From a humble beginning with only a stretch of pristine River Ethiope as her training facility, Mrs. Ngozi Mammah, painstakingly learnt the ropes in swimming after parting ways with athletics and volleyball. In the seed of time, her devotion to the water sport paid dividends and she rose from the backwaters of Obiaruku to conquer the erstwhile Bendel State, became a national champion and eventually African champion in swimming. As she was busy winning tones of medals, honours came from virtually every quarter that she competed. She was named Bendel State''s Best Sports Woman of the Year for 1978, awarded University of Benin Full Sports Colours for outstanding performance during the 1983/84 session, received two Full Sports Colours for outstanding performance from the University of Lagos in 1986 and 1988 respectively among others. Mammah, who was appointed assistant national swimming coach and later Secretary General of the Nigeria Karate Foundation, in recounting her experiences to ENO-ABASI SUNDAY, deplored the infancy stage, which swimming has remained in the country and gave tips on how to achieve a turnaround.NOT many Nigerian athletes of yore have their entire lives intertwined with sports the way Ngozi Mammah (nee Enuwuzo) does, both at the level of competition and administration. Evidently, the former Nigerian and African champion, to a great extent, owes what she has become in life to her early participation in sports.Consider this scenario: A young girl ventures into sports doing athletics and volleyball. Along the line, she delved into swimming and her brilliance in the sport secured her a sports scholarship to secondary and university education. While all these happened, a future husband spotted her in a competition venue, stuck his neck out and went ahead to do the needful to secure her love, for life.Upon graduation, Mammah worked with the National Sports Commission (NSC) as assistant national swimming coach before she was posted to the Nigeria Karate Federation (NKF) as secretary general, from which she voluntarily resigned in 2001. This, indeed, is the summary of Mammah''s nearly four decades sojourn in the exciting world of sports. To date, she still savours the memories of trips to some beautiful cities across the country and indeed the world to compete, without spending a dime on the travels.It all began like this: ''I started taking part in sporting activities in Esumuku Primary School in Obiaruku, Delta State (then Bendel State). I remember participating in athletics and volleyball. Along the line, I represented my school in athletics during inter-primary school sports competitions. It was from there I qualified to represent my local government at a school sports competition in Benin, then capital of Bendel State. During that outing, I did not win any prize but was glad to be there and also amazed at the speed of other sprinters.'Even when her elder siblings excelled in football and athletics, her parents did not encourage her to embrace sports fully at the initial stage, and ''I am of the opinion that they thought I would stray, thereby altering their plans for me.' Expectedly, this atmosphere was not helpful for the development of her fledgling swimming talent.This much she confessed: ''It was a difficult situation for me because I had to dodge to go for practice and even travel out for competitions. However, when God started to reward my efforts, my parents changed their attitude and gave me 100 per cent support. And I did promise not to disappoint them and so far God has helped me.'Slugging it out against her peers at the primary school level was more of fun than competition for the former assistant national swimming coach because, ''I did not take my peers into serious contention. It was just fun because I was young and did not take competition as war. In those days, it was like, if I win, fine. If I don''t, I will try again.'While still battling to stamp her imprimatur on the tracks and courts at the primary school level, modern swimming was introduced in her primary school in 1974 by late coach Abraham Adodo from Benin. ''Before then, I already knew how to swim the local way, having had access to River Ethiope, which runs through my town - Obiaruku.''The beauty and clarity of this river helped me learn how to swim at an early age. It was no surprise when I adapted to the modern swimming fast and to God be the glory, swimming suited me perfectly well and by 1975 I was discovered as a potential swimmer. It was at this stage that I bid farewell to athletics and volleyball and stuck to swimming.''Within this period, swimming was not introduced to many schools in my area, so swimming competition among schools was rare. I competed in an inter-local government competition, which was ahead of the Bendel Sports Festival in 1975, where I won bronze medal in 100 backstroke for intermediate girls. Within months, I competed in national age-group swimming competition, where I represented Bendel State. There, I won two gold medals in 100 and 200 metres breaststroke for girls 13 years and under.'The fun galore Mammah had been embarking on in the name of competing at the primary school level gave way to serious action by the time she got to secondary school and beyond. This is because, ''at the time I started competing at the secondary school and university levels, my mindset had changed and fun gave way to the urge to defend my titles as a champion.Also at that level, I had many contenders in my events like Patricia Oghen, Nancy Ogun, Royal Ebi, Gloria Ufomi, Tailatakumi Gagbe, Florence Ayoke and Queen A, among others.'The dearth of swimming competitions among secondary schools was instrumental to Mammah''s prominence at the national scene at a very young age. According to the former national coach, who holds a B. Sc in Physical and Health Education, ''in secondary school, I took part in the National Sports Festival in 1977, where I won gold in the 100 metres breaststroke for inter-mediate girls and also set a new national record.''Same year, I represented Nigeria at the first West African Games in Lagos, where I won three gold medals in 100, 200 and 4x100 metres medley relay and in the process set two national records. In 1978 at the third All Africa Games in Algeria, I won two gold medals in 100 and 200 metres breaststroke women with an African Record in 100 metres. No swimmer has been able to surpass this feat so far.'In 1979, Mammah and John Ebito represented Nigeria at the Pre-Olympic Games in Moscow. Though they did not win any medal, the exposure bode well for their career in many ways, as the NKF former secretary general confirmed: ''We did not win any medal but it was a good exposure. I returned from the game angry for not winning a medal. This anger helped me to set a new national record in 100 and 200 metres breaststroke women at the National Sports Festival '' Oluyole ''79. These records stood several years before they were broken.'In 1980, the two-time University of Lagos Sports Woman of the Year award winner won bronze medal at the international age-group swimming competition in Tenerife, Spain, and in 1987, won the only bronze medal for Nigeria in the 100 metres breaststroke event at the fourth All Africa Games in Nairobi, Kenya. During her undergraduate days, Mammah participated in the Nigerian University Games (NUGA), where she represented the University of Benin as well as the University of Lagos, winning several laurels in the process.Looking back at the pleasant and unpleasant events that hallmarked her swimming career, the former African swimming queen had no difficulties arriving at her most memorable event: ''My most memorable event was the third All Africa Games in Algiers in 1978, where I set a new African record in the 100 metres breaststroke in the heat,' she enthused. ''I was under pressure to repeat the same feat in the finals of the event. As a result, I was anxious and troubled. I, however, eventually made it to the final and won the event.'Conversely, Mammah''s worst outing does not stem from lack of preparations on her part but hinged on the carelessness of officials, who shepherded her out of the country for an African championship.Hear her: ''My worst competition was the 1981 Open African Swimming Championship held in Cairo, Egypt, where I could not compete in my event because we arrived in Cairo on the first day of the competition, which was also the same day my event was slated to begin. I did not know how Nigerian officials got the venue wrong because we first went to Alexandra City, only to be referred back to Cairo, venue of the championship.'Whatever hiccups Mammah encountered in her entire sporting life pale into insignificance when juxtaposed with the joy and good times her early participation in sports has brought her. This was how she summarised it: ''My participation in sports at a very young age helped to open doors of opportunities for me. I saw sports as an avenue to realise my academic desires and this happened because I had sports scholarship both at secondary school and in the university..''Socially, as a champion, I had many fans and admirers while sports also offered me the opportunity to travel to different towns and cities to meet different people. I had traveled to important parts of the world without paying a dime. Also, my husband first saw me when he came to watch a swimming competition during the 1979 Bendel State Sports Festival in Benin. It was there he fell in love with my performance. On the health plane, swimming has helped me to keep fit and healthy''''. 'Asked to enumerate some of the reasons school sports was nose-diving in the country, she blamed it largely on lack of effective sports policies by successive governments as well as lack of visionary leaders. She also blamed it on lack of facilities and equipment, lack of funds, competitions, inadequate rewards for merit and lack of qualified teachers and coaches. She stressed: ''There will be improvements in school sports and the country''s performance in sports if the above issues are taken care of.'Mammah ended her swimming career in1988 when she stopped competitive swimming upon graduation from the University of Lagos. Two years after graduation '' in 1990 - she was appointed assistant national swimming coach and promoted senior coach in 1996 and thereafter, principal sports officer in 2002, and deployed to the NKF as secretary general. She voluntarily retired from service in 2003. .However, she was nominated for the seventh National Sports Merit awards in 1993 under the then Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Alex Akinyele. But the ceremony was postponed indefinitely. In the course of her sterling swimming career, awards and honours poured in in droves, especially at the university level. One of the first she bagged was Bendel State''s Best Sports Woman for 1978.She was awarded the University of Benin Full Sports Colours for outstanding performance in sports during the 1983/84 session, received two Full Sports Colours for outstanding performance in sports from the University of Lagos in 1986 and 1988 respectively. She was voted the Sports Woman of the Year by the University of Lagos Sports Council in 1986 and awarded Best NUGA Athlete forProf. and Mrs. Enahoro''s Cup for the 11th NUGA held at the University of Ibadan from April 5 to 12, 1986..Mammah was also awarded the late Dr. E.N.O. Sodeinde Memorial Prize for the student with the greatest contribution to the life of the university during the 1986/87 academic session after she won the All Africa Games bronze medal. That same session, she bagged the Chancellor''s Prize for the best all-round student in sports.Speaking specifically on why swimming development is stunted in the country, the former African champion said until states devise ingenious ways of harvesting the swimming talents that abound in their domain, the bountiful medals the sport offers would continually elude Nigeria in international sporting fiestas. .While calling on states governors to emulate Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State in developing spectacular swimming facilities in particular and sports facilities in general, she also advised them to, in the interim, improvise with their natural endowments in order to give swimming a foothold in their respective states. According to her, the absence of swimming from most school sports competitions in the country was the prime reason the sport has remained in its infancy..''Because swimming is not included in most school sports events, it is very difficult for coaches to go out to recruit swimming talents from these events as it happens in most other sports. This is simply the reason the sport is not growing at the rate it should,' said the All Africa Games gold medallist ..Mammah, whose African record in the 100 metres breaststroke event still stands, continued: ''Another reason the sport is still trailing others is the nature of the facilities it uses - swimming pools. Over 95 per cent of schools in this country, from primary to university - do not have swimming pools. Because of this, inclusion of swimming in school sports is not feasible. .''However, the emergence of some private schools that are blessed with swimming pools is very encouraging as swimming is one of the sports where best results are guaranteed if practiced during growing up/learning years.'Stressing that governors'' vision and what they want to achieve in the area of sports play a very important role in the height a sport like swimming can attain in their states, she lamented: ''Very many states in the country do not have functional swimming pools. But if a governor has the vision of taking swimming to greater heights, he will always look inwards and improvise, especially in the riverine states. .''Accepted that construction and maintenance of swimming pools cost a lot of money, more so in our country where states governments have very poor grades when it comes to maintenance of structures/facilities in their domain, a state like Delta is doing a lot when it comes to using what God has blessed it with to improvise and boost swimming. .However, to states without streams and sundry water bodies that can be resorted to, Mammah advised, ''they should partner hotels as a form of improvisation rather than fold their arms and sit down pending when state-owned swimming pools crop up. Doing so will only ensure that the swimming talents there continue to blight away.'She added: ''I''m my opinion, there is no state in the country that cannot afford to build standard swimming pools in its three senatorial zones. But in most cases, this is usually not their priority and that is where the real problem lies.For instance, in Rivers State that has the best swimming pools in the country right now, there were other governors before Amaechi. But they did not see the need to erect the kind of sports complex he has done. So it still boils down to the issue ofpriority because each administration comes with is own. Until we have governors, who see sports as their priority, in view of the benefits it has for the people, not much would be done in the area of development of sports facilities.
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