President Tinubu and the Super Falcons Largesse – A Call for Retraction
By Godwin Kienka
I had been a big fan of Bola Ahmed Tinubu from his days as Governor of Lagos State. Two things endeared him to me. One was the dualization of several inner roads in Lagos like the Ojuelegba-Lawanson Road which broke through to the FESTAC axis. Going to the Golden Tulip where I had a consultancy, could take four to five hours and returning to the mainland where I lived could take eight hours on a bad day. But with the dualization of that road, in less than two hours you are home. It required the demolition of several houses, shops, offices and the excavation of many electric poles. This guy has balls – pardon the pun – I thought to myself. The second is the fact that as a Muslim and one of the richest Governors in Nigeria, he was married to a Christian lady and I, speaking for myself now, have not heard that he has a harem of wives – which of course he could afford. So, I am his fan but with a caveat: I am allergic to politics.
However, even a president, a wise and smart one like Tinubu, can be lost in the euphoria of victory such as the one our girls, the Super Falcons, achieved in Rabat. Recovering from 2-0 down against the host country made the victory even more intoxicating. That is when we needed adults and knowledgeable and levelheaded technocrats around the President.
There is an African saying which goes: “A doe (female goat) cannot be allowed to give birth to her young on a leash when an adult is around.” An ‘adult’ could be referring to an aged person expected to have some knowledge and experience in life or could be a young medical doctor or someone in the medical field who should know better. There were some ‘sports administrators’ around the President when the girls arrived and it took a day before the largesse was announced. I would be surprised, indeed shocked, if the President did not discuss his reward plan with anyone.
There was Sunday Dare, the last Sports Minister in the Buhari regime and now an SSA to the President. He accompanied the team back from Rabat and ought to have known better. He has a copy of my book, Sports Administration in Nigeria – Going Round in Circles – which has the report of the Sports Reform Committee that recommended rewards to be given for every level of achievement from the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, All-Africa Games and major World Championships down to Local Government Competitions The work of this Committee which was initiated by Solomon Dalung was approved for implementation by the late President Buhari. The recommendations were made to prevent whimsical, in-the-heat-of-the-moment rewards by Presidents, Governors, Bank CEOs, politicians and business tycoons some of whom had trashed all requests for sponsorship of sports programs and competitions sent to their tables.
The reward plan was taken up by the Sports Performance Reward Fund – a registered Trust which has Ahmadu Musa Kida as President, Odein Ajumogobia as Vice president National, Ifueko Omogui-Okauru as Vice President Finance and Prof Wale Sulaiman, the Neurosurgeon, as Vice President Global. The Trust has set an initial target to raise 10 billion Naira to be warehoused to serve as a sure, consistent and sustainable reward for sports men and women who win at global and continental competitions.
Olympic gold would attract N10 million, Silver N7.5 million and Bronze N5 million.
Commonwealth Games: Gold N5 million, Silver N3 million and Bronze N2 million.
The All-Africa Games (where WAFCON falls into) has Gold N3 million, Silver N2 million and Bronze N1 million.
The SPRF plans to review this template based on the amount of funds in the kitty.
At the very least, there is a template which the advisers around the President could have used as a guide.
Interestingly, despite the exceptionally high transparency level where all donors and donations are reflected on the SPRF website, only Kano State, among the 36 Governors had invited the SPRF to a meeting.
Back to base! There are several challenges and considerations concerning this Presidential Award. I would only highlight one challenge and one consideration.
The biggest challenge for me is scaling. If you gave the Super Falcons 100, 000 USD for winning the African Championship what will you give them if they won the Olympics or the World Cup? One million USD? What will you give the female basketball team, D’Tigress, if they won the African Championship taking place in Cote d’Ivoire a week after? What will you give for an Olympic gold medal in an individual sport or in volleyball for instance. This largesse is not sustainable. It becomes the reference base and sports men and women would be well within their rights to expect more for higher performance.
As far as considerations go; what could 100,000 USD in about 23 places for players and 50,000 USD in about 10 places for officials do for sports not to talk of several yawning areas of the Nigerian economy? The National Stadium in Surulere which was the venue Nigeria hit a similar level of euphoria when Nigeria won the men’s African Football Championship under President Shagari, is rotting away. Half of that money well budgeted and dispensed will bring it back to its glory days and even better. Nigeria does not have one world -class indoor Sports facility for boxing or basketball. Most Division One College (University) indoor Sports halls in the USA will make a joke of the dark pigsty we call an indoor sports hall in Abuja or the poultry farm we call a sports hall in Surulere. The money given to the Super Falcons could build 10 international track and field facilities strategically located in the country. The Santa Monica Track and field facility which has produced over 50 gold medals is only one track. I could go on and on.
How does the President remedy the situation?
Even the body language of the girls and officials at the event was like: Can this be true?
Yes! It was true, but it cannot be reality. A good number of the players are based in the USA and Europe and know what the standards are. The USA gave 37,500 USD to the Paris Olympic gold medalists, 22,500 USD to Silver medalists and 15,000 USD to Bronze medalists. The USA, to put it mildly, is richer than Nigeria.
My humble suggestion, therefore, is that the President should walk back, retract and give them something more sustainable, justifiable, scalable and applicable, in the long run, to other sports.
The balance could be used to give the nation a world class football pitch in Abuja and Lagos like you have at Wembley and dedicate it to the girls by having their pictures around the pitch. The President could also use the balance of the money to build two convertible indoor sports facilities that can be used for many indoor sports. The table tennis practice hall that produced the likes of Ethel Jacks, Bose Kaffo and Atanda Musa is like a mama-put eating joint. That could be relocated and rebuilt in Lagos.
Let me end with a very true story.
When I launched my first book – Sports Administration in Nigeria – at the Nigerian Institute of Bankers hall in Lagos in the 90s, the late MKO Abiola of blessed memory was the Chief Launcher. The sports loving business mogul was so impressed that he was going to declare an amount that would have enabled me to buy a land and build a house in Ikoyi because, as he put it, “I am impressed with your boldness and forthrightness.” However, my patrons at the time, may God bless their souls – Raheem Adejumo, Molade Okoya Thomas and Alhaji A.O. G Otiti (Chief Ajisomo Alabi, Lord Rumens, was unavoidably absent) whispered to MKO that: “the boy is doing a lot for us in tennis, and he would lose focus with this kind of money.” My cousin, George Etomi who co-emceed the launch with Danladi Bako countered by saying, “we shall help him manage the funds.” Chief Abiola thought for a moment, reduced the package but told me, ‘My door will always be open for you.” The new package was still enough to set me up for life.
Our President, as a private citizen is rich enough to reward the girls and officials with double that amount, but we are talking of Government funds which belong to the citizens of Nigeria. Considering the far-reaching implications, my dear President, it will be in your own interest and that of the nation to retract and reconsider.
Godwin Kienka was Chairman of the Sports Reform Committee and Author of the best seller, Sports in Nigeria – Going Round in Circles
