A recent story on the
BBC revealed that half of Nigeria’s Under-17 male soccer were disqualified from
an upcoming international competition.
An excerpt reads “A staggering 26 members of
Nigeria's Under-17 side failed an age test carried out ahead of an African Cup
of Nations qualifier.
A mandatory Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) screening
of the squad revealed almost half were ineligible to play.
Only last year the Golden Eaglets, as they are known,
won the FIFA U17 World Cup in Chile for a record fifth time.
The players who failed the tests have now left the
training camp in Abuja.
They were staying there ahead of tomorrow's Cup of
Nations U17 qualifying match against neighbouring Niger, which will still go
ahead.
Many of the expected starting eleven passed the test.
Accusations of age cheating have blighted Nigeria's
success at international age group tournaments in recent years.”
I would not
start by bashing the players. Why? Over the last 14 months I have been working
in the NGO industry and I am aware, with first-hand experience, how many young
people, in both rural and urban communities, may not know their real ages from
poor education of their parents to register births and by an overarching system
failure to tackle issues surrounding birthing of children, data collection,
control and management.
There is a
national agency (the National Population Commission of Nigeria) charged with
the registration of birth certificate issuance etc., however, due to a lack of sensitisation
of its importance and duty and a lack of enlightenment of citizens, as well as
high usage of TBAs (traditional birthing assistants) who should link up with
the relevant agencies to register birth but may not, many children are born
without any documentation of their birth in any national database.
Second blame
will be on deep rooted system failure to provide basic amenities for its
citizens. What I mean is this... For
many young people, worldwide but most especially in developing nations, sports
can often be the ONLY ticket out of a cycle of economic disadvantage and it is
indeed a means through which a lot of people have gotten out of slums, ghettos,
a life of danger and crime. So permit me
to generalise and say that, often, we find children who haven't had basic services
(birth registration, quality education etc.) come out as athletes because it is
their last ticket out of poverty. If the system were better prepared to provide
for its citizens, issues around age within our society will be history. We would also have better nurtured young
people who opt to become athletes. Furthermore
we must strive for a society and system where it's unthinkable to change age
like underwear (a topic for another day).
There is a lot of work to do in terms of national image with strong
focus on integrity and honesty.
Finally, I blame
the entire structure of sports development through the Ministry of Youth and Sports
Development. With the advancement of technology and its uses in all facets of
life, it shouldn't take a competition’s MRI scan to disqualify athletes who are
supposed to be of a particular age range.
Granted, there may be players who have knowingly falsified papers to
have a shot on the team but as a norm in Nigeria and our sporting culture we ought
to have routine MRI scans to comb through our pool of athletes so it isn't an
international embarrassment, it'll be a routine weeding of wrongly categorised
athletes, categorising them correctly to continue their careers and provision
of more accurate birth and age records as a matter of national importance for
the National Population Commission.
We really have a
Ministry headed by a clueless man in Solomon Dalung. I have never met him so I cannot speak of his
person as an individual, but as an appointed officer, he ought to be sacked.
I've looked up
his biography and I haven't seen anything to make me believe that he is the ideal
Nigerian for the job. I see a career
civil servant, (no slight of any sort) who hasn't had any obvious interaction
with sports and/or sports development.
I admit, that whilst
it isn't entirely necessary, it is very helpful if the minister had had some
dealings with sports as an athlete, a trainer, a coach or an administrator. I am yet to read about any ground breaking
plan of his to revolutionise, restructure and rejuvenate our sports
sector. To work across other sectors so
as to harness the abundance of youth in the country and the opportunities of
entrepreneurship, diversification of economy and economic empowerment to the
citizens.
We have a long
way to go as a country and I am optimistic, often to a fault. Sports has always been a tool for development
if taken seriously and if technology is used to drive it as well. Wearing a red beret and looking like a Thomas
Sankara wannabe doesn't make anyone the ideal candidate to lead the and make a
mark in the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, having innovative sports
development blueprints and robust implementation plans fit for the 21st century
and beyond does.
My two cents.
PS: Hope we get a few medals in Rio!
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| Source: Naij.com |
The BBC link
Adieu!
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