The 13th African Games ended Saturday in Ghana, with Team Nigeria finishing second on the final medals table with 120 medals.
Though there were several thrilling performances by Nigerian athletes in Ghana, some have argued it is not a testament to the best of preparations by the country.
Armelia Edet Effiom, a former athlete, coach, and accomplished sports administrator, bares her mind on the state of sports in Nigeria.
The 80-year-old who was also part of a 5km walk held at the weekend in Lagos to celebrate the International Women’s Day also speaks on the gains of exercising and much more.
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Excerpts…
PT: Can you describe your experience at this 5km walk organised by the NOC Women’s Commission to celebrate the International Women’s Day
Edet: It’s just like any other day’s physical fitness, but for some people, maybe it was a bit tiring for them.
PT: Over the years, you have been exercising your body; are you not tired
Edet: Not really. What keeps the elderly alive is a lot of exercises and besides that, you must know what you are doing because even exercises can kill so if you don’t do too much you won’t visit the hospital.
I’m alive. Let me put it that way, and I’m good.
PT: As a veteran sports administrator and one-time athlete, how would you describe your active days in sports
Edet: My active days in sports. I would say it was fun. I’m happy I did my sport when I did it because what we are seeing these days is nothing to write home about.
As a nation, it’s like we don’t take sports seriously to be able to prepare adequately for outings, and with the Olympics coming, I begin to wonder what will happen. Maybe when we get there, as they say, we will cross the bridge.
PT: But we are seen as doing well at the Africans Games, or you think it is a flash in the pan
Edet: If you look at the African games, let me speak for my sport, track, and field, I will say that whatever result we are getting there is because of the individual effort of those athletes.
It’s not because of any preparation that we did because I’m very sure I will speak for everybody that we didn’t prepare for the African Games.
The athletes on their own because they want to make a name for themselves and most of them are in schools in the US and they want to keep their track scholarship so they will definitely want to do well.
PT: What can you say about Tobi Amusan and Ese Brume defending their African Games title. How does it make you feel
Edet: Good, because if you look at these athletes, these are the serious minded ones. They go to Games, and they know what they want out of it, and they give it their best.
I will say I’m happy for them and I hope they will carry it to the Olympics. I’m sure that Tobi will probably come back with a medal. If she goes back and does her training well with whoever her coach is. Because when you begin to change coaches, that’s when you have problems. I’m happy for them.
PT: What’s your assessment of the present state of sports in Nigeria?
Edet: Do we still have sports? Seriously speaking if you look at the federations, maybe one or two whose presidents are people who know what they want out of that sport and they want when they leave they have made a mark for themselves and whoever is coming there should be able to match that.
ALSO READ: African Games: Team Nigeria finishes second with 120 medals
We have stopped what we used to do in the past, we don’t have grassroots programmes for the up and coming athletes and until we go back to what we used to do in those days, it’s a tall order for us. I was watching all the African games, and I’m seeing Ethiopians in the long jump, in the triple jump. It has never happened because these are countries you know for distances, and here they are, they have encroached on where Nigeria used to excel and Nigeria is nowhere. I hope that until we stop spending money to get into federations and bring the right people who will work and give you the result that you need, we will still be where we are.
PT: What were those things we did in the past that gave us results
Edet: We had competitions, we had grassroot competitions where we were even bringing my sport, I used to come for it. Those of us who were in school were invited as junior athletes to come and compete at the All-Nigeria Championship, which later changed to Mobil track and field, but we don’t have that anymore.
PT: Recently, the Super Eagles were handsomely rewarded for finishing second at the AFCON tournament. Would you advocate the same for those that have done well at the African Games
Edet: It’s not for me to say because it’s the government that decides. Whatever they want, they can do it, but my pain is that we don’t spend this money when we are supposed to spend it.
You are happy to say we came second and we gave things and spent money. Where was this money when they needed it? Where was it? Spend it when it is needed, and then you will get the result that you are expecting. Until we begin to do that. American athletes look at them, for instance. Do you see the same athlete running the 100m? You don’t because they keep turning out new athletes every day. It’s not just the US, Jamaica is the same because they have a good program on the ground. And that programme that they have is what Enefiok Udo-Obong is trying to replicate here with his school competitions that he does. He went there to try and understudy them. As a federation, what are they doing? Nothing.
PT: Nigeria has been having issues with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which makes it difficult for us to have a testing laboratory in Nigeria
Edet: That question should not come to me. I know there was a time when someone was proposing that for Nigeria, but I don’t know what went wrong. Nothing was done. I would have expected someone like the man who has always been in doping for AFN to propose the ministry of the government, Amoo, but I’m sure he must have done that but someone would have kept it aside so I don’t know. It’s for the federation to tell us.
PT: You recently turned 80, but you don’t look it, what’s the secret
Edet: Exercise that we are doing now. I didn’t sleep. If you have been active all your life, a lot of us are dying because they forgot what they were doing before retiring. When you retire, it doesn’t mean that you’re tired. You can always come out. For your own wellbeing, do exercises. When I retired, I was still coming out to coach some athletes until I fell down and broke my ribs, and I stopped. Usually, I would come out and walk from Bode Thomas to the stadium to do exercise on my leg.
PT: Thank you…
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