He has committed much to youth development and
he has been at the vanguard of using sports to take away arms from the hands of
the youth and solve youth restiveness. With his Multiple Sports Services
organization, Onyemaepu Teddy Oscar, the President of MSS and a political analyst based in Lagos State and
Abuja, who has a working agreement with Oriental Warriors of Nassarawa State,
FC told Emeka Ibemere, that with huge investment in sports by both the Federal and State
governments, that youth restiveness and Boko Haram will be a thing of the past,
excerpts
Sports development in Nigeria is at
all -time low. Do you think the sector is getting what it’s supposed to get in
developing sports in Nigeria?
I cannot say
yes or no because of the present situation of things in Nigeria. Those days,
you will hear Faliat Olokoya, Merry Onyeali, Innocent Egbunike and others but
now I cannot close or open my eyes and mention any athlete been proud to say
that was discovered in the last decade who is a champion in his or her area of
endeavour. Now we are losing our athletes to other countries. Sports in Nigeria
are having a big challenge. And the Federal, States and Local authorities are
not interested. The corporate entities, private sectors and individuals are not
also interested, too. Let me tell you the truth, nothing is working in Nigeria.
I’m tempted to say at times that military government is better than Nigeria.
All those years of our success in sports were the days of military rule.
Check it out
as a journalist. Those days we won laurels in sports, those days we had good
athletes in this country were the days of military. The civilian system has not
offered us the opportunity to discover and make successes in sports because the
managers of our resources are selfish and corrupt. No more school sports, national sports
festival, Nigeria Universities Games Association, where young athletes are
discovered are no more because governments are no longer interested in
developmental sports. No grassroots programme for sports in this country.
As an expert in youth sports
development, what are the things required of the government to do to develop
sports again in Nigeria?
It’s very
simple. The only way is to create a programme where hidden athletes will be
discovered. Government should have a programme in the States, local
governments, at the national level, even in churches, in mosques, schools,
community levels where hidden athletes would be discovered. And government
should diversify their sports and not only centralising on soccer alone.
They should
try and develop, track and field, table tennis, long tennis, rugby, boxing,
taekwondo, and others not only football alone. If governments should organise
yearly events for all the states, in all sports event where all the states
would be competing among each other, you will see that the youths will be busy
every year by engaging themselves in training preparing for the yearly event
and by so doing, using the sports to reduce crime and youth restiveness. When
your mind is centred on something you want to achieve, you will see that your
mind would be engaged and you won’t even have time to think of crime to commit.
When people don’t have something to do, when a
woman has nothing to do, he or she will engage in crime- Armed robbery,
kidnapping, prostitution, Boko Haram and others. Sports will enhance this country and it will
create job opportunities and create wealth. Sports are good instrument to fight
poverty. Private sectors are not investing into sports because the government
is showing less concern to it.
What is your rating of our national
team in the ongoing World Cup in Brazil?
Our Super
Eagles are going to surprise the world. This current world event is defying
predictions and disappointing pundits. Small nations are putting up strong
games and Nigeria is going to make it successful at the end of the day. Again, this
is why I said, government should be involve in sports and take it as part of
the policy in rebuilding Nigeria and achieving peace. The only thing that
brings this country together is sports. When Nigerian team is playing, one can
mistakenly embrace a Boko Haram member.
Boko Haram
will embrace you, he will forget his Bomb if Nigeria scores in a final of world
cup at that particular moment, that sports is the only unifying factor in this
country. Even armed robber loves football, prostitutes loves sports, if you see
Nigerians watching the Super Eagles; your enemy would hug you when they score,
especially in a crucial game. When two of you see yourself, he will laugh, you
will laugh and settlement starts from there.
The cord of
Nigeria can only be cemented by sports and nothing else, but here the
government is interested in irrelevant things and instead of developing sports
they are busy stealing money they could have used to develop sport for
themselves alone. So sports are the only unifying factor that doesn’t
discriminate. It has no tribal marks. The only language it hears is victory and
success. If Nigerian politicians can unite the way the Super Eagles’ players
unite to fight their common enemies, Nigeria would have gone far beyond
America. It’s only in sports that you can see a poor man and the rich embrace
each other.
Looking at the present insecurity in
the country, what would you say about the recent invasion of Imo and Abia
States by some suspected members of Boko Haram?
Actually,
that is another mistake on the part of the insurgents. It’s an error in an
error. If indeed those people were truly Boko Haram and were making attempt to
penetrate the South East that is the beginning of their end. The Easterners,
Igbos to be precise, are not people you can just intimidate. If the matter goes
unimaginable, they have everything to fight back. If those people were truly
members of Boko Haram trying to enter east, it signifies danger for the unity
of the country and the Igbos are going to encounter them by all means possible.
There was
even a report that a bomb was planted in one of the churches in Imo State, and
the purported arrest of 468 members of the insurgent group who couldn’t explain
their mission to Rivers State, but if indeed they were Boko Haram, that means
there is problem in the polity. They should remember that the zone fought three
years war and the experience, the pains and the agony of that war is still
fresh in the minds of Easterners.
Boko Haram
should know that the zone once fought for their liberation, for their
emancipation and the blood and spirit of resistance are still with them and
wouldn’t tolerant any other thing that would provoke them into going into
another war. Let the so-called invasion of the Igbo land by Boko Haram be seen
as a joke and let it remain as a joke.
Looking at the present security
situation in the country and the approaching 2015 general election, do you
think there will be election?
Definitely
there will be election. I think our brothers in the North are aware of the
politics of Boko Haram. The insurgent group has a political undertone and its being
fertilized by the big silence of the Northern elites. If the accusations
pointing to the fact that they want to truncate the 2015 elections are true
what I ask is at whose advantage? If they truncate it, the situation will
remain status quo ante. The election in my own opinion will be conducted and
nothing will happen. They will only make the most noise and life will go on. Nobody
is above the country and no section of the country is bigger than the nation.
Is there anything in your opinion
that suggests that President Jonathan wouldn’t contest the 2015 election?
Everything
depends on him and the constitution. If the constitution allows him to contest
and he decides to contest, there is no problem as long as he qualifies to run
for the presidency of the country. It’s not in our character as Nigerians to
say, you are not going for your constitutional second term. Every Nigerian
man/woman is an adventurer. Jonathan may wish to step down if the pressure
becomes too much but the way I’m seeing things, he will contest in 2015. The
North should stop mounting unnecessary pressure on the President. You don’t get
power by mere intimidation and they should know that nobody has the monopoly of
violence. The President should be supported rather than distracting him. The president is human being, I cannot say he
has done 100% and nobody can achieve that. Again, he has not being able to
achieve because of the gang-up against him. Many people, especially the
opposition and some elite politicians don’t like him but the masses love the
man; and this hatred could be because of the quietness of the President. He has
tried but yet he has a lot to do. He should be decisive in taking action. He is
a core civilian and democrat but he has to know that he is the President of the
country; he should be decisive. People shouldn’t compare him with the former
President Olusegun Obasanjo, who was coming from the military background. He is
one with decisive aura and quickness in taking action because he is a thorough
breed soldier with flair of executive fiat.
Jonathan is trying to follow due process of
democracy but Nigerians because of age-long military rule developed military
mentality in doing things and because of that anybody that is not acting in
such a manner is slow, not intelligent, is underrated and disrespected. To
them, the person is a failure. But it’s wrong. People shouldn’t under such
military premise judge the president and say he has failed.
The political year is drawing to a
close and assessing the governors, who would you say has done well in the last
four years?
The Imo
State governor has done well. But so far, some of the PDP governors, like Delta
State governor, Fashola in Lagos State, Akpabio in Akwa-Ibom State, Aregbesola
in Osun State is another man who has tried to alleviate the suffering of the
masses through his people orientated programmes. Other governors especially
those in the north have not been able to do anything because of the Boko Haram
challenges. Whether they are the ones behind it or not, it’s a problem they are
facing and it’s affecting development in those areas.
What is your advice to youths who are
taking arms against the nation and innocent people?
What are you
going to tell somebody who after graduation from the university he has no job?
Remember, he must eat, clothe himself, live in a house, transport himself,
raise family of his own, take care of his aged parents who sent him to school
and would want to care of his health but there were no money to execute these
necessities of life. Now somebody from somewhere come and gives not even
promise him N7million and say go and bomb so, so and so place. That looked at
the money and for over six years after graduation, he hasn’t seen N10, 000 in
his life before and I tell you he will take it as a risk and carry out that
evil.
This is what
the government is not considering at all. When everybody is engaged, everybody
is working; my friend there will be nobody who would like to carry arms. Idle
hands are devil’s workshop. Get the
youths in the north engaged and you will see that Boko Haram will die
naturally. Many crimes will go. Does crime glorify a nation? It is not the
issue of tribe or Muslim and Christian; it’s about government not been able to
create jobs.
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