WAHID Enitan Oshodi was not a novice in sports administration before his appointment as Commissioner for Youths, Sports and Social Development in Lagos State. His tenure as the chairman of the Lagos State Table Tennis Association (LSTTA) will go down into memory as the most active period of table tennis in a recent times throughout the federation. Apart from administering sports, Oshodi is a member of the International Association of Sports Lawyers as well as the secretary of the Implementation Committee of the proposed Nigeria Court of Arbitration in Sports (NCAS)- all which attest to his dexterity in sports. The legal practitioner told OLALEKAN OKUSAN that Lagos State, being the talk of all states across the federation, hopes to replicate its achievement in governance when the state hosts the next National Sports Festival. He also spoke on efforts being made to pay quality attention to school sports, which, he says, is the factory where athletes are discovered.How has it been paddling the canoe of sports in Lagos'It has been hectic three months trying to settle down as quickly as possible. Luckily, we have been working in sports for quite a while and with lots of good people working with us, it has made it pretty comfortable to start with. So, we are making progress and very soon, I think, we will fully settle in.How do you ensure that athletes' welfare is given due attention during your tenure'Having been one for Lagos State myself, in sports, athletes' welfare is always the most important thing and that is what has taken up a lot of time since we started work. We are trying to find the best way forward for our athletes, especially the ones who want to go back to school. We are very willing to support them and the government has approved how best we can empower these athletes by finding jobs for those who want to work.Also, we have to be careful that when we find jobs for them, they have to be jobs that accommodate their training schedule. We have lots of schools in Lagos and those with the right qualification will be assisted in getting to those schools and those who don't, we will assist them in getting the right qualification as well.Generally, everybody knows how things are difficult in Nigeria, especially in Lagos where there are many people. Some of these athletes cater for their families and we have decided, and the governor has approved that we look into how we can best help them (athletes) and financially as well.So we are working on a package right now and we are very hopeful that in a couple of months, we will be able to announce a very solid package for our athletes, which will ensure that they are comfortable.And also, we hope this will deter our friends from other states who are constantly on the look out for the best athletes in Nigeria and come to Lagos with this in mind.Since I had come in, my job is to look after the welfare of the athletes and their development and I intend to ensure that this is done.So many commissioners and ministers have been engrossed in football on assumption of office and how do you ensure that other sports are given enough attention in Lagos'The truth is that the background of most people who had worked in sports actually came from football and I think that is what accounts for them spending a lot of time on football, which, of course, is the most popular game in Nigeria. And we have had teams that had done well in the past and this also engenders the feelings that we must do football.But based on my background in sports, having done lots of work in different sports and mostly table tennis, football is not my focus, sports is my focus; I think what we will see over time is that we intend to give enough time to other sports apart from football.It is also important that will recognise that football is the number one sport in the country and the people of Lagos love their football. But we have to create events in other sports because the people of Lagos love sports and they watch them. But if you don't give them any event to watch, they are stuck on television with the European leagues. We intend to create events that will bring people back to the stadium.People tend to believe that despite the huge investment on sports in Lagos State, the result is not forthcoming. How do you ensure that results begin to show'Firstly, I disagree that we are not seeing results of sports in Lagos State. A lot of money has gone into infrastructural development, which is the basis of growth. For you to develop athletes, you need the infrastructure in place.We have the Teslim Balogun and Campos Stadiums and work will soon start on Onikan Stadium. We have a brand new Agege Stadium and several multi-sports complexes dotted the state. We are working very hard in that regard. We also have to work hard with the athletes, who will use these facilities.We have been working on a development programme and I agree that it is time to reap the reward. I am very hopeful that the work we will be doing between now and mid next year will ensure that our team is successful at the next National Sports Festival. The results, I believe, will start to tell early next year when our events come on stream.We have a massive pool of athletes in Lagos and we are working to get our coaches on board and also engage new ones. We want to see new styles, tactics and new faces because we have lost a lot of coaches over the years. Lagos has the best crop of coaches across the board. Ewa Henshaw in cricket, Lateef Sunmola in table tennis, Fiano in volleyball and all these people have retired and we have not replaced them adequately. I will say one of our goals is to get these coaches back on board. How does Lagos surpass the performance of Rivers State in hosting of the next National Sports Festival'Naturally in Lagos State, we are used to hosting big international events and God created Lagos to host other people and that is why there are 18 million people here.Everybody must realise that every state in Nigeria probably has a community development association in Lagos. We are going to reach out to all these people to come out. We are not going to be bad host but reach out to these people to come out and support their states.The advantage of Lagos, which Rivers did not have, is that the stadium will be full and I mean for every event. The stadium will always be filled because Lagos has a sports-loving populace.We realised the work will be very hard but we had started the work. A lot of the work we will do to make the festival successful is done behind the scene by getting the right people on board, and making sure the facilities are in order.Accommodation and venues are some of the things we had started work on. We are in touch with the National Sports Commission (NSC) and they have been giving us good guidance on many issues and we have taken them on board. In the next month or two, I think the festival feelings will start hitting Lagos.Are you partnering the private sector to better the lots of sports in Lagos'As you know, Lagos is the talk all over because of the great work that has been done in the last 12 years by our leader, Bola Tinubu and the Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN).But you will also realise that a lot of these work had been done in conjunction with the private sector and people nicknamed us 'The Private Public Partnership Government' and that is what we are. We bring the private sector on board with us.With my background in table tennis, I am used to dealing with the private sector. They are my friends and our friends in Lagos and they are happy with us. They have started showing interest and we have told them what we are planning and they are coming on board.'One of the aims of the next National Sports Festival is to prove to Nigerians that the festival can be hosted without spending government money only. We are hoping that the private sector will pay majority of the way because it will leverage on what we do and get the returns.'This is a very popular government voted for by all tribes in Nigeria and Lagos is the home to all these people. I believe we are going to have a fantastic festival; that I can assure.
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