President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan is a man history has positively favoured as the sports sector of the Nigerian economy has greatly been transformed positively with laudable achievements under his administration.
The Jonathan era has won many converts in the Transformation Agenda in the development of sports as laurels have continued to adorn his time line in this sector that clearly stands out as a sector that unites this country.
I realise that as we approach the general elections in the next few days , the sports sector has continued to remain a strong cardinal focus in the development of our economy and that in assessing the qualities and commitment of some of the aspirants especially the Presidential race, I strongly believe that Jonathan has been Nigeria’s best leader that has devoted much attention to the development of sports all through his administration so far, has set an agenda on reviving grassroot sports and has promoted the development of our budding athletes to excel.
The Transformation Agenda of the sports sector has continued to put Nigeria on the sporting world despite the setbacks of the senior national team in the last few months.
Goodluck Jonathan is the first Nigerian leader to watch the senior national team in training as he took time off to watch, cheer and motivate the Super Eagles at a training session at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia during a crucial World Cup qualifier the country needed to win.
Despite the challenges of the team, they won that match which added to the points they garnered to reach the mundial at Brazil 2014. That singular act drew massive endorsements of his keen interests and commitment in seeing to the success of the senior national team.
Under the Jonathan administration, the Senior National team, the Super Eagles have won the Africa Cup of Nations after a nineteen year wait, they excelled at the Nations Cup tournament for home based teams on the continent a year after and also made a good appearance at the 2013 Confederations Cup in 2013.
The sports transformation has witnessed a new code of conduct for the senior national team after the shameful display of indiscipline on the eve of their departure to the Confederations Cup as the players have willingly signed to be of good behaviour and not hold the country to ransom over allowances which have become a recurrent decimal.
The success story of our cadre teams have been tremendous in the transformation of the sports sector as the Golden Eaglets the Under 17 team won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates. The female football sides have consolidated their grip on the continent dominating the game and winning more laurels just like the counterparts in the Under 20 ( Flying Eagles and Dream Team).
For the first time in recent years, the Nigerian league despite its teething challenges has grown to be reckoned to be among Africa’s leading hotspots in discovering home grown talents. The home based national team today has become very formidable and have distinguished themselves on the international scene.
The Nigerian league today with a strong sponsorship enjoys better welfare packages for players even as the League Management Board continues to offer revolutionary ideas that would give more mileage to the game.
For the first time in the sports sector of the country, the much needed blue print in moving our sports forward took a positive leap with the inaugural National Youth Games which took place in Abuja in 2013 involving all thirty six states of the federation.
The idea of the games has been to discover budding talents under nineteen years, expose them to facilities available and nuture them to be world champions in the nearest future. That competition exposed a lot of teeming youths and has met some of the set objectives of the Games as it has become a national event even as some of the top athletes discovered have begun a well laid down programme towards a successful Olympic Games next year in Rio de Janerio, Brazil.
The Transformation Agenda has also witnessed massive strides of achievements in the athletics world as Blessing Okagbare set the world aflame at the World Athletic Championship and also led Team Nigeria to excel at the Common Wealth Games last year.
Already, the All Africa Games is coming up later in the year and Team Nigeria is expected to excel and finish among Africa’s elite leading countries. The National Sports Festival in the Jonathan years has seen the standard of the games reach world class standards from Rivers 2011 to EKO 2012 where records, talents and the blitz and glamour of well presented opening and closing ceremonies technologically driven have showcased the country as the best platform to showcase Africa to the world.
Secondary School Sports have been revived already with two national competitions held in the last two years as Cross River State has shown a strong dominance, the Table Tennis Association continues to witness unprecedented successes especially with the resounding and outstanding achievements of the team at the African Championships recently and the pivotal influence of Haruna Quadri who recently made history on the International Table Tennis rankings as the best.
The Beach Soccer Team, the Sand Eagles have also excelled in the last six years likewise other sports including Basketball which performed above average at the African and World Championship.
Our veterans, ex- internationals have been carried along in managing our sports as the likes of the legendary Innocent Egbunike, Mary Onyali- Omagbemi, Falilat Ogunkoya, Yusuf Ali, Coach Olujimi, Emelia Edet , Gabriel Okon among others have transformed the athletic sectors in recent years , Atanda Musa and Funke Osinaike in Table Tennis while the likes of Samson Siasia, Dahiru Sadi, Emmanuel Amuneke , Daniel Amokachi, Ike Shorunmu and Stephen Keshi have taken charge of the development of our football.
Just last week these same set of ex-internationals including the duo of Joseph Yobo, John Fashanu and Nwankwo Kanu have mobilised support to ensure the re-election of Goodluck Jonathan . That is a massive endorsement for the Transformation Agenda and a vote of confidence on his commitment to developing the sports sector.
Under the Transformation Agenda of the present administration, new stadia are being built by different state governments and old ones are being renovated. The National Stadium in Abuja has just been renovated and maintained while the Akwa Ibom International Stadium (The Nest of Champions) has added modern aesthetics in the development of the sports sector with its state of the art facilities.
Already, the Transformation Agenda of the present administration has finalised the programme for Team Nigeria to excel at the All Africa Games coming up in September this year as Team Nigeria looks forward to another top three finish at the games.
However, despite the seeming success of the Jonathan administration in the sports sector , the challenges ahead in consolidating remains much as there is an urgent need to focus more in developing the existing facilities and upgrading them as we expose our athletes to modern techniques and facilities thereby giving them equal advantage at international competitions.
The greatest challenge of the Transformation of the sports sector is the indecision to sack Stephen Keshi which has continued to be the only clog in the wheel of progress of our senior national team. We are aware that the Presidency is behind the stay of Keshi which has made the Nigeria Football Federation seemingly helpless in the present scenario, but that bold step to shove him would offer a stronger and confident building process for our national team.
We must realise that the sports sector is vital to the growth of our economy and in making a choice for the election of our leaders; we must be firm with a choice of performance in office and not mere promises. Sports remain a critical and vital tool in national integration and world politics. We must not be caught napping.
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