Contd from Friday

IMPLEMENTING THE STRATEGY

That is the objective.

To achieve it requires a two-pronged strategy: the first, a
short-term, top-down approach and the second a long-term, bottom-up approach.

In the short term, current elite athletes like Okagbare,
Chika Chukwumerije and the very improved basketball team for instance will get
funding and assistance to maintain and improve on their current performance
levels.

Where they drop below acceptable standards, they lose their
elite status and their funding shifted elsewhere.

But the nuts and bolts of this whole programme will be based
on the long term strategy.

That is where, again, the minister has it spot on. A
structured, sustained, year-round calendar of sporting activities for schools
from primary through secondary and all the way to university level is the key.

In the USA, there is a working template to be borrowed and
tweaked to suit our circumstances.

In a country of arguably 150 million people, it is hard to
fathom that there are no talents capable of being nurtured into world-class
athletes.

These talents must be identified at that young age through
school sports, helped along the way to developing that talent with structured,
world-class training, proper funding and continued assistance and monitoring of
their development every step of the way.

Progress must be measured at regular intervals with key
objectives set and met every step of the way.

Long term, a world-class sports training facility must be
built within the country.

To assure maintenance, such a facility is best built, owned
and operated privately, and rented out, clad in impenetrable cast-iron
contract, at break-even costs to the NSC or sporting federations.

In the short to medium term, however, these athletes should
be sent on scholarships to countries where their particular sport has the best
personnel and equipment.

The USA, China and Russia come to mind.

DEVELOP A WINNING MENTALITY

After the women’s 100m final, word went around that
Nigerians should draw consolation from having Okagbare as the eighth fastest
woman in the world.

The insane absurdity of that statement absolutely defies
comprehension.

But that is the sort of defeatist mentality with which we
roll at the moment.

To understand the attitude that wins medals, one has to read
former athlete Enefiok Udo-Obong’s book ‘The Silver Lining’, then go back and
watch him race at Sydney 2000.

The book chronicles Udo-Obong’s focused fixation on athletic
and academic success, even as a strapping young kid.

In Sydney, Udo-Obong was handed the baton in the final lap
of the 4x400m relay with four runners ahead of him.

He could have given up, just run to fulfil all
righteousness. Instead, an asthmatic young man, determined to win, conjured up
every last iota of strength to make a push for gold.

Watch the last few seconds of that relay.

See how Udo-Obong strained every last sinew, stretched every
last muscle, and nearly exploded his heart in a lung-bursting sprint to the
tape

By the 200m mark he had overtaken two runners. On the home
stretch, he had whistled past a third.

The whole country was screaming, running with him by the
time he dipped his head just behind the American, who won gold.

I still get goose-bumps reliving that race.

Now, 12 years on, that silver has turned to gold, because
one of the Americans was caught using drugs, and the team disqualified.

That is the reward for a winning mentality. That video needs
to be shown in schools, to young aspiring athletes all over the country

And Udo-Obong himself should be invited to give motivational
speeches to these kids.

That is how to build winners.

POTENTIAL ROADBLOCKS AND PITFALLS

However much anyone wants to believe in the opposite, none
of these will happen without opposition.

The ministry, and the federations are populated with people
who benefit from this broken system.

These people will fight their hardest, in every single
sneaky, backstabbing way to derail any plan to fix the rot and deny them the
benefits of their gravy train.

It is the reason why a house clearing must happen before any
of this can work.

Too many people have been there too many decades and know no
other way to do things.

Some are so backward email sounds like Greek to them.
Operating a database or other digital systems will probably lead to cardiac
arrests.

Keeping them will stymie, even kill the process.

They have to go. Minister Abdullahi MUST embark on
house-cleaning. It is the only way to make a fresh start.

PROJECTION

Results may not show at the next Olympics. He would be
foolish who would expect it to.

Whatever successes, if any, are recorded at Rio 2016 should
be considered a bonus. The real, realistic target should be 2020.

There is never a better time to start than the present.
Otherwise, four years from now, we will return to this same finish line,
wondering why we finished last.

Again.

Concluded

Udoh writes for KickoffNigeri.Com

Colin Udoh