The number is unfamiliar but I pick up the call. A voice yells excitedly into my ears: ‘two things are involved’. I know immediately who it is. There is only one person that exchanges those words with me every time we meet or speak on phone. We have not spoken or seen each other for some time even if we’ve been friends for some three decades. ‘Two things are involved’. I remember. I smile. It is the title of a Fabu (a joke) only my friend can tell the way he does it. Every time he tells it his audience reels in uncontrollable fits of laughter, always drawing tears to the eyes. So, any time you come across Seigha Porbeni former international multi- talented athlete, former athletics teacher and coach, and now sports consultant, beg him to give you a dose of his rib-cracking joke titled ‘two things are involved’. He told it to a few of us some 8 years ago as we drove in his car from Abuja to Makurdi. The effect has not diminished even as I recall it now. But that is an issue for another day. For now, Seigha is on the phone. He has not called me for ages so this must be important.

‘Segelu, I hear you are the one that is bringing Lee back to Nigeria’, he goes straight to the point. I understand straightaway what he is talking about. No, I told him. I only suggested and introduced Lee to some officials of the Physiotherapy Association of Nigeria whose 50^th anniversary comes up next week in Lagos. Lee Evans, is a former Olympic and World champion, whose 400 metres athletics world record set in 1968 in Mexico remained untouchable for almost three decades until Michael Johnson came to break it in Atlanta in 1996! Lee’s story about his exploits and experiences as an athlete would be great to hear, particularly the times that physiotherapy played a significant role in his phenomenal success career. The association buys the idea, contacts Lee and requests that he comes to Nigeria to present a paper at the occasion of the celebration. Undoubtedly, it would be the first time such would take place in Nigeria, for an international athlete of Lee’s stature to come and present a paper on any aspect of sports. He, of course, always ready to do anything to advance the course of sport in Africa, and always eager to be a part of sports development in Nigeria, accepts the invitation and is due back in Nigeria on Tuesday for the event next Thursday in Lagos!

I explain this to Seigha. He laps into lamentation as I listen!

‘Segelu, what is wrong with this our country? Do you know that Lee should have been back here since after Beijing?’ I listen. ‘He was invited to come and observe the Nigerian team in readiness for taking up appointment as a coach of the national athletes. He would have helped to revive what was started many decades ago. Now, the man tells me he does not know what is going on. No one has spoken to him or contacted him about it any more. He has been waiting and trying fruitlessly to get some information from the sports commission and from the president of the Athletics Federation. Nothing is happening’.

‘Lee Evans was part of late Isaac Akioye’s dream for Nigerian sports. That was the best era of sports in our history. Even the lesser sports like swimming, handball, volleyball grass hockey, all were bubbling. The stadium was our sports factory and workshop. Akioye’s dream was to bring former international Olympians to coach and inspire Nigerian athletes. He understood the secret of coaching. Any athlete who does not see and respect his coach as only next to God is not ready to succeed. The athlete must look up to the coach and respect his achievements and believe that every instruction he receives from him is a step towards success. Lee was a mentor, an inspiration and coach for many Nigerian athletes. Akioye brought three American athletics greats into the country. Lee was in Ibadan and Ife. He handled sprints. Ron Davis was in the North and was responsible for long distance. Don Coleman was in Calabar in charge of hurdles. I came in 1979 to join them from the US and because of my background and training I blended with their style. I was a jumper, I did long jump, triple jump and relays for my university and I trained as a coach. I immediately started to train athletes for those events. The day Kehinde Vaughn (the female 400m hurdler) ran 58 in Lagos, we all celebrated with Isaac Akioye at the National Stadium. I converted Yusuf Ali from sprints to jumps and he rose to become one of the best long jumpers in the world. I converted Henry Amike from sprints to hurdles where he excelled. I influenced the conversion of Mary Onyali, Beatrice Utondu to sprints. We started to produce a whole stream of home-based athletes – the Ezenwa brothers, Chidi Imo, etc before they all moved to the US to complete their transformation to champions’.

‘Suddenly the dream started to die. Akioye was manipulated out. The salaries of Lee and the others became irregular and you know how important wages are to Americans. They do not joke with it. It was Don that first left, followed by Ron and then Lee left last. Dr. Dibia became head coach and I his assistant. When Dr. Eleyae became Director he moved me to the National Institute for Sports as teacher and coach. His own love was for academics so he concentrated on the national institute. That’s how that dream died and through the decades Nigerian sports have continued to suffer and dwindle until what we now have - the complete death of sports’.

‘Shortly before the Beijing games I was excited when I saw Lee Evans in Nigeria again at the invitation of the new president of the Athletics Federation, Solomon Ogba. Unfortunately, he told me he came to Nigeria without fully understanding what was the plan or arrangement after the Beijing Games. The reception he and Ron received this time around was different from the past when they were ‘spoilt’ and treated like ambassadors. This time, there were no allowances, no money, no contract. At times they had to depend on friends to recharge their phones’.

‘I was shattered when Lee and Ron did not return to Nigeria after the Olympics. I had thought their return would mark my own return to my first love – coaching athletes. By now they should have started running a programme for the next Olympics and even beyond. The tragedy is that the dream is dead. I am tired with the hide-and-seek game of the athletics federation.’

My silence must have been deafening. ‘Segelu, are you still there?’ Seigha asks.

‘Yes’ I respond. ‘You know what? I am going to make this your monologue my article for this week.

Seigha starts to laugh. ‘Ok, but, you should remember that, two things are involved’. The phone connection breaks. I go to my laptop and do not call him back!

So, Lee Evans returns to Nigeria next Tuesday, not to coach or to discuss contract figures but to talk to an audience of uncommon stakeholders in Nigerian sports – the Physiotherapy Association of Nigeria. As I appreciate the creativity of the association to remind us all of their relevance in sports and the opportunities we are missing not contracting renowned coaches to rescue Nigerian sports from the abyss, I am also using the opportunity to urge any State with dreams for sports development, or even the NSC to get Lee Evans whilst he is here in the country and convince, beg, bribe, do anything, to remain and join in salvaging Nigerian sports.