Why is it that conquering the sporting arena is a way nations try to project power? Or, just to say we have arrived.

There seems to be no better place for that than the Olympics. The Chinese are now locked in a battle for medals to herald their super powerdom. Remember the fight to the finish during the cold war between the USA and the CCCP, or the East and West Germans? Even Hitler tried to use the Olympics to prove his master race theory. Thank God for Jesse Owens, he put four golden cracks in it. Since the Greeks, the Olympics have celebrated the power of the human spirit, the capacity of sports to inspire and the value of bragging rights. As a Nigerian, I want some bragging rights too!

Winning at sporting events always creates an outpour of latent pride in Nigeria. I remember feeling pretty patriotic when Nigeria won gold medals at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. I think most Nigerian football fans enjoyed beating Brazil and Argentina more than winning the gold medal because that gave us eternal bragging rights. There was a lot of euphoria in those days. Nigerians deservedly felt they could conquer any challenge. What about winning the 1994 African Cup of Nations in Tunisia? That was pretty awesome too.

Tunisia, Atlanta and many other sporting success stories in Nigeria did more than make us happy or give us bragging rights, they brought us together. We hardly agree on anything but we all root for the Super Eagles. We need to expand the camaraderie we can tap from sports.

Moreover, sports are the cheapest and most effective global public relations. All that talk about rebranding Nigeria; I have an idea- sports! Whenever I am in Egypt, once I tell a taxi driver I am Nigerian, all they want to talk about is Nigerian football or players- especially Kanu and Okocha. In fact, the only other thing they know about us is that we are fraudsters. So, I am always happy to talk football. I have encountered the same views in Europe and North America.

There is something else; winning inspires a culture of winning. As they say “excellence is a habit”. This is evident in that the same countries keep winning at everything. The Brazilians can dribble an angel and run their cars on ethanol; the Americans can swim faster than a shark and make jets that fly fast too. It’s all a mindset.

We need to take sports seriously in Nigeria. It’s the cheapest way to boost our morale as a nation, to inspire our children, and remake our global image. We need to show we can get something right.

All it requires is some athletic ability which should be abundant in a country of 150 million people, some money, and good management. Minus politics. By the way sending 90 athletes (including 2 football teams) to Beijing is a disgrace, Egypt and South Africa sent almost 200 each, with half our population. We need to start winning at something or else we will get used to being losers.

Robot  # 1 | 14.08.2008 22:19

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