They heard from Sanwo-Olu, not Enoh

I doubt members of the organised private sector have heard from sports minister John Enoh and have worked out how they can key into Nigeria’s sports industry as it’s the case in other nations. I state this because the outcome of the last Olympic Games in Paris could have been different for athletes and the nation. On the other hand, the organised private sector has heard from the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, regarding the nation’s creative arts industry. This is evident in how the private sector has restored the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts, formerly known as the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos.

Lately, Sanwo-Olu said renovations at the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts were nearing completion and that it would soon be open to the public. Consequently, he expressed gratitude to the Bankers’ Committee and all stakeholders in the creative sector for their collaboration on the project. The Bankers’ Committee is a strong member of the organised private sector and they’ve been partners with governments over many issues. When it comes to helping the nation put huge resources together for huge projects, they’ve proved to be reliable organisers and partners. What then should I call them? Patriots of the highest order. These are people who hardly talk. But they talk with the kind of resources they have control over and make available to our nation.

The Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts was constructed by the military regime of General Yakubu Gowon and completed in 1976 by the Olusegun Obasanjo military regime. The completion coincided with the hosting of the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC 77) in January 1977. The centre was one edifice I was familiar with, and coincidentally this was in circumstances that had to do with personality after whom President Bola Tinubu named it this year.  Decades ago, my respected elder, Prof. Segun Ojewuyi, a theatre director, used to direct plays that were staged in the halls of the centre to mark the birthday anniversaries of Prof. Wole Soyinka. As I lived with him while I was an undergraduate student at the University of Lagos, he took me along to watch the plays he directed.  Like all national assets, glistering and constructed to international standards but abandoned to deteriorate after the initial usage, there was no proper maintenance of the centre.

There had been director-generals appointed for the centre who tried to bring the spark back to an edifice that was in a constant state of disrepair. It didn’t catch. The Lagos State government had over the years made efforts to take over some badly managed assets from the Federal Government. Significantly, it did this regarding the Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts, and sports facilities, including the National Stadium. The argument was that if the Federal Government wouldn’t be able to properly make use as well as maintain these assets, the Lagos State government would.  As for The Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts, a renovation exercise commenced in July 2021 following approval by the Federal Government and the subsequent handover of the national edifice to the Bankers’ Committee.  As a member of the Bankers’ Committee, Mr Segun Agbaje, Group Chief Executive Officer, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc. explained, “There are not many nations that have the talent that we have in entertainment and the arts. All you can do, when you have talented people, is to give them a platform to showcase their best. We will try to give a platform, where Nigerians who are in my opinion the best, have a chance to show the world that they are the best…”

One can take this same sentiment to sports and assume it’s the same way the organised private sector at large views the sports industry. But are the appropriate authorities in sports engaging with the private sector as they should? I’ve listened to the arguments about the latest unenviable outing of the nation at the Paris Olympic Games. Everyone blames everyone. One athlete said lately that the government didn’t support their preparation efforts. Those who’re inclined to side with government officials blame the athletes, saying glory at the games is first for them before the nation and as such each athlete should have been in their best shape for the games. Those who’re anti-establishment chastised government officials for rejoicing that they paid athletes allowances days before the Olympic. They argue further that preparing athletes in four months for a game other nations take four years to prepare their athletes for isn’t it. Even the Minister of Sports said one year wasn’t enough to prepare and expect medals, implying he wasn’t to blame for the outcome in Paris.

We know though that administration is a continuum, so there can’t be any excuse to not have a programme that ensures athletes are adequately prepared as other nations do. In all the arguments as to who to blame, I’ve not heard anyone hit the point regarding sports officials who run sports in a manner most other nations don’t run sports to get the good results they do. The sports ministry that should basically make policies, that doesn’t have the kind of funds needed to get elite athletes ready, wants to continue to run sports; shutting the private sector out in the process. Efforts made in the past to get the private sector involved were frustrated. The private sector says it wants accountability for funds released and to see what the funds are actually expended on.

However, there are allegations that sports officials are keen to collect funds from the private sector, expend them, only to claim they aren’t accountable to the private sector but to the sports ministry. There was even a former sports minister who issued a statement that the private sector should bring whatever funds they wanted to contribute into the purse of the sports ministry. So the private sector brings funds, but it shouldn’t know how government officials expend the same? Of course, each company silently withdrew. Yet each company could have been allowed to show interest in the sports it wanted to support. It could take hold of the list of elite athletes concerned, and sponsor the preparations they need in any part of the world under world-class coaches in world-class training facilities.

The involvement of the private sector will ensure that government officials don’t have to complain about inadequate funding, or the new policy of any new sports minister negatively impacting the preparations of athletes. But this isn’t the case. In the event, we have a way of preparing athletes which is based on the mentality that the payment of allowances is all that is needed to get athletes to perform optimally at the pinnacle of global sports such as the Olympic Games. It is not, and for as long as we continue to not run sports as other sporting nations do, we shouldn’t expect results to be any different. The earliest time I made comments in this regard there was a sports minister who wanted to get laws passed to have sports run on business bases with the attendant positive outcomes as seen in other nations. That minister left as a result of the politics of the time. Sports and athletes have since remained caught in a cycle that’ll see them fall prey to the usual uncertainties.

The matter is complicated when any sports minister doesn’t holistically dissect the challenges of handling athletes to the point of realising that the ministry and the government, in general, cannot carry the weight. If a minister doesn’t come to the understanding that all sports federations should have the autonomy to partner with the private sector and get sponsorship for sports events as well as prepare athletes for the big games, nothing can change.

It takes conviction in a minister to get those he leads to move in the right direction. Enoh hasn’t even been heard talking about the fundamentals of making our sports thrive, especially sustainable programmes for raising new athletes and preparing elite athletes for the world stage. It means no one in leadership positions in sports has identified the direction to head in order to avert the experience in Paris. This doesn’t look good for sports and athletes who wish to put in their best for the nation. When will the private sector get to hear from the sports minister?