I am devoting my column this week to a development that I cannot keep to myself.
This is not an advertisement but an important message for parents driven by the dream and determination of their children to become sports super stars, to be rich, famous and even powerful at the expense of their education.
That dream is consuming children of both the rich and the poor all over Nigeria like drugs because the evidence of ‘success’ of young sports stars is all around them – Tobi Amusan, Demola Lookman, Tolu Arokodare, Rashidat Ajibade, and so on.
The Growing Dilemma Between Sports and Education
I am bombarded every day with requests and enquiries by parents in Nigeria and abroad on how to manage their unyielding children determined to pursue their passion for sports in a new world where they are told that entrepreneurial skills and talent matter more than paper certificates and qualifications.
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It has become a massive social problem in a country like Nigeria where sports (and music and film) have transformed the lives of a few lucky and gifted young persons, and education appears to be producing graduates that end up in a burgeoning unemployment market, a fertile breeding ground for recruitment into social vices.
The figures for unemployment and out of school children are staggering and befuddling, immeasurable threats to the country’s future.
The Role of Sports in Youth Engagement
Yet a few of us proclaim that Sport (and some soft power tools in the entertainment field) can profitably absorb a huge chunk of these children and mitigate the problems of youth engagement, empowerment and employment.
We ‘preach’ these things without providing the evidence to back our postulations. So they run into deaf ears. Yet the evidence is all around us.
I do not have the permission of their parents to reveal this development, but I hope they will see beyond the fact that this is not an advertisement of the Segun Odegbami International College and Sports Academy, SOCA, in Wasimi, Ogun State.
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SOCA sends a message to other parents, to governments, and to the world that the power of sport to impact the youths can only be neglected to the detriment of society. Sports’ greater values and contributions do not lie in the trophies and medals won by its practitioners, but in their engagement in the eco system.
These are events taking place now.
Eniola Oyeinlayefa: From SOCA to India on Full Scholarship
AVI ENIOLA OYEINLAYEFA graduated from SOCA in 2022. He was the school’s assistant Head boy and football Captain. He was gifted in football but probably not good enough for the elite colleges of the USA.
In SOCA, he led the school’s team to win several domestic trophies including the LISABI Cup in 2022.
On the eve of graduation from SOCA, an Indian University came knocking on the doors of SOCA, interested in the school’s program. It sought collaboration with SOCA to enhance the Indian university’s sports ambitions.
Eniola was one of three students offered a full scholarship to pioneer that relationship. So, he went straight to India after graduation and so did not miss a single beat in his educational calendar.
Last week we received the good news.
Eniola Avi not only won trophies and awards for his Indian university, he has graduated with a First Class degree in Sports Management.
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He has been offered admission into a Post graduate program on full scholarship starting this September.
He is still only 19 years of age! And this is not a ‘football age’.
Osaro Osaretin: Overcoming Injuries, Excelling Academically
OSARO OSARETIN DESTINY is another graduate of SOCA. He spent the last two years of secondary school in the academy and was a good footballer, probably also not good enough at the time for an elete program in the USA.
He, also, was offered a full scholarship in 2022 to study Sports Management at the same Hindustan Institute of Technology and science, Chennai, India.
Despite struggles with incessant injuries during his program in India, he was so sound academically that he also graduated last month with a First Class.
He has been immediately offered admission for a Masters degree program at Lithuania Sports University starting this September.
Osaro is 20 years old. And this is Not ‘football age’ also.
Bello Shamsudeen: From Sagamu to Civil Engineering in India
BELLO SHAMSUDEEN is from Sagamu, in Ogun State.
Unlike the first two, and uncharacteristically, he spent only his final year in SOCA in 2022. His focus was on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) program, but shortly before even writing the SAT exams, he was scouted by the same Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science and offered a full scholarship to study Civil Engineering.
He is currently in his final year with a very good GPA. He is 20 years old. And this is also NOT ‘football age’.
The Bigger Picture: SOCA’s Model of Sports and Education
All three graduates of SOCA have done so well as Ambassadors of the Nigerian Sports academy in India that three new student/athletes from SOCA have been offered full scholarships and will resume at The Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science this September.
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In Nigeria, SOCA students are not enrolled because of their exceptional skills in sports. Most are ordinary students with average sports skills but with great passion and appetite to conquer the world of sports, but willing to ride to success on the back of academics.
Parents love the concept and the programs of SOCA. The children, initially and reluctantly, accept to pursue that line. The foreign institutions benefit from the intensive moral, social, academic and sports programs that SOCA takes the children through. At the end of the day, everyone in the chain benefits – the Child, the foreign institution, parents and SOCA.
Eniola, Osaro and Bello, were not exceptionally gifted in sports when they enrolled into SOCA. They have, however, ended up within the global sports ecosystem that offers them a successful life in sports combined with academics.
They may not end up being a Tobi Amusan, or a Jay Jay Okocha, but they are guaranteed ending up being the best version of themselves, in line with the motto of SOCA – ‘to be the best I can be’.
