I had read about the Beyond Sport project and Organisation well over one year ago during one of my trips abroad in Newsweek. It was an article written by the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, on the life of sports persons after sport, and the organisation he was a part of that was set up to celebrate sports achievement and honour individuals and organisations around the world with projects that are helping to change the world through sport. I was enthralled by his views.

My understanding of sport, my personal experiences and perspectives have always been that the world does not fully comprehend, appreciate and thus exploit the full potency of sport. I have often seen beyond sport’s better known power as a business tool, to such an extent that my whole purpose of championing Nigeria’s bidding to host the World Cup in 2003 was to demonstrate to Nigerians and other developing communities how a simple and single sports event such as the football World Cup can be used to create a cultural movement of a people, re-engineer society, integrate a whole continental region into an economic and social army, engage the youths in meaningful enterprise, and convert the people’s unexplainable healthy passion for sport into a positive, almost spiritual, movement that will instil the spirit of competition, friendship, team work, industry, discipline, and creativity. My greatest challenge then was that although there was a good message to deliver, the audience was not listening or was too short-sighted to see into the possibilities of this seemingly innocent activity that grips the entire planet in its vice during competitions! The whole thing was too much and too good to be true and practical. So, Nigerians rejected the idea of bidding to host the World Cup, damning the ‘benefits’!

Two years later I sat and listened to US President, Bill Clinton, on the campus of the University of Rhode Island, URI, address an audience of the youths from 157 countries, as part of a project organised by Dan Doyle, the President of the International Sports Institute, in the US. I heard, for the first time, a world leader talk about the power of sport and how it can be used to shape the future and spread the philosophy of the globalisation of humanity. It was such a powerful message that reflected what I had always believed that sport is a latent spiritual weapon! In fact, I believe its spiritual capacity is of such a huge dimension that I am presently writing an article titled ‘God is a sportsman’. Mr. Clinton saw it! A day or so after that great speech, I listened also to Dr. Jibril Diallo, Head of the Youth Summit of the United Nations, at an interactive session with students at the same event discus a new project of the United Nations - the use of sport in empowering the youths of the world to meet the Millennium Development Goal project objective of eradicating illiteracy, hunger, poverty and unemployment in the world. It became both frustrating and challenging for me. Indeed, the frustration of my failure to impress Nigerians with my World Cup hosting idea was lit again, as my determination to set up the International (Sports) Academy, to serve as a model for the actualisation of the Millennium Development Goal Project objective in my little community in Wasimi Orile, and to use it as a model for other communities and State governments in Nigeria to encourage and challenge them to set up similar schools of excellence, was fired!. That became my new mission. It possessed me and drove me. I committed everything I had to the project – my time, my resources and my good will. Tony Blair’s article that I read in Newsweek simply fuelled my spirit and reinforced my belief that I was on the right path! I knew something was stirring in the world and that one day soon, sport shall be recognised as one of the most powerful tools that will influence positive change in the world!

So the International Sports Academy was created. The project even now is still too small and too early in its development to attract any recognition, not to talk of an international award. It is daybreak yet in the project. Very little is on ground. There are only 50 students in the project even now. The facilities are few and scanty. The environment is still ‘bush’ and undeveloped. Ironically, maybe those are the factors that attracted the interest of the Beyond Sport Awards organisation - the fact that there is a lot of work still to be done. I really do not know.

Last year, I visited the website of the organisation and saw the promo for the first awards coming up in July 2009. My application to enlist the academy as a possible awardee was simply to register the existence of a school that was quietly sprouting in one little unknown village in the western part of Nigeria, dedicated to engaging the youths, combining academics and sports, and influencing development of the local communities in the environment as a consequence. It was not because I thought there was the littlest possibility that it would be nominated or would win.

Many months later a questionnaire was sent to me. I responded as best as I could, providing bare-bone information on what was going on in Wasimi Orile. A few months later again I received another mail requesting for references, two people that are not a part of the project but who know enough about it to provide some confidential information. That was the last I heard until last week when ‘the letter from Heaven’ arrived. It was the most pleasantly shocking letter I have ever received. I first thought it must be a scam until I got to the end and saw the official seal of the Beyond Sport Organisation signed by Alexandra Chalat with whom I have since had useful conversations. It read:

Dear Segun,

Congratulations! We are delighted to inform you that The International (Sport) Academy has won a spot on the prestigious Shortlist for the Beyond Sport Awards 2009 in the Best Project for Social Inclusion.

By being selected as one of 35 projects worldwide, you are now invited to London for what we are sure will a highly inspirational and influential events: the Beyond Sport Summit and Awards on July 7-9.

The Summit will provide a platform for your own personal leadership development and, for your organisation, the introduction to a network of high-profile representatives from sport, corporate business, government and international aid organisations that will help to develop your initiative.

As a Beyond Sport Award Shortlisted Project, you are one of the few invited to participate in all three days of the Summit: July 7, 8, and 9. The full itinerary for the event will be sent to you in due course.

This unprecedented, invite-only affair will culminate on July 9 with the announcement of the winners of the Beyond Sport Awards 2009, who will each be awarded £10,000 and a specially designed package of support for their project. The day will be full of challenging panels, interviews, stories and discussions with a range of high-profile figures participating, such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President of Virgin Atlantic Sir Richard Branson, Prince Faisal Al Hussein of Jordan, and the Chairman of Beyond Sport Ambassadors and former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Congratulations again on your initiative being a standout example in sport and development.

Best wishes.

What is there to say but to give The Creator of all things all the thanks, honour and glory. I thank also all those that have stood by the project and have rendered one help or the other in the process. I hope the project shall be looked at more closely by all to see the depth and width of its vision. I thank Mr. Tony Blair and the Beyond Sport organisation and I hope Corporate Nigeria and blessed individuals will wake up and also rise to the challenge of supporting it and other such causes in any little or large ways. The future holds great prospects for humanity and the role of sport in that future must not be underestimated or disregarded. Blessed be!

segunodegbami@hotmail.com.

You can find out more at their website http://www.beyondsport.org