2024 PARIS OLYMPIC ABYSMAL FAILURE: NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT AT ALL LEVELS MUST EXCISE POLITICS FROM SPORTS.... By Harrison Jalla

Picture of some Nigerian Footballers 

"Political leaders in Nigeria, out of gross ignorance, are killing the passion and emotions of current and retired sportsmen and women. They are also destroying an industry that has the potential to become the largest employer of labor in Nigeria." Harrison Jalla.

Nigeria’s sports glory will soon go into total extinction if urgent steps are not taken by all tiers of government; federal, state, and local, to excise politics from sports. Government at all levels should concentrate on the provision of infrastructure, facilities, and funding, and allow technocrats, ex-internationals, and retired sportsmen and women to run sports in Nigeria.

Entrenched corruption has permeated Nigerian sports over the last 10 years through the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). Other sports federations are merely replicating what is happening at the NFF, as there are no consequences for corrupt practices. School sports at all levels; primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions, must be revived without further delay.

Since the inception of the 4th Republic in 1999, Nigerian sports have gradually moved towards extinction by appointing politicians as ministers of sports at the federal level, commissioners of sports at the state level, and the same politicians at the local government levels. Nigeria’s retired sportsmen and women must rise to the challenge now and speak out for a total reform of sports administration in the country.

From henceforth, no Minister without a sports background should ever be appointed by any sitting Nigerian President after Senator John Enoh. No Sports Commissioner or state Sports Commission Chairman without a background in sports should be appointed by any sitting state Governor of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The same applies to the 774 local governments in Nigeria.

Political leaders in Nigeria, out of gross ignorance, are killing the passion and emotions of current and retired sportsmen and women. They are also destroying an industry that has the potential to become the largest employer of labor in Nigeria. The presence of corrupt politicians littered across Nigerian sports is frustrating the talents and potential of Nigerian youths, particularly those from extremely poor backgrounds who see sports as their only hope and tool for fame, wealth, and as breadwinners for their families.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has graciously injected over 24 billion Naira in intervention funds into sports in less than 15 months in office for AFCON and the 2024 Paris Olympics, with nothing to show for it. This fund is aside from the normal annual appropriated funds to the Ministry of Sports through the National Assembly to the Federation Account. This nonsense must stop! Nigerian sportsmen and women cannot continue to watch their constituency die before their very eyes; it’s time to speak out and act.

We all saw how bad governance killed Nigeria Airways, the National Shipping Line, our four refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt, and Warri, as well as the Delta Steel Company and Ajaokuta Steel Company.

Enough is enough!

Let’s protect the future of our youth in Nigerian sports.

The Nigerian footballers’ bloc has already taken their destiny into their own hands by challenging the status quo, and the illegal Ibrahim Gusau board will be the last of that nonsense; 37 votes from one irrelevant federating unit amongst five federating units that make up the NFF in an assembly of 44 members.

In light of the above, this writer will soon convene an advocacy group that shall be named "The Coalition of Nigerian Sportsmen and Women" with the core objective of changing the narrative in every Nigerian sports leadership and administrative structure at all levels of governance.

Harrison Jalla is the Chairman, Board of Trustees of the Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria, PFAN