Nigeria can achieve better results, says Onigbinde

As the nation marks its 55 years of independence today, former coach of the Super Eagles coach, Adegboye Onigbinde, says the country neither had good nor bad results in the last one year.

In his verdict, he says: “We have had some good results and some bad ones, but what I can emphatically say and which I believe strongly is that we as a nation are capable of achieving better results if we utilised all our resources. We have not had it as good, as one would have wished judging by Nigeria’s potentials.
“There have been some good ones and some bad ones, but I personally am not satisfied with the level of achievement so far because I believe Nigeria is capable of achieving much higher than what we have achieved in the last one year.”

On the type of sports minister he expects in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, the Modakeke High Chief said: “My hope and prayer is that Nigeria will deviate a little from what it has been in the past. In the past, we have had all sorts of characters as sports minister.
“Those appointed in the past were all said to be gentlemen, but when it comes to relevance in terms of experience and knowledge, they fell short of expectations. I hope this time around the president will look for someone, who has a thorough sporting background to handle that ministry.
“It takes more than a sport academician; it requires a lot of practical experience. If I had a PHD in Physical Education, the experience in administration may not be there. I hope the president will look into that area… look for someone, who will be able to share his wealth of experience with Nigeria and move Nigeria’s sports forward.”

Onigbinde says he has been talking about sports development for the past 50 years, regretting that have not paid any meaningful attention to that. “People don’t know that sports can be used to solve a lot of Nigeria’s problems. For example, crime in this country is juvenile oriented, juvenile centred and massive application of sports will take some of these youths off our streets. And in this case, one would have solved a lot of problems. Problems of cultism, drug addiction, armed robbery etc. All these crimes would have been reduced to appreciable level.

Another one is that, for instance, nobody has ever come out to say that sports has no positive effect on ones health; rather, it is the other way round. Sports will enhance good health and if you can encourage participation in sports, this means we are going to have healthier citizens. And that one in itself would have a multiple effect.

Get into some offices today, you will find empty tables, and when you ask who occupies a particular seat, you will be surprised to find out that some of them may have gone to the hospital attending to one ailment or the other. That only affects the productivity of either the ministry or company as the case may be.

Let us talk about accidents on our roads, some of them that happened, you would be startled that the driver may have died before the accident even happened because the moment he loses concentration and control, he is gone. There is no mental and physical alertness, which is imbibed in sports participation where a lot of embarrassments would have been avoided and a lot of lives saved on our roads.

Another aspect in sports is how to lose gallantly and win in humility; that means if 10 per cent of our politicians are former sportsmen, the violence experienced at each election that would have resulted in violence would have been avoided also.

Onigbinde says that Nigeria has been losing so much because it has not [aid adequate attention to sports development, adding, “you need someone who has the knowledge, the experience to administer sports. We have three qualities: knowledge, experience and intelligence. One’s intelligence is a multiple of one’s knowledge and experience. The way you are able to manipulate your knowledge and experience is an indicator of intelligence.

We need three of these qualities in whoever that will be appointed as the sports minister under this new administration. We have had some situations in the country where someone who did not know anything about sports got there, and pretenders who were former internationals in football and former track and field stars made use of that opportunity to mislead him just because he lacked the knowledge and experience needed for the job.”

The former Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) chairman pleads against using the sports ministry to appease politicians, arguing, “If you want a Minister for Health, it beholds on you to get a Medical Doctor. As for a Minister of Information, you know you need a media practitioner. But in sports, we have had carpenters and all manners of people! It’s just so unfortunate.”