Lumumba: Nigerian sports future bleak

Adeh, who is the President of the defunct JC Raiders, told our reporter in a chat that since the dismal showing of Nigeria’s various sports teams started showing, nothing concrete has been done to salvage the situation by those on charge of sports administration in Nigeria. The former parliamentarian, who was reviewing the performance of […]

Adeh, who is the President of the defunct JC Raiders, told our reporter in a chat that since the dismal showing of Nigeria’s various sports teams started showing, nothing concrete has been done to salvage the situation by those on charge of sports administration in Nigeria.

The former parliamentarian, who was reviewing the performance of the Nigerian sports sector in the outgoing year, said he would have been comfortable that the dwindling fortune will be revived if those at the helms of affairs show signs of redeeming the situation.

This, according to Adeh was chiefly because those charged with the task of administering sports in Nigeria either lack the knowledge to improve the sector or have no passion that would drive their goals.

“There is a common position and it is clear that sports in Nigeria did not fare well this outgoing year, and it has not been like this in the past. This poor performance of our sports men and women and the various sports teams has adversely affected our ranking in Africa and the world over.

“But unfortunately, there is no cause for one to be comfortable that this will soon end because those in charge of running our sports have not made any effort to make amends and find solution to the situation; and this is because right from the top, those appointed to steer the affairs of sports in this country are either not knowledgeable in sports administration or have no passion to drive them to improve the sector.

“For example, the decline in our sports did not start yesterday or this year, it is something that has been there for year and only reached the peak this year, but we kept covering it”, Adeh stated.

To get it right in the coming year, Adeh urged all concerned to sit down and fashion a workable solution bedeviling the country’s sports, stressing that the various recommendations made by past committee which are gathering dust in the shelves of the National Sports Commission (NSC) be dusted and implemented for the good of Nigerian sports.

In doing so, he urged the sports minister to be ruthless in his drive and not be influenced by who will be affected by the action.

“In the new year, my advise is that the sports administrators should sit down and articulate plans on the way forward for our sports.

There are many efforts in the past that were made but only implementation was the problem. So, I would like the minister should be ruthless in his implementation of the recommendations without regard to who will be affected”, he concluded.