Governors Adebayo Alao-Akala of Oyo State and Bukola Saraki of Kwara State have joined the elite group of those who have two clubs in the prestigious Nigerian Premier League. Congratulations. This is what I call progress.

The Shooting Stars (3SC) of Ibadan are among the founding fathers of the League, have bounced up and down in recent time, but have been resilient to stay among the elite. Following the demise of the Water Corporation of Ibadan, twenty years ago, the Shooting Stars remain the only top club in Oyo State, until the Alao-Akala’s regime pumped life into the Crown Club of Ogbomoso, and this has paid dividends as the Ogbomoso club gained promotion to join the Shooting Stars in the Premiership.

Governor Bukola Saraki of Kwara State should be proud of his laudable achievements in sports especially football which he has entrenched very well in Kwara. He met Kwara United as a struggling club in Ilorin, gave them personal and governmental support such that the Ilorin club remained competitive in the Premier League.

On top of that, Saraki floated another club, named after him, the Bukola Babes, and the young club have joined the elite Premiership, in a record time. Wonderful.

While Oyo and Kwara can beat their chests that they have two clubs each in the Premier League, out of a total of twenty, there are some states out of the 36 in Nigeria, that have none. Osun, Ekiti are yet to come to terms with sports big time; Ondo are upwardly mobile, the most painful are Lagos State whose last appearance at the Premier League was 2003/2004 season.

Lagos, which used to be the Mecca of sports in Nigeria, do not have any football club campaigning in the Premier League, Edo State who supplied top clubs like NNB of Benin, Flash Flamengoes, Bendel Insurance, Bendel United, have also vaporized from big time League.

States like Anambra, Ebonyi are low performers in the Premier League, while majority of states in the north are non-performers. Abia, Imo Enugu, Rivers and Bayelsa hold the aces and with Oyo and Kwara joining them 2010/2011 season promises to be hot.

The absence of Lagos from the Premiership has affected the popularity of the competition. The Onikan Stadium was like a magnet that drew thousands of fans to every match that involved clubs from Ibadan, Benin, Enugu, Imo, Kano and Jos.

In the late 1980s, defunct Stationery Stores of Lagos, hosted three matches within three weeks that fetched a total gate takings of nearly N1 million, which is about N10 million today. Lagos are badly needed in the Premiership, and if Governor Fashola is re-elected, he should make it a priority. But first, he should bow to Alao-Akala and Saraki for their double success.