Like the Biblical axiom of '40 days and 40 nights' in the wilderness, the wait for President Goodluck Jonathan's promise of total and comprehensive re-organisation of the Nigerian sports sector after Team Nigeria's disastrous outing at the London 2012 Olympic Games, seems to be getting longer, writes GOWON AKPODONOR.SHORTLY after President Jonathan's order of re-organisation of the sporting sector on August 15, ex-Nigerian athlete and Commonwealth Games medallist, Isiaka Adeyanju, raised a poser from his base in Philadelphia, United States, saying: 'There we go again.'To Adeyanju, a member of the 4x100m relay quartet that captured gold medal for Nigeria at Brisbane '82 Commonwealth Games, the presidential order to overhaul sports may see no green light at the end of the day.'We have had so many presidential orders after failures in the past and I doubt if anything concrete will come out of this particular order, except if President Jonathan just wants to be different,' Adeyanju told The Guardian.'It was so embarrassing to see Nigerian athletes flopped one after another at the London Games and I felt the system needed a drastic change even before the order by the President. My major worry is the final execution. That has been a major problem.'The London 2012 Olympics ran from July 27 to August 12. The Nigerian contingent, led by Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, returned home without a medal of any colour, despite the government expenditure of over N2.3 billon on preparations and participation.Embarrassed by the woeful performance, President Jonathan ordered a total and comprehensive re-organisation of the sporting division. The President's directive was given by the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, who spoke with media men at the end of a Federal Executive Council meeting on August 14.Maku said: 'President Goodluck Jonathan has ordered for total and comprehensive re-organisation of the sporting sector, following the disappointing performances of Nigerian contingent to the London 2012 Olympics. Mr. President said what took place in London must be the beginning of a new momentum to place Nigerian sports at a level that will enable this country return to the glory it is known for in the areas of sports.'President Jonathan believes for us to change the present scenario, we need to specialise and we need to plan in a way that this country will continue to make impact in global competitions. He believes that the next Commonwealth Games in 2014 and the 2016 Olympics in Brazil must enable Nigeria set specific targets and realise them in order to promote our sports development.'He also called for a new direction in sports management. So, in the next couple of weeks, you are going to see action in this area as we prepare to work and ensure that Nigeria, in subsequent continental and global events, takes her proper place within the comity of sporting nations.'IT is about 40 days after the presidential order and former Olympian and Commonwealth medallist in weightlifting, Emmanuel Oshomah, is of the view that the order 'may have died a natural death.'Fielding question from The Guardian from his base in Asaba, Delta State yesterday, Oshomah expressed regret that year after year, the Federal Government kept 'making unfulfilled promises' of repositioning the system after the country's failures in major competitions.He said: 'It is about 40 days now since the President made that promise of overhauling the sports sector, and I thought by now, the process leading to the re-structuring would have been in place.'The last thing we heard was that the President set up a committee on the maintenance of the Abuja National Stadium. Is that the overhauling of the sports sector he promised''In the good old days of the nation's sports, Nigerians born in the Diaspora loved to represent their fatherland at global competitions like the Commonwealth Games and Olympics. That was in the 1970s and 80s, when the country was a force to reckon with in international sports.But the story is different today, no thanks to the poor administrative style and selfish pattern employed by the nation's sports administrators, which to a large extent, has affected the performances of the athletes on and off the fields of play.According to the Edo State-born weightlifting coach, President Jonathan 'must be ready to wield his big stick' if really he wants to change the sports sector.'If our President really wants to change the face of Nigerian sports for good, then, he must be bold enough to take certain decisions. This idea of making one statement today and not following it up with action is not helping our sports. In four years' time, Nigerians will be waiting for medals in Brazil, but sadly, we have not started the right process that will take us there. In some other parts of the world, the voice of ex-athletes count in the planning for future challenges.'I have said it over and over that the Presidency should convene a Town Hall meeting and invite ex-athletes from far and near to air their views on what is happening and proffer a solution. We need it at this stage of our sports because there is urgent need to correct so many abnormalities in the system.'A system whereby a coach, who has not produced any national athlete for the country in the last 17 years, is made the head coach of our weightlifting team to the Olympics clearly suggests that something strange is going on in the sports system.'Some people are being favoured unnecessarily just because they are from a particular state with a top official of the National Sports Commission (NSC). It is killing the system and this is one area President Jonathan should look at,' Oshomah stated.FOR some other Nigerians, the nation's sports might witness more disastrous results in the near future if Jonathan decides to renege on his promise of overhauling the system.Apart from clamouring for the sack of top officials of the NSC, a majority of the stakeholders want the immediate dissolution of the various sports federations and conduct of new elections before the coming National Sports Festival in Lagos.To them, the new chairmen that will emerge in the elections will use the Eko 2012 Games as ground to pick athletes that can be groomed for future national competitions like the 2014 Commonwealth Games and Brazil 2016.
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