Former WBA light heavyweight, British and Commonwealth boxing champion, Peter Oboh, dumped his boxing career to win souls for God some years back. Oboh was popularly known for his impressive knockout of former top light heavyweight contender, Ole Klemensten. He fought other fighters like WBO Cruiserweight champ, Johnny Neilson and Scot Welch before he hung up the gloves. Now an Apostle, a social and political crusader, Oboh submitted that the defeat of former vice president Atiku Abubakar by President Mohammadu Buhari in the just concluded presidential election, could be likened to “the Nigerian punch”.
He spoke to Paul Erewuba in Lagos.
For a very long time now, boxing in Nigeria has been in bad shape, what do you really think has gone wrong?
The thing is, boxing is being neglated in Nigeria. There was a particular man in the 90s, he is late now, I still regard the man highly because part of my success in boxing was built around him. When I came back from abroad in the 90s, I noticed he has done a lot of good to the amateur boxers. If you remember Ghana, they are not doing well in boxing until some one came and rescued them. I think Buhari can do same thing as well. Boxing or let me say sports as a whole is the easiest thing to gain publicity. People love to invest in sport. Lets take Cuba for example. Its a very small country but because of sport they have gained a lot of fame. So Nigeria can be popular with sports as well. We are known to be the best sports country in the world because we have the talents and population. Aside that we have people who are willing to die for success. But it is really sad that we are not achieving as much as we should.
Some have actually attributed that to lack of sports policy, how true is this?
That is true, in Nigeria we don’t have we a revolutionary process. I think Buhari can revive this through his minister of sport. He can go as well as using it as his second term number one priority. He should try and do this so that by the time he resigns, he will be remembered. I still remember that there was MKO Abiola, that man was an outstanding man, they called him the pillar of sport in Africa. Because of his generosity in Sport, we are able to achieve a lot. Because of this man, all the Africans loved him so much because of his contribution to Sport. But now, we don’t have such person again. Even the government is not giving that enabling environment. Although people have said that boxing doesn’t really need facilities like football and all that. But one thing brings both sport together and it is called money. Money maters a lot. When you are a sports man, you are like somebody who is in a journey. Seeing yourself in that manner, you will be tempted to ask, what are you doing this for? what will be my reward? and this question will encourage you. If Buhari can organise a tournament known as Buhari’s tournament, it will be a good one for them. Every sport person in Nigeria will want to win it. But its unfortunate both Obasanjo and Buhari who have won an election twice, have no tournament written on their names.
Sone people argue that government should hands off sports, what is your take on this?
Government is fully involved. In short they are the ones who should start it while others follow. If government sets the pace, private organisations will follow. Private organisations are professionals, they won’t come into things that are not fertile. Look at foreign countries, same things are occurring there.
What’s your take on the corruption aspect in sport?
Corruption is world wide, other countries have their own formular. Nigeria is a country that loves tipping. Tipping is part of corruption. Sometimes we don’t know tipping is same thing as bribing and that is really affecting us.
What we are talking about is a corporate organisation having to put money in sport and the money not being used as it is supposed to?
When they put in money, the government has to follow up. The key is not to invest, it is a matter of the money I put in, is it being used properly. And by doing this it will minimise the corruption.
You have talked about Buhari coming into Sport, what again do you have to tell him in form of an advice?
Buhari as a military man is very disciplined. I remember when I was a little boy, when he took over the government, for his first six months, to me was the best. Then we hardly find any armed robbers on the street. If he says now, I want Nigerian boxers to win belt, they will surely want to do that to impress him.
We are too big not to win any gold medal in Olympics. Imagine Joshua winning an Olympic medal for England. He did so because he felt if he could’t win it here in Nigeria, he was not be encouraged. We have lots of Nigerians making it abroad. Sports is encouragement and i urge Buhari to be interested in Sport. Because if he is not interested, it will be very hard for us to excel. If he shows interest in sport, you will be surprised the number of gold medals we will be winning.
If Buhari appoints you as minister of sports, what will be your focus?
Its how to get the sports balanced. A lot of Sports have been ignored. Take for example, swimming has been sidelined, gymnastic, diving and lots more. even South Africa operates on what they call complete Sports. We just have to balance things. What I will do is to go learn from South Africa. Every sport has secret and for us to get to that level we have to employ professional coaches.
What is your take on the presidential election?
I remember that Buhari tried many times without winning, he later got the secret of how to win an election. Atiku who lost, worked with Obasanjo for years, he lost because he didn’t know the secret. In Nigerian election, its hard to defeat the winning team. At times miracle do occur, when Buhari knocked out Goodluck Jonathan, we were shocked seeing such miracle. Atiku tried his best and I think he should learn the secret from Buhari. He would have been the best option because aside Dangote, he happens to be the biggest employer of labour in Nigeria. People that have met him, make us realise he is a nice man with four wives. He has a Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa wives. Fine, if he says he wants to go to court, its his right but I think that will not get him anywhere. Now EFCC is chasing him. You will hardly find a Nigerian who has no skeleton in his cupboard.
The punch that kockout Atiku is what I call ‘the Nigerian punch, a political secret that has to ne learned by Atiku and Nigerians also.
Atiku supporters say they have evidence the election was rigged.
When you say something is riged, you need to tender many evidence. Atiku has other tribes on his side. I am so sure he would have won the election. Many people pulled out because of the postponement which would have been INEC or Buhari strategy. And most Nigerians believe in talking, they don’t believe in action.
The hardship we are facing never started from Buhari, it started from Goodluck lets be frank. The only problem I see is coming from the party. We have all roads in the Apapa Wharf area of Lagos blocked by containers owned by business men. I learnt the Apapa Wharf Port is now a dumping ground for all containers. Its very sad seeing the chaotic environment in Apapa.