SPORTS AND KNOWLEDGE POWER AS YOUTH EMPOWERMENT:THE IMO STATE PERSPECTIVE
SPORTS & KNOWLEDGE POWER AS TOOLS OF YOUTH EMPOWERMENT:THE NEED FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT IN IMO STATE MINISTRY OF YOUTHS & SPORTS.
The appointment of those who will administer the Ministry of Youths and Sports should be a paradigm shift from the past when such appointments were seen as a way of finding jobs for political hangers-on and political party chieftains. In view of the fact that sports goes beyond soccer, we even need commissioners, special Assistants/advisers who are drawn from other areas such as Field, soccer, track, basketball and several others. These Special Assistants will synergize with the Commissioner for Sports who will focus on working out a long-term master plan for Sports development in Imo state. Every year our tertiary institutions produce graduates in Physical Education/sports management, yet there are no concerted efforts to ensure that such graduates make meaningful contribution to the development of sports in Imo State. Those of them who are fortunate to get employment in the education sector are forced to teach courses that have no bearing to their major discipline – Sports management. After fumbling and wobbling over time, these young sports men and women are frustrated out of the system and this is why today we do not have great names in the sporting arena. There was a time when Imo State was one of the States that took the front burner in producing great heroes/heroines in sports. But today, sports has become an endangered profession. Where are our new Dan Anyiams, Christy Oparas, Ossy Nwachukwus, Chioma Ajunwas, Kalu Nwankwos, Babayaros? Is it true that the famous celebrity, Celestine Babayaro, is an indigene of Imo State? Just to mention a few. Why in spite of producing the largest number of JAMB and Secondary School graduates in Nigeria, Imo State does not yet have a sporting Academy as well as a clear cut master plan for the development of sports? The reason is not far to seek; it is because the people who have been running this critical Ministry over the years are round pegs in square holes who do not have anything at stake on issues that border on sports.
It is trite that the immediate task of any new government is to make critical appointments of the members of EXCO, Ministries, Agencies and Departments(MADs), Kitchen Cabinet and the like. It is on account of this that the State governor shall ensure that those who will run the Ministry of Sports are people who have not only played professional role in the sports industry, preferably at the global level. They also must have cognate professional qualification in related fields up to the tertiary level.
The bottom-line is that the way to use sports to empower the youths is to employ qualified individuals in these different fields of sports. Let’s consider the athletes that have gone through the system and understand the system well, sportsmen who have played active roles in sports and have acquired wide knowledge that made them the heroes/heroines they are. This category of people will serve as a rallying point for the youths and will finally boost the image of the governor. The presence of sports celebrities of international clout in the Sports and Youths Ministry will automatically hook Imo State to the international sporting grid with its positive multiplier effects on the youths. This is because sports is the only factor/ catalyst that unites the whole world in an age of globalization.
Let’s get these sports men and women under one roof by way of a Sports Seminar to enable them pontificate on the way forward .When these sports technocrats are assembled, they will work out a long-term plan for the development of sports in Imo State. They will also set- time frames within which some verifiable feats and targets can be attained. Perhaps, a target of producing a number of gold medalists in future sporting events say, the next Olympics, could be set. These feats are achievable because in the words of the former Governor of Imo State, Owelle Okorocha: “I still consider Imo State the richest in Nigeria, richest in human resources, endowed with extra-ordinary intelligence which is far more than our debt profiles, this we shall explore to build the Imo State of our collective dream and aspirations”.
(Culled from Governor Okorocha’s maiden broadcast to Imo State on June 6th, 2011.)
The new Commissioner for Youth and Sports should not see himself as Commissioner for Football/Soccer game only. Sports does not begin and end with football. Soccer is just one out of a litany of sports. The Commissioner who should be a sports technocrat of international repute should surround himself with Special Assistants, who are technocrats in the sporting field. This is to ensure that no section of the sports sector is submerged, alienated or subjugated. Aside football, there are other sports such as Basketball, Hockey, Field and Track events, Tennis, Boxing, Taekwondo, Swimming and a whole lot more. In the good old days, Imo State had excelled in most of these sports. So, what happened? We need the input of these hardcore sports professionals in order to break new grounds and create new vistas and conquer new grounds in the area of sports. The relationship between the administration and sports technocrats should be a symbiotic relationship.
Without prejudice to the election petition in the tribunal, Governor Ihedioha’s emergence as governor is seen by a cross section of Imo electorate as one of the rare occasions when Imo State electorate was able to elect a governor through the ballot box. As the people’s government, it behooves on us to proffer advice which will enable the governor to take critical decisions from the prism of informed mind. Most political leaders failed woefully because they shut out opinions and inputs from the larger society as they ran their political empires from executive cocoons. As we read this viewpoint, a wind of indescribable expectation is blowing through the nooks and crannies of the entire country as the electorate is kept in suspense waiting for the release of the names of the members of the Executive Councils (EXCOs) as well as the Kitchen Cabinets of the various States and the Presidency i.e. the Federal Executive Council (FEC) Abuja. In Imo State, there is a heightened euphoria and the peace in the political ambience is precariously perching as the long wait persists. Those in my School of Thought call on the governor to reserve the slot of Commissioner for Sports to the like of the basketball ball celebrity, Ossy Nwachukwu from Nwaorieubi, the Olympic veteran, Christy Opara, from Owerri West, the sprinter, Chioma Ajunwa who hails from Mbaise clan and several others .Professional politicians should please keep off this zone. Since iron sharpens iron, these group of celebrities and technocrats in sports management should be brought together to decide the way forward.
My intention in this viewpoint is to emphasize on the critical significance of the youths and sports technocrats in the Ministry of Sports. This is because the sports ministry has the wherewithal to unlock the innate potentialities of those who are naturally endowed in the area of sports. The Sports Ministry, if properly managed, could be a powerful economic empowerment platform for harnessing the latent and dormant energy of our youths thus putting them to maximal/beneficial effects. In my viewpoint entitled:”BASKETBALL:THE NEW FACE OF POVERTY ALLEVIATION” which was published on page 11 of the Announcer Express Newspaper of June 15-17, 2009 viewpoint, I discussed the origin of the basketball game and how the game has become a veritable goldmine for youths across the globe, I also did an extensive interview of Mr. Ossy Nwachukwu, an Imo indigene from Nwaorieubi Mbaitoli Local Government Area, who has made huge fortune playing professional basketball game in the United States for well over a decade. In answer to one of my questions, youthful Ossy Nwachukwu, standing over six foot ramrod said: “The game of basketball is a rich game. Unfortunately, it is not recognized in Imo State. But some States in Nigeria recognize it and are already reaping great benefits from the game”. With proper mentoring and training, most of the gifted young men can make a career in the basket ball game.”
Another Sports Celebrity who is famous for her feats and exploits in sports is Lady Christy Opara who hails from Irette in Imo State. Christy Opara is one of the female sporting celebrities who represented Nigeria in global sports events. During her active sporting career, she represented Nigeria in a myriad of international events especially the Barcelona Olympics. At the peak of her professional career, she was a global sports celebrity. Both Ossy Nwachukwu, Christy Opara and other sports technocrats of Imo extraction relocated to Imo State in 2011 in order to synergize with the then administration to transform the sports sector. Unfortunately, the then governor’s clarion call on these sports technocrats to join his administration in order to give sports a new lease of life was a mere showcase of platitudes as the efforts made by these sports celebrities to partner with the administration were rebuffed. Most of them who relocated to Nigeria from their foreign base felt disappointed that they were not allowed to give back to society. However, if the ongoing resurgence of interest in sports development must be fruitful, the topmost levels of authority in the Ministry of Youth and Sports must be occupied by sports technocrats and celebrities who have not only excelled in sports but also have pursued some form of tertiary education in sports management or related disciplines. The bottom-line is that whoever will be our new Commissioner for Youths and Sports must come from one of the those who have acquitted himself creditably on the global scene.It cannot be business as usual when the Ministry was a dumping ground for outsiders and meddlesome interlopers in sports.
The GOV.Emeka Ihedioha administration should focus on using those who have excelled in Sports to head the Ministry of Sports. The administration should also focus on producing a new generation of Kalu Nwankwos, Christy Oparas, Osita (Ossy) Nwachukwus, Hakeem Olajuwons, Serena Williams& her sister, Dan Anyiams and Dick Tiger Ihetus and several others.Walking the nooks and crannies of the bucolic and ustere country one can the like of Michael Fred Phelps, Diego Maradonas, Ben Johnsons, KILLWE Nwachukwus of blessed memory, Jeremiah Okorodudu, Weight lifter Chukwumerije , George Oppong Weah, Mario Balotelli and several others. These potential greats in the ambience of sports malinger and gallivant just to nowhere as they are often deployed to such palliatyive jobs in the socalled 10,000 jobs, Youth Must Work, Entraco or Imo Vigilance groups.By the time they are thrown out of these dungeons and unleased on the larger society, they have outlived their usefulness.They end up as members of the so-called wasted generation.
Those whgo are not given to sports or fleet-footedness are richly endowed in the area of schorlarship and brain. They are the emerging Chike Obis, Prof. Soludos, Philip Emeagwalis, Bill Gates, Prof.Chinualumogu Achebes, Mark Zuckerberg who with his college roommate and fellow Harvard University student ,Eduardo Saverin founded the Facebookthose who are not endowed in the area of fleet-footedness or sports can be harnessed in the area of knowledge power. As a State that has the highest concentration of Jambites, Imo State can excel as a net exporter of ICT professionals to various parts of the world. Yes, Imo State can specialize in the outsourcing of skilled manpower in the Information and Computer Technology (ICT) sector, if the political will is there. How about awarding automatic scholarship to all those who have made First Class in their degree examinatins to enable them pursue higher degrees. How about establishing Silicon Valley in the three senatorial headquarters to facilitate the emergence of resource persons in the ICT environment?
The above scenario is realizable with effortless ease. All that is needed is the political will to say: “Yes, we can!!”.
JOHN I. MGBE
johnmgbe@yahoo.com
N/B:
The above viewpoint is a revalidated version of the one first written in JUNE 2011 immediately after the emergence of Owelle Okorocha as Governor. It was an advocacy and a clarion call on the Governor, Owelle Okorocha, to do something new in the Ministry of Sports by way of appointing sports technocrats and celebrities as commissioner and special assistants and advisers. As usual, the advocacy for a paradigm shift fell on deaf ears, hence we are now extending the same appeal to GOV EMEKA IHEDIOHA who is now the new helmsman of Imo State Government. Please read on:
The 2011 viewpoint was published in several print and online media including:Nigerian Horn of June 17-19, 2011/back page.
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