones to represent them at the games.
Consequently, it has been a case of tit-for-tat but some sports stakeholders from the north who spoke to our correspondents at the ongoing games in Asaba have expressed mixed reactions over the use of ‘mercenaries’ by rival states.
When approached by our correspondents, the Kaduna State Director of Sports, Joshua Yusuf Yanyami, exonerated his state from the use of mercenaries, saying that the development of grassroots sports has been the bedrock of their progress in a sport like cricket.
“If you check our records in Kaduna state, you will see that we really don’t go for mercenaries. What we do is to bring up athletes from the grassroots. We do this by providing sporting facilities and exposing budding talents to sports at primary and secondary school levels.
“Like the cricket team that we have now, you will see that they have been doing well within and outside Nigeria. The system is very simple. We go to primary schools. If you ask for U-10, U-14, U-17, U-21 and above in cricket, we have them on ground because we realized that the only way to build that player that will stand the test of time is when you have a program well laid out at the grassroots,” he said.
He also opined that allowing for the use of mercenaries in the National Sports Festival which should be a sports developmental programme is inimical to the growth of the sector.
“I feel instead of using mercenaries, we should concentrate on the development of athletes. When we rely on mercenaries, for instance, a player that comes in from the USA, he is already exposed, maybe he has taken part in the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, All African Games, is he not blocking the chances of upcoming athletes? So, for us in Kaduna state, grassroots sports development is our motto,” Yanyami reiterated
However, the Chairman, Kano State Sports Commission, Ibrahim Galadima opined that the use of non-indigenes to represent other states will help to grow sports in such states. He further went down memory lane to say that the sports festival is basically aimed at fostering unity.
“It has to be side by side. Getting athletes from other parts of the country to represent your state has its own advantages. Indigenous athletes will surely learn one or two things from the more exposed ones.
“The sports festival is all about fostering unity. The games started at the end of the Nigerian civil war when there was the urgent need for reintegration. I think it has helped a lot in bringing states together despite our religious and socio-cultural differences,” he said.
On his part, the Chairman, Sports Writer Association of Nigeria, SWAN, Katsina Chapter, Nasir Gide, stressed that the use of mercenaries has not helped in developing sports in most northern states
“The use of mercenaries is contributing to the backwardness of sports most especially in the north. I think the best thing to do is for the ministry of sports to reconsider its position on the use of ‘mercenaries’. Poaching of athletes is detrimental to sports development,” he opined.
However, he said the use of ‘mercenaries’ is sometimes necessary when states identify their weaknesses and strengths and decide to fill the yawning gaps.
“I think the issue is not only about us in the north as you can see there are many athletes from the northern part that are representing southern states.
“The two athletes who won gold medals for Delta State in cycling are from Kaduna and if you look at those that participate in traditional sports like Kokowa and dambe (traditional wrestling and boxing), you can see northerners are representing southern states.
“The north also looks southwards for athletes in swimming, boxing, taekwondo and so on because our people don’t like to engage in such sports. So, if you want to win, you don’t look at where an athlete is coming from.
“However, at the end of it all, the north is worse off because southern states are good at enticing athletes from rival states with big money. If this continues, northern states will continue to lag behind in sports,” he noted.
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