The All Africa Games is a multi sports continental events competition organised every four years and supervised by the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa. It is Africa’s own version of the Olympic Games and it takes place every four years bringing the best of the continent’s top athletes in one fold and sports administrators to tinker the best techniques that will lift African sports in competition with other continents.
The first Games were held in 1965 in Brazzaville, Congo and the Games admitted the Special Sports for disabled athletes in the 1999 edition.
There are fifty three member countries affiliated to the Games with the 1969 Games held in Bamako, Mali, 1973, Lagos, Nigeria, 1978, Algiers, Algeria, 1987, Nairobi, Kenya, 1991, Cairo, Egypt, 1995, Harare, Zimbabwe, 1999, Johannesburg, South Africa, 2003, Abuja, Nigeria, 2007, Algiers, Algeria,2011, Mozambique and the 2015 edition which holds from September 4-19, 2015 in Brazzaville, Congo once again.
The Egyptians have made the swimming event their mainstay that has propelled them to consistent winners and where only shelved to second place upon the re-admission of South Africa whose dominance on the continent is undisputable as they come into the games as defending champions.
For the 2015 edition which is the eleventh, the stakes are definitely high with the quality of stars and rise in countries whose athletes have primed them for continental prominence as they battle for honours in thirty two sports seeking national glory.
The All Africa Games has produced some great heroes and heroines who have gone ahead to make Africa proud on the global stage including the legendary Frankie Fredericks of Namibia who made his mark in the sprints, Chidi Imoh, Olapade Adenekan, The Ezinwa Brothers, Deji Aliu all of Nigeria who also held sway in the sprints, Mary Onyali Omagbemi, Beatrice Utondu,Charity Opara, also in sprints, Falilat Ogunkoya in the quarter miles along with Innocent Egbunike, Gabriel Okon , Henry Amike in the sprint hurdles, Yusuf Ali in the long jump, Chioma Ajunwa who won the country’s first gold medal at the Olympics in 1996 in Atlanta, Maria Mutolla of Mozambique, Wilson Kipketer of Kenya, Halle Gabresilassie of Ethiopia who remains a legend, Atanda Musa of Nigeria in Table Tennis and others.
With the games just coming after the World Athletics Championships which finished about a forthnight ago, the chances of South Africa and Egypt running neck to neck on who emerges the overall winner especially with the strong advantage of quality facilities on ground and adequate preparations ahead of the games.
For Team Nigeria, there would be no home advantage despite the strong contingent of over 570 delegates as the team will struggle for a third position slot as in the previous edition as the state of our preparations have been the usual complaints of poor facilities, inadequate funding and lack of adequate exposure to international standard techniques.
Today, Nigerian sports lies at its lowest ebb as all the sporting associations depend on the almost nonexistent funding of sports from the National Sports Commission for survival. Most sporting associations prior to the games have not been able to meet up obligatory tournaments that would have exposed these athletes to top flight facilities and the quality of competitions that would have kept them in perfect shape.
Swimming which attracts one of the largest medal hauls in the games and gymnastics are almost nonexistent with regards to effective preparations and facilities in the country despite repeated promises by the federal government to facilitate their growth.
Today, boxing, once a prime sport in Nigeria has lost its glory as we have one of the worst boxing facilities at the National Institute for Sports which should be the flagship for the development of our sports.
Our boxers virtually train in dilapidated gymnasiums, no food like other athletes and no proper welfare package yet, we expect miracles from them as if they are super humans.
Not even the attention given to athletics and even weight lifting in recent years and short overseas training camp can make any difference as sports development continues to dwindle in the country without any private sector investment, support or benefits.
The only bright spot which may attract fans to the games will be the football event as the Dream Team led by Samson Siasia will hope to fall within medal range at the games to put smiles on the faces of millions of Nigerians.
There is also hope that the national basketball team, the Tigers will continue her exploits in Tunisia where they won the 2015 Afro basketball Championship and consolidate on the new found strides while Aruna Quadri is expected to lead the table tennis assault against North African opposition.
What makes it more challenging for Team Nigeria is that the team left the shores of Nigeria unheralded with more hopes on the women folk but the biggest blow will be the absence of Blessing Okagbare our biggest export on the tracks in recent years who has become a monumental flop especially after faltering at the Beijing 2015 World Athletics Championship.
Olusoji Fasuba a former Nigerian sprints athlete and record holder last week described Nigerian athletes as being only fit for continental glory describing them as failures on the global stage. That summation by Fasuba is a fact that has clearly exposed our inept sports administrators and directionless sporting associations who do not even have any meaningful programmes on the home front and would go cap in hand begging for funds to attend international tournaments.
Today, our women are better athletes than the male, they are the ones we hope for glory and the potency of our special athletes will provide the needed succour for a medal haul as they meet better equipped teams against our usual hurriedly packaged landmarks.
It will be a difficult task for Team Nigeria especially in the races that will determine the continent’s fastest man and woman as a South African made it to the final of the 100metres of the World Athletics Championships this year.
The athletes are in Congo with a large entourage of administrators and other tourists and how they go at the games will depend on what strategies have been put in place to close the gap between Egypt and South Africa to ensure we finish with a respectable medal haul at the end of the games.
It is expected that the Congo Games will be the expected turn around for Nigerian Sports and that Team Nigeria will rise to the occasion and bring glory to the country. It will not be an opportunity for government officials to waste public funds but we must encourage our athletes to excel , provide a conducive atmosphere for the athletes and ensure that the team is focused to win as many medals at stake all through the games.
It will be a major milestone for the President Buhari administration if they give the team the needed support to excel and further the cause for a new foundation for sports development as we look forward to stunning more world leaders especially when we recall the heroic strides of one of Africa’s legends, innocent Egbunike whose quarter mile heroics made the then Kenyan President stunned at his pace at the final of the 4x400metres men as he made a heroic come back for Nigeria to win the gold and earning the title, Innocent of Africa.
Winning the All Africa Games can be a set target that can be achieved , the hurdles arte well laid out buy in my honest opinion, the 2015 games may not and will not be our best as we parade a set of half baked players to fly the country’s flag as we may struggle for glory.
Its race of a few weeks and only the best will emerge champions of Africa and Nigeria must not lose faith with the fact that we cannot afford to play a third fiddle anymore and must aim to be the best. The rest of our sporting challenge will need a divine intervention and direction. Only God can save our sports as it stands.
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