AISSAC signals the revival of school athletics in Nigeria, writes
Kesiena Igho Oghoghorie
Nigeria is on the verge of school athletics renaissance. As preparations for the first edition of the Abuja Inter-Secondary Schools Athletics Championship (AISSAC) proceed at full throttle, students are buzzing with a new sense of hope and optimism in expectation of changing the fortunes of athletics in Nigeria.
AISSAC is an innovative event scheduled to be a one-day boys and girls track and field competition between top secondary schools in Abuja. The track events include 100m, 200m, 400m, 4 x 100m Relay, 4 x 400m Relay and 4 x 400m (Mixed Relay). The field events are the Long Jump and Shot-put.
The major aim of AISSAC is, essentially, to promote, build and enhance the country’s athletics prowess which, over time, has been on downward spiral. The last Olympic Games in Tokyo were emblematic of the decay, as Team Nigeria was only able to win two medals. The situation is indeed worrisome, given that Nigeria’s performance in Tokyo is the country’s best result for over a decade. Yet, whilst discussing the present state of athletics in Nigeria it is salient to steer the compass to the past, as it will aid in navigating the future.
What can history tell us? Nigeria used to be the powerhouse of athletics in Africa, harvesting medals particularly in the 80s and 90s. There was the Ajayi Agbebaku’s triple jump bronze medal at the 1983 IAAF World Athletics Championship in Helsinki; Innocent Egbunike’s 400m silver medal at the 1985 IAAF World Athletics Championships in Rome; as well as Chioma Ajunwa’s long jump gold medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. There was also the Mary Onyali’s 200m bronze medal at the same Olympic Games, amongst others.
Yet between the late 1990s and now Nigeria’s athletic performance at the global level, has been below par. The finger of blame is numerous, not least inadequate funding, late preparation, lackluster coaching, corruption, policy inconsistency, etc. The most fundamental of the lot however, is arguably the lack of an active school sports system.
School sports are the bedrock of any sports development programme in any nation. Nigeria, during its glory days of athletics, had a very robust and vibrant school athletics system. There was, for example, the ‘Empire Day’ competition in the colonial era; the Grier Cup Competition in the Western Province in 1933; the Fisher Shield in the East, and the Hussey Shield athletics competition between teams representing the schools in the North and South of Nigeria, amongst others.
The numerous school athletics competitions at the time contributed, in no small way, to Nigeria’s success at the global athletics level. Most of the student’s athletes who participated at the school competitions eventually went on to compete for the Nigerian Team. This is contrary to the current state of affairs where there has been a huge decline in school athletics competitions. AISSAC however, signals the beginning of paving the path for re-negotiating the fortune of school athletics in Nigeria.
The benefits of competitions like AISSAC are well rehearsed, with each repetition further driving home its importance: It will, for example, help students develop personal and interpersonal skills and talents, and prepare them for the challenges of life. Young persons will also be engaged and deter them from engaging in social vices, which have become extremely prevalent in recent times.
Nigeria, like other developing countries, has struggled to expedite the pace of economic growth and development. Search light is continuously beamed on possible solutions to developmental challenges, with youth development being one of the powerful levers for sustainable socio-economic development.
Youths, as per the 2019 National Youth Policy, are young persons between the ages of 15 and 29 years, while development is the act, process or result of developing. Youth development, in a communal understanding, therefore means the process of preparing young persons for the challenges of adolescence and adulthood, so as to enable them achieve their full potential. It is promoted through activities and experiences that help youths develop social, ethical, emotional, physical, and cognitive competencies. Youth development is therefore a critical component in achieving sustainable development.
Thus given Nigeria’s status as the most populous country in Africa, it, inevitably, has one of the largest concentration of youths in the world. Yet, the view is gradually being established that working hard is a sign of weakness, with the loss of productivity in the sense that commitment to duty does not pay.
There is therefore the need for the country to develop its youthful population, as the level of youth development is indicative of the quality of preparation a society is making for the future. One of the media, however, through which the numerical strength of the youths could be utilized, is sports.
Sports are a vital component of socio-economic development. It is a medium to advance social cohesion and sustainable development. Sports contribute enormously to the growth of the service sector through the following benefits they offer societies: jobs creation; incomes for clubs, sports personnel, and ancillary workers; tax revenues for governments; infrastructural development; promotion of political and social cohesion; enhancement of the images of countries; healthier citizens for higher productivity; and foreign exchange. This is in addition to the fact that sports are an important enabler to support the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It is, therefore, very vital for the private sector and government to key into initiatives, such as the AISSAC, with a view to contributing their quota to the development of youths, and by extension, Nigeria.
These times, clearly, calls for altruism. Athletics is, arguably, one of the country’s major sport, second only to football. Yet in an attempt to revive its fortunes, we have constantly been behind the curve, coming up with half measures that buy a moment’s calm. AISSAC is, therefore, on a mission to rev the idle engine of school athletics back to full speed. It may seem grandiose, but it is achievable.
Oghoghorie,
Lawyer & Organizer, Abuja Inter-Secondary Schools Athletics Championship 2022, writes from Abuja