No, this is not an advertisement! It is the present reality that must interest all those peering into the future of Nigerian sports and seeing nothing but darkness in the tunnel. It is not all gloom as the environment paints a lot of times. The key to Nigeria’s future development in sports is the establishment of permanent institutions for the discovery and production of young athletes. That’s why the evolution of academies, particularly football academies, all over the country is a welcome development. In small corners around the country individuals and private groups are putting together projects, institutions and structures that would provide some illumination. This is one

Three years ago there was nothing but a hut and the huge expanse of dense vegetation to mark the 50 hectares of land space that had been allocated by the community of Wasimi Orile to accommodate the unique project I had conceptualized a few years before in fulfillment of my dream to establish a school that would offer the youth the opportunity to pursue their greatest passion as well as acquire a successful life’s greatest need – education! I did not know of any institution that offered the scope of what I had in mind. So, I decided the school must be different and that it would likely be the first of its kind. My determination was that it must become the best such institution offering a comprehensive programme of an almost equal dose of academics and sports! I needed to find out if there were other such institutions any where in the world in order to properly situate my dream! Even as I write this I am yet to identify any that fully captures the scope and extent of my vision ‘in every material particular’.

Two and a half years ago, the first stone of The International Sports Academy was laid by the Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, at the site in Wasimi Orile that now occupies the first classroom block to be constructed and appropriately named after him. Thus began my goal of teaming up with other persons and institutions to establish Africa’s (and, perhaps, the world’s) first and best comprehensive ‘laboratory’ for the production of scholar-athletes.