Despite the vociferous cries of analysts and sports lovers across the country for the nation to make conscious efforts to develop sports, Nigeria’s sports has remained stunted over the years, with little effort from those saddled with the responsibility of identifying and nurturing talents in the country.
Critics believe that Nigeria’s sports (Tennis, Athletics, Wrestling, Table Tennis, Basketball, and Football) record since independence does not present an attractive data due to inconsistencies in policy implementation.
As evident in developed countries, rather than investing in talents, the Nigerian Sports Ministry has evidently demonstrated that it is more interested in pleasure.
This can be seen in the Ministry’s 2023 budget. The Sunday Dare-led sports ministry budgeted a staggering N1,480,971,399bn in the 2023 appropriation budget to cater for refreshments, meals, settlement of honorarium, sitting allowances, publicity, welfare packages, and other miscellaneous.
It was gathered that the amount is part of the N193,418,082,888bn allocated to the sports ministry from the N21.83trn bill passed by the National Assembly and signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The breakdown of the amount showed that N26,156,222m was allocated to refreshments and meals, while N140,668,563m would be spent on welfare packages.
Documents sourced from the Budget Office of the Federation, have it that the allocation for the ministry, excluding the four agencies under its control, stood at N8,906,051,356bn.
Also, the document clarified that while the total personnel cost stood at N2.008bn, the total overhead is N2.232bn and total capital N4.664bn, amounting to N8,906,051,356bn total allocation for the ministry.
Remarkably, the ministry designated N20.579m for honorarium and sitting allowances, N2.3m for postage and courier services, N4.704m for medical, N10.209m for subscription to professional bodies, N71.698m for monitoring activities and follow-up, while N1,126,625,961bn has been allotted for sporting activities and other miscellaneous expenses.
While the money may be seen as outrageous to some, it may not come as a surprise to others. Recall that in 2020, the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, budgeted N81 million to cut the grass that had taken over the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.
Meanwhile, the ministry is yet to offset the outstanding bonuses of respective national team players they owe. The Flamingoes are yet to be paid their bonuses after they won bronze at the U-17 Women’s World Cup in India.
While reacting to the move by the ministry, former Super Eagles assistant coach, Emmanuel Amuneke, said “It’s ridiculous but what do we do. That’s where we find ourselves. It’s just sad.”
It could be recalled that in one of his interviews, former Super Eagles coach Adegboye Onigbinde had said the Nigerian sports sector “has not grown since Independence because we have not been building it – and what you don’t build cannot grow. The country is currently where it is because there has not been a conscious effort to develop things and sports can’t be in isolation. It is a part of a system, which has not been working effectively”.
Onigbinde believes that the way forward is a systematic planning of the sports sector that will cover every sport and ensure that talents are discovered, nurtured and maintained for them to perform at the best of their abilities. “Although that cannot be done in isolation of some other sectors of the country’s economy, we need to have a structure to build on. That is why serious countries have a long-term plan for their sports. Sports have gone beyond preparing for competitions in a little time.
“It is now a serious business where countries’ economies benefit largely from. If sports can be properly exploited in and invested in, Nigeria has the capacity to create a lot of employment opportunities”.
He added that the nation needs good facilities and trained personnel to manage the talent that the country has been blessed with. “Nigeria’s problem in sports is not the absence talents but the proper nurturing of these talents to achieve international success,” he said.
Analysts are of the opinion that if the ministry spends the said N1,480,971,399bn on developing sports in the nation, the result will reverberate positively across the nation.
