Nigeria: Shell Cup And Odegbami’s New Challenge

Onochie Anibeze

29 April 2011

column

I have known Reverend Father Edmund Akpala since 1996. And when I went to St. Gregory’s College two weeks ago I had to visit his office to greet him. Discussion on sports naturally ensued. He spoke with so much passion that I felt that my column last week would be on him and St. Gregory’s.

What I saw of him and the school he now administers was good and I was happy I shared it with you last week. Akpala really moved me with his passion for sports.

I had promised to take up two issues – Shell Cup and Centres of Excellence – on later dates but two of the many reactions I received have inspired me to do so today.

A member of the AIT Awards panel told me how embarrassed they were when the highest goal scorer in the Shell Cup climbed the stage to receive the ‘Young Player of the Year’ award. The panelist said that they rightly worked on facts and picked the winner for school footballer of the year. They had never met him. Organisers then invited him for the Awards.. When he stepped out to collect his award on the night, panelists, organisers and everybody was surprised.

Shell Cup is a soccer competition for secondary schools in Nigeria. They expected to see a young player possibly below the age of 17 or 18. But behold, a stone-faced adult emerged. Panelists had to appeal to him to smile a little bit, at least to appreciate the special moment.

It is possible that inside him he did not feel anything special. He probably was not a secondary school student. His emergence as the award winner was a bad promotion for the investment Shell Petroleum Development Company has been making in sports.

The AIT Awards panelist recalled this incident after reading my last column. And when a reader sent me the following text, I felt you should know although I disagree with him on Odegbami: “Akpala was also a fine footballer. St. Gregory;s will go far under his watch. Odegbami has never delivered and I don’t see him changing with this new assignment.”

The reader did not add his or her name but the phone number is 08033437563.

I didn’t know Akpala was also into football but I have always known him as a special Reverend Father with special interest in sports generally. I had met him about two times at the National Stadium in Lagos where he came to watch Eagles’ matches. After reading the above reaction I tried to recapture the moment with Akpala.

He had shown tremendous concern for track and field but passively remarked football this way: “In football, I tried to raise a team and we played in the Shell Cup. We started well but we lost to a team whose players didn’t look like students.”

After more than thirty minutes on track and field this was the only thing he said about football. And it was while I made to leave. He sounded frustrated and appeared to have given up on football due to the cheating prevalent in the sport.

Too bad for school sports. Many including veterans like Ikeddy Isiguzo, Adokiye Amasiemeka and Paul Bassey have been in the Vanguard of the campaign against cheating in age grade competitions. My friend Ade Ojeikere champions campaign against it.

But the rewards that follow the victories our men earn over boys from other countries have continued to push these players, their parents, coaches and authorities into the cheating that has continued to stagnate our football. Are we not even exposing insincerity when we win everything at the age grade competitions and cannot make any impact at the senior level? After all had been said and written and there appeared to be no change, Bassey wrote on Monday that he was taking a break from the topic. Another frustration?

I remember Segun Odegbami’s experience with winners of Shell Cup that he had accompanied to one Embassy for visas for a competition that they were meant to represent Nigeria. The supposed students could not fill the forms. They could not answer basic questions during the interviews.

Of course, they failed to get the visas. Odegbami was so ashamed that he made it an issue in his column. He is a consultant for Shell on Shell Cup. If we allow cheating in school sports then we are finished. Shell Petroleum must insist on discipline otherwise their investment in football will always be in vain. Cheating is killing their lofty project. Shell must be encouraged to make the competition glamourous and highly competitive.

The reader that I earlier mentioned was reacting to the records Reverend Akpala set as a student of the school where he is now administrator and his plans to revive sports in the school.

Odegbami heads a committee the sports minister Taoheed Adedoja set up recently to revive sports in schools. I had suggested that one of the ways for the Odegbami-led Committee would be to name some schools as Centres Of Excellence.

The idea was informed by the lack of sports facilities in Nigerian schools. But there are a few that can still do sports and I found St. Gregory’s as one. The school has the play grounds and an administrator who was not just a national athlete but also one who still has tremendous passion for sports.

For the Odegbami committee to succeed they must, therefore, establish centres and schools that will host competitions for schools in their region and also offer training facilities. Such centres, apart from their facilities must have Principals or senior staff that understand what the programme is all about. With time these centres can admit potential athletes from Primary schools.

They will have coaches and Physical Education teachers who will develop sports programmes that will be in line with national policy on school sports. The committee and indeed the sports ministry cannot succeed without liaison with the Ministry of Education. Considering the plunge we have taken in sports development and the practice in many developed sports friendly countries, the job at hand appears to be a bigger project than what the minister envisaged.

The Sports Ministry and their education counterparts will need to work out a budget for School Sports. It means that the Sports Committees of the National Assembly will be involved for this to work. A policy on this is, therefore, absolutely necessary. School Sports is highly supported by governments in Jamaica, Canada, Australia, USA etc. They have their different ways. In Jamaica, for example, there are many regional age grade competitions for schools.

From these regions the best are selected for the national competitions. These competitions even start from primary schools. In USA, any student who shows great potential in sports easily earns a scholarship up to university level where the Collegiate sports system is first class . The Universities have huge budgets for sports. The Odegbami -led Committee will not succeed without government’s support.

They need a solid plan that government at all levels will buy into. They need the Presidency that will not pay lip service to youth development, a government that appreciates the dynamics of the sports industry. If we do it that way, the committee will work.

Let’s pray it works this time around with Odegbami at the helm of affairs.

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