The policy will enhance the growth of football if well implemented
President Muhammadu Buhari recently unveiled the Nigeria Football 10-Year Masterplan (2022-2032). If properly implemented, it is expected that the document will address the fundamental anomalies that perennially upend football development in the country and benefit broad strata of the society. Whatever may be our misgivings about the masterplan, we endorse any idea that promotes the growth of the game in Nigeria.
Every genuine effort to enhance the growth of football in Nigeria should be encouraged. “This government is interested in developing a football culture that will accommodate global best practices, and that will help the nation to lay a solid foundation for her domestic football, put in place professionally and efficiently run leagues, entrench a consistent and stable football calendar and create a value chain which will boost the sports ecosystem,” Buhari said while launching the document.
However, the masterplan may become an exercise in futility and could suffer the fate of similar documents in the last four decades. Since the early 1970s, when we had the National Sports Policy that positively impacted on sports development, past administrations have either been selective or been paying lip service to the holistic implementation of successive sports policies. The outcome of such neglect is the huff and puff situation which our football and sports generally have sadly been reduced to in the past few years. Besides, there is nothing original in the new document.
The Nigeria Football 10-Year Masterplan is a subtle rehash of the old National Sports Industry Policy drafted by the Samuel Ogbemudia Committee, set up by the federal government to find solutions to the problems of sports development in the country. The only difference that can be gleaned from the effort is merely in the nomenclature. The National Sports Industry Policy was a comprehensive document that was left to gather molds in the shelf without any of its recommendations being implemented by the authority after several consultations with critical stakeholders and those with knowledge of sports administration. It was also the reason why an ex-international Adokiye Amiesimaka, rejected his appointment to be a member of the current committee formed to produce the 10-year football development masterplan for the country, describing the appointment as “a waste of time and public funds”.
In declining the offer, Amiesimaka, former Attorney General of Rivers State, said he had served on similar committees in the past, but their recommendations were never implemented. “Regrettably, there is no indication whatsoever that things will be any different this time around. Accordingly, I respectfully decline your kind offer, as to do otherwise would amount to a waste of my time and public funds,” Amiesimaka wrote in his letter to the Sports Minister, Sunday Dare.
The message from Amiesimaka is that authorities in Nigeria must begin to implement recommendations contained in many of the reports that are already available. Apart from that, having released N15 billion for football over the last seven years, there is need for government to also invest in other sports because they can also make the difference with similar investment.