Lessons for Nigeria's Sports




 The recent exploits of Botswana and Morocco in sports is something Nigerian sporting authorities need to ponder about. Botswana has made exploits in world athletics in recent times with some of its products emerging as world champions. We learnt that the country judiciously used its grants from IAAF and the government to develop  infrastructure giving rise to talents.

Morocco also has massive investments in football and the results are there for all to see. Who could imagine that Morocco would one day be the FIFA U-20 men's champions? They just did by defeating Argentina in the final. Morocco became the first African country to reach the semi final of the men's FIFA World Cup in Qatar in 2022. And the women's team reached the AWCON final back to back in 2022 and 2025 though they lost both. At club level, they have dominated in Africa.

Back home in Nigeria, seems we're moving backwards. Our teams now struggle to even qualify for major tournaments that the used to win at a canter. Nigeria is now no longer to be seem at the men's U-17, a tournament Nigeria had won 6 times. In a group that had Benin, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Rwanda, Nigeria could not qualify automatically to  the 2026 FIFA men's world cup... Only Rivers Utd made it to the group stage of CAF competitions, and that for the first time in seven years.

Nigeria used to dominate the sprints and middle distance-100-400m in athletics. Apart from Tobi Amusan in the 100m Hurdles, Nigeria cannot boast of any world class athlete. The promising one- Favour Ofili- we lost to Turkey due to sheer incompetence of the AFN officials. The list is endless.

The Nigerian league is in shambles and the referees are not better. CAF released the list of referees for the upcoming AFCON and unsurprisingly, shunned Nigerian referees. from 2015 till date, the NFF has recieved millions of dollars in grant from FIFA and millions of Naira and dollars from the Federal Government but we cannot upgrade our infrastructure. Only the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo is approved for international matches and lately the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta.

Despite the abundance of talents, the various national teams are crying for players, including the Super Eagles! Nigeria might not be at the 2026 Wotld Cup not due to lack of players but a complete failure to manage our football affairs. Over the years, the NFF has been more of a cash cow for few individuals rather that to promote the game.

This is a wake uo call to those saddled with running sports in Nigeria to begin to focus on talents discovery for a better tomorrow..


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