NIPOGA 2008 ’ll Be Huge Success - Afe Babalola

19.04.2008

As the 15th edition of the Nigeria Polytechnic Games (NIPOGA), 2008 begins on Wednesday, being hosted by the Federal Polytechnic, Ado- Ekiti, the Grand Custodian of the Games, Chief Afe Babalola (SAN) in this interview with Tribunesports’ TUNDE OGUNESAN, spoke on his expectations and the efforts to make the biennial fiesta a memorable one.
The legal icon also spoke on the state of Nigerian football. Excerpts:

Sir, let’s know your in volvement in sports. I was such a talented athlete and footballer as a student. Apart from that, in my days as a teacher and also as vice principal at the Ibadan City Academy, I was also a coach even in every school I worked. I want to say with pride that four of my students were members of the first team of the then IICC Shooting Stars, now 3SC.

How do you see your appointment as the Grand Custodian of NIPOGA 2008?
I accepted to be the Grand Custodian of the Games because I love The Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti so much, moreso because I played a key role in the establishment of the school. It all started in 1981 and the rest is history.

Being a sports lover, I ensured that the school built a mini-stadium which to me is one of the best in the country. I also make sure that in admitting students, there is consideration for sportsmen and women. Like if 75 per cent grade is being used to admit other candidates and a sportsman or woman scores 60 per cent, such person will still be considered for admission into the school.
I’ve always advocated that sports should be encouraged. You can just play the game for the sake of playing; sports is now very, very profitable and it is also an instrument of unity.

Remember when we won the Olympics soccer gold medal in Atlanta in 1996, not a single vehicle was seen on the road during the final. I wrote an article immediately where I said - “The day when we were truly Nigerians was the day we watched the final of Atlanta ’96 Olympics football.”
In a nutshell, I will do everything humanly possible to see that we have the best and most successful NIPOGA Games of all times.

One can see that you want every sportsman to be well-educated, what measures do you think can be put in place to enhance this?
Sports itself is good for the development of a person, physically and morally. Morally in the sense that when you are a sportsman, you learn how to embrace the spirit of sportsmanship. You can see when a boxer loses, he will still embrace the winner. Secondly, if you really want to be a successful man, you must be strong physically and mentally. Sports helps to achieve physical and mental development. During the colonial era, after the morning prayer and first lesson in schools, we must all go out to engage in one form of physical exercise or the other. At the end of the year, they always encouraged inter-school sports. So, one of the ways we can uplift the standard of education in this country is to ensure that sports is included in the curriculum of any institution of higher learning. It should start from the elementary to the secondary.

Today in our higher institutions of learning, sports is not taught as a course generally, but in the United States of America (USA), there is a form of general training in the first or second year in every institution. I think time has come too that the National Universities Commission (NUC) should think of how to include sports as a course that can lead to award of a degree. In that case, such universities will have it in their curricula, but I’m not saying every university should do that, rather, they must encourage sports.

That’s why I believe sports must be developed in Ekiti State where I come from. The governor, Engineer Segun Oni, who himself is interested in improving the standard of education in the state has established sports academies in all secondary schools in the state.

But I ’ve advised him that we need something more than that in the university system and I think there are plans to establish a university where sports will be taught as a course.

The organisers of NIPOGA held a meeting with the Ekiti elders, Obas and the governor was equally there. People were educated on the importance of the Games. We thank the federal government which has given substantial amount of money to the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti for the provision of additional facilities. We have two standard swimming pools already on ground with a tennis court, a stadium and so on.

We are prepared for the Games and the governor has promised to make buses available to enable people move from the town to the school on a daily basis to watch the Games.

What is the state of sports in Ekiti State?
Ekiti State has produced some of the best athletes in this country and we’re still producing more. The fastest man and woman on the continent today are from Ekiti State and this is not the first time we had achieved that record; it has been so for many years. When I was in the elementary school, the fastest Nigerian was Longe from Ekiti. We had some of the best athletes in the land then from Ekiti. The centre forward for Shooting Stars who was also playing for the national team, Faleyin who was also the first Nigerian to score in Ghana is from Ekiti State. We had so many star athletes then.

The secret is that during the colonial days, most whitemen from England always spend their annual leave in Jos because of the climate and the remaining part in Ado-Ekiti. The reason is that Ekiti is about four to five thousand feet above sea level and so we have a very temperate climate.

So, the weather is good, the attitude is good. It encourages sports, being a former miller myself .
What is your impression about the state of Nigerian football?
Really, the state of football in Nigeria is very poor, poor indeed. It is not that we do not have talents but there’s too much politics in our football administration, and the earlier we removed sentiments from our football management the better.

We always choose people who know nothing about football administration to come and manage our football, what do you expect? Now, we have to go back to the basics to develop our football. We must encourage formation of local clubs.

People like the late Muda Lawal, Segun Odegbami, Felix Owolabi and others came from local clubs in Ibadan here at Bodija field or Railway play ground. We have to encourage inter-club as well as inter-school competitions. We all remember the contribution of Alhaji Hamza Garba from Kano to grassroots soccer in this country through the support given to the Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria (YSFON); I salute him any time I recall what he has done to uplift Nigerian football.

Let individuals who are blessed join in developing sports in this country. The clubs which used to produce players for the national team in the past have all gone. What happens to Stationery Stores, Abiola Babes, Leventis United and even the Shooting Stars of today?

Almost all the clubs in the Nigerian Premiership today are from outside the Yoruba region. Thank God that Sunshine Stars of Akure is doing well in the Globacom premier league.

We need to come back home and examine ourselves, what is going wrong. Is it an age of accumulating wealth for ourselves alone? When NITO Queens went to seek financial assistance from some people, they came back with nothing. I have been supporting the team, so that we can develop female football as well.

What’s wrong with our sense of kindness? If we have strong clubs and strong competitions,our boys won’t run to neighbouring countries to play football.

FIFA president, Sepp Blatter and others have decided to reduce the number of foreign players in overseas clubs, with this, we don’t know what will happen to our boys.

I think this would make our soccer administrators to think seriously about encouraging formation of clubs by well-meaning individuals in the society. When it comes to football, everybody wants to watch Arsenal, Portsmouth, Manchester United and other big teams in Europe, those people contributed to make their own club strong.

What is your view on the issue of hiring a foreign coach for the Super Eagles?
I don’t believe that we need a foreign coach to handle the Super Eagles. Apart from Clemens Westerhof, those who came before were unknown in coaching. People who had nothing to offer in their countries, you brought them here. Secondly, we do not appreciate what we have, there are many indigenous coaches who are competent to handle the national team.They also know the mentality of the players they want to coach as well as that of their own people. We have a man, Chief Adegboye Onigbinde, a highly talented man, recognised and appreciated by other people all over the world but because of tribalism and other things, that man has been virtually ignored. Here is a man like Arsenal coach, Arsene Wenger, who always go round to scout for budding players. Onigbinde doesn’t believe in big players to play for his team. He did it with Shooting Stars and also when he was in charge of the national team.

Again, we have coaches like Stephen Keshi, Shuaibu Amodu and a host of others. These are young men who need to be encouraged. if you think they haven’t got enough experience, let them go for further training. The best coach is a person who nurtures his own team, not somebody who assembles players one or two days to a match. That system is not helpful and we will find it difficult to build a team for this country.

Wenger doesn’t buy big stars, he picks players from soccer academies and you see the way they understand one another on the pitch. If you want to enjoy football, Arsenal is the team to watch.It ‘s a team to watch any day. At times, you can count 30 passes without interception by the opponents.There is the need for Nigeria to have two standing teams in place, so that we can reduce over-dependence on foreign-based players for major championships. The time has come for us to have a solid national team made up of home-based players and this is achievable if we are serious.