- Says target of Sports Reform Committee is to make all sports federations multibillion naira brands
BY JOE APU
Over the years, Nigerian sports have continually come under the search light of various committees, all geared towards finding a lasting solution to the lingering problem of over dependence on government funding.
Most national sports federations solely depend on government to fund their activities despite having marketing committees within its ranks.
Recently, the Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Solomon Dalung set up a committee to see to the reforms of sports, with a view to getting the private sector more involved in sports.
The committee, which has former Nigerian tennis international, Godwin Kienka as chairman for many stakeholders would not be any different from what the other committees before them had done.
Saturday Sun caught up with Kienka at the Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC building, venue of their seating during the week and he insisted that his terms of reference are quite different from that of all other committees before now.
While not trying to justify the set up of the committee, Kienka noted that they would be a lot different, as they have adopted the public presentation model, so as to get as many contributions and suggestions.
Asked what differentiates his committee from the others before now, Kienka stated that the terms of reference are almost the same, but the difference is that the recommendations of previous bodies was full of postulations.
“This committee’s task is a lot different from the previous ones and even some members that had served in some of the other committees and are also members here attest to that. We’ve gone through the various recommendations and I must confess there are plenty of postulations.
For instance, it is difficult for a struggling mother who has not been paid for upwards of six months to position her child towards sports.
“What we intend to do at the end of the day is to proffer solutions to our problems in Nigerian sports by hitting the nail on the head. The truth about the problem of our sports is that they are self-inflicted.
From state sports councils to the sports ministry, everyone admitted that.
“There’s insincerity of purpose, greed, lack of respect for the athletes and the failure of not seeing sports as the second largest employer of labour that would create wealth for the athletes, their parents, their communities and the society at large.”
Kienka noted that solution to Nigeria’s present quagmire is the business community, which comes from a private sector. “Only a business mind can think of sports as a business entity. The civil servant have all the pulses, but multiplying it is a problem because they are comfortable, waiting for their salary at the end of every month work or no work. “Hopefully, when we submit our report to the minister, we don’t intend to stop there. The public must know what we’ve recommended and that is a blue sprint that will ensure that all federations are a billion naira or dollar organisations.
“It is our desire to see sports take off on a good ground irrespective of who the minister is. The moment the private sector is convinced that funds made available for sports are used for the purpose that it is meant for, the federations
would be able to operate independently.
“Let me give you a very clear example of what I mean; Egypt’s national football team came to Nigeria and pulled a draw and ousted Nigeria in the return leg of the AFCON 2017 qualifier despite the political turmoil that was
going on in the country. Sports was not affected by the politics and unrest there because they have an entrenched sports system that no matter what happens, it remains operational. That too is possible in Nigeria,” he concluded.