Sport In Geo-Politics At ‘The Platform Nigeria’ – Odegbami

I was on ‘The Platform Nigeria’ during the week in Lagos, an intellectual stage for public presentation of viewpoints and perspectives by invited speakers on subjects with a common theme and of national interest and significance, a compass for those in government and society as a whole.

The Platform Nigeria has become an annual ‘pilgrimage’ for many Nigerians, a must-follow programme that comes up every October 1, organised by Poju Oyemade, a senior pastor at the ‘Covenant of Nations’ Christian church movement, headquartered in Lagos.

The irony is that religious issues are not on the yearly menu. It, therefore, appeals to people of all persuasions.

I was a guest 7 years ago. Last week’s appearance makes it my second time.

The Question That Sparked Reflection

The 4-hour programme was masterclass of excellent papers presented by 6 invited speakers. It was followed by a panel discussion during which all the speakers took questions selected from a collated list from a global watching audience, via technology.

When it came to my turn, the simple question asked threw me off guard.

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It was such a great question that my answer would have just crowned what I thought was good, a deep excursion into the history of Nigeria at the Olympics during moments of geopolitics in history that needed only an icing on the cake to give it teeth.

That piece was actually missing.

The interviewer had asked me what options I could proffer besides the example of ‘protest’ by African countries that I had advocated in my lengthy presentation loaded with history, uncommon stories and references, but was short on alternative answers.

My response should have been very simple and straight to the point – to win everything, and leading the rest of Africa in united front to dominate the world of sports and to use the power ‘generated’ to break through all barriers.

Sport As A Model Of Afrobeats’ Global Influence

Nigeria’s Afrobeats musicians – Davido, Ashake, Burner Boy, Whizkidd, Olamide, Tiwa Savage, Tems and a whole army of other up and coming artists – have taken over dance halls all over the world. There is hardly any major social gathering on the planet, including parties, concerts, fashion shows, sports events, any gathering of the world’s celebrities, that is not laced with the thumping beats of Afrobeats and Amapiano music and dance from Africa.

African fashion, cuisine, literature, film and so on, all soft-power tools, have assumed the dimension of a global tool.

Nigerian Afrobeats musicians are doing very well. They are the model that sport must adopt to go to the ‘War’ of Civilizations!

African Dominance In Global Sport

African athletes, led by Nigeria, must now go out intentionally to conquer and dominate the rest of the world. They must do so in the sports events for which the Black/African is naturally endowed by nature. Africans are born to rule some sporting events, incidentally, they are in some of the most followed, most lucrative and most powerful sports in the world, starting with football.

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The others are events in athletics, boxing and basketball. There are others like table tennis, handball, and so on. These are specific events that Africans are naturally gifted to dominate. The basic physical requirements are embedded in the genes of Africans. They will only be required in order to control, nurse, nurture and develop talents to the highest levels.

My late friend, Lee Edward Evans, legendary African/American athlete, World 400 metres champion, 2-time Olympic Gold medallist, world record holder for decades, and a genius as an athlete and a coach, often remarked when he was alive that the African is born to run and jump.

He always wanted to create the environment to discover and hone talented youngsters, and to secure essential resources needed for final transformation of the athletes to champions. He wanted to turn Nigeria into the world’s greatest centre for the breeding of the best sprinters and jumpers in the world. He was not exaggerating. He believed it. He was working at it until he died 3 years ago. Some of Nigeria’s greatest sprinters and jumpers in history passed through his tutelage.

The evidence of Africa’s greatness and potential in sport is everywhere.

Sports Power Beyond Competition

From East and North Africa, some of the best and greatest middle, long-distance and marathon runners have emerged and rule the world.

In the shorter sprints, from 60 metres to the hurdles up to the 800 metres, and power sports (boxing and weightlifting), West, Central and Southern Africa dominate. With their kith and kin (African-descendants in the Americas, the Caribbean Islands, and even as migrants in their adopted countries around the world) they have been dominant.

In the more popular and more followed ball events, soccer, rugby, American football and basketball, Africans and their descendants, have shown up big time and are conquering in a steady climb to the top.

A quick check through the team-lists of winning clubs and countries in those listed sports would reveal the depth of gifted talents that abound and are being thrown up organically to light up the fields, tracks and courts of the world.

The challenge is to add up these achievements, package them and deliberately deploy them as ‘weapons’ for pursuits of global objectives beyond sports, particularly at the Table where the future of civilizations is being discussed and negotiated.

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Every civilization and culture will bring to the table their accomplishments and achievements. Those are its credentials. Those are their power.

Africa must bring up its own achievements in soft-power in order to earn respect and secure a seat on an equal keel with everyone else at the table.

Nigeria’s Role In Using Sport For Global Respect

So far, Africa has been doing well and thriving, organically, even if all of these amount to scratching the surface of things. Meanwhile, successes provide a window into the future. They must now be deliberately added up and made into a weapon that Africa and Diaspora-Africa can deploy to make bold statements, earn respect, and secure a seat at the table of negotiations for a New World Order.

That should have been my extended prescription – that Nigeria, leading Africa, and countries with people of African-Descent, must win everything in selected sports. They are armed with natural ‘gifts’ loaded in their genes. They must be used to conquer the world and bring about change.

Africa can use sport both as a weapon of protest and as a bargaining chip.

Once again, sport power as a ‘bargaining chip’ should have been my response to the question asked me at ‘The Platform’.

Sport Development As Government Priority

Fractionally, Nigeria must immediately start to intentionally invest in promoting and advancing sport in the country by elevating it to status of a priority of government.

Sport must transit from the grassroots to the top through the school system. It must be infused as an integral part of every school’s curriculum. It must be incentivised for practitioners – students, athletes, teachers, coaches, games masters and so on at all levels. A good environment must be created for competitions, business, health, environment, recreation, leisure and tourism. This will demand increasing infrastructure, facilities, training and entrepreneurship programmes. International competitions must become routine locally in the country, and a welfare scheme that takes care of the future of all practitioners be put in place.

Finally, the most successful sports persons shall be made celebrated models of success in society.

Sport And Nigeria’s New Leadership Commitment

In Nigeria, the time to use sport to change the world appears to have come.

Embedded in the Independence Day speech of the Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, are more than mere passing mention of sport. Sport was a major part of his address. He became the first Nigerian leader to frontally elevate sport to that pedestal.

President Tinubu has matched his words with action by injecting more funds into sport than any other President since the profligacy of ‘COJA 2003’, a chapter in Nigerian sports history that must never be allowed to repeat itself again.

In short, Nigeria must lead the rest of Africa to win whatever is winnable in world sport.

That, is my prescription to gain respect and power, and to create an additional new role for sport in the geo-politics of the world.