This past week, Nigeria was in the news all over Africa.<\/p>\n
In the capital city of Delta State, a continental sports event was held – the 21st\u00a0<\/sup>Senior Athletics African Championship tagged\u00a0Asaba 2018<\/i><\/b>.<\/p>\n The event was organized by the Nigeria Athletics Federation, AFN, in conjunction with a Local Organising Committee, LOC, headed by Solomon Ogba. His signature was all over it.\u00a0Solomon has always dreamt big.\u00a0 \u00a0He was a politician that became Commissioner of Sports in Delta State many years ago. Then he became president of the Nigerian Athletics Federation. Then he wanted to become President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee but failed. Then he became President of a federation with a sport that did not even exist in Nigeria, yet he groomed and presented 4 Nigerian athletes at the 2017 Winter Olympics, and created history.<\/p>\n The girls became the toast of winter sports, the first African girls to compete in the winter games. They went on to become global celebrities even without even coming close to winning a single medal!<\/p>\n That\u2019s the nature of the Solomon Ogba \u2013 always seeking new grounds in sports to conquer.<\/p>\n It did not come as a surprise, therefore, when Delta State, where he wields tremendous political influence, took on the responsibility to host and organize the first such international track and field event in Nigeria\u2019s history.\u00a0 Solomon Ogba might still get the reward and honour he has obviously worked for and probably deserves, even though, some stakeholders may vehemently hold a contrary view.\u00a0 A lot has been written and said about the event.<\/p>\n This is my humble take.<\/p>\n For 7 days, last week, the track and field fraternity from across the African continent descended on Asaba for a sports festival which, under normal conditions, would have been a perfect opportunity to \u2018market\u2019 a pre-conceived social, cultural, political, or even economic agenda for the State.\u00a0 Meanwhile,\u00a0Asaba,\u00a0<\/b>a beautiful small city, the pride of Delta State has a small brand new magnificent stadium, the\u00a0Stephen Keshi Stadium complex, that was not completely ready before visitors started to arrive in the country.<\/p>\n Final-minute construction works and furnishing were still going on and created a few glitches here and there.<\/p>\n The most obvious intention of the Delta State government in hosting the event may have been to showcase the capital city and its environs as a possible future tourist destination in West Africa\u00a0because the opportunity the event presented was perfect.\u00a0 All that was needed was a seamless and smooth organization, a friendly welcome for all the visitors, a good sports event and daily social tours and programmes to entertain the visitors during the period of their stay.\u00a0 I do not know if the objectives were achieved, but the games came and went well enough.<\/p>\n As the teams departed Nigeria a few of the athletes from Cote D\u2019Ivoire, Kenya and one or two other countries vowed not to return to Nigeria following their poor experiences.\u00a0 Fortunately, such sentiments are minimal.\u00a0 \u00a0Many other athletes had a ball, dazed by the energy and vibrancy of the Asaba people and their environment. They won\u2019t forget their experiences in a hurry and cannot even wait to come back and experience, once again, the exuberance of the Nigerian people.<\/p>\n The pictures and reports out of\u00a0Asaba 2018\u00a0<\/i><\/b>are unique for those that can look beneath the poor start and minor hitches.<\/p>\n I spent some time as an athlete representative following my wards, Chioma Ajunwa and Charity Opara, around the athletics circuit in Europe, and experienced the usual atmosphere around some of the biggest events in Europe.\u00a0 I can categorically state that only very few compare with the atmosphere in the terraces of the\u00a0Stephen Keshi Stadium\u00a0<\/b>in Asaba throughout the 5-day period of the actual races.\u00a0\u00a0The media officer of the championship, Kayode Thomas, revealed on\u00a0The Sports Parliament<\/i><\/b>, the Thursday night sports matinee on television (NTA), that the IAAF President, who had initial misgivings due to some poor arrangements at the start of the games, whispered into the ears of those that mattered on the last day of the games that, following what he saw and experienced, the AFN should start to consider the possibility of hosting the\u00a0World Athletics Championship\u00a0<\/b>very soon.<\/p>\n What did\u00a0Sir Seb Coe\u00a0<\/b>see that made him dramatically change his mind and support Nigeria even without the country asking for the World championship?<\/p>\n It is the atmosphere!<\/p>\n The races were fine.<\/p>\n All the top African athletes were present.<\/p>\n The tracks, contrary to negative stories before the championship, were fine.<\/p>\n Races were very competitive and several African records were broken.<\/p>\n Nigeria lost out in her traditional areas of strength \u2013 the sprints!<\/p>\n The Kenyans retained their supremacy in the middle and long distances.<\/p>\n The South Africans demonstrated strength in diverse events.<\/p>\n What was completely different from other championships were the audiences at the stadium.\u00a0 \u00a0Every day of the 5 days of competition, the stadium, with a capacity of 22,000 spectators, was packed to the brim.\u00a0 On the final day, the spectators outside the stadium grounds outnumbered those inside.\u00a0 The roaring chants and cheers of the crowd of mostly football followers gave unprecedented electricity to the championship. Even on the tracks and field, the events were an unusual carnival of sports celebrations.<\/p>\n A football audience cheering athletes is a true spectacle. The energy of a football audience was transferred to athletics.<\/p>\n Sir Coe must have been blown away, totally taken in by the vociferous crowd, the atmosphere in the terraces, and the unprecedented chants and cheers after every shot or jump or sprint.\u00a0 The Asaba people the defining factor of the championship and made it a roaring success at the end.\u00a0\u00a0Nigerians can now start to imagine what is possible if Nigerian administrators and organisers were to pay a little bit more attention to the finer details of organizing such an international event.\u00a0 \u00a0A State, or even the country itself, could creatively use it to drive agenda beyond the games that can impact the State or country in unimaginable ways.\u00a0 That\u2019s another pointer to the power of sports to achieve major national objectives.<\/p>\n I congratulate Delta State and all those that had a hand in the making of\u00a0Asaba 2018\u00a0<\/i><\/b>a reality and success.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This past week, Nigeria was in the news all over Africa.In the capital city of Delta State, a continental sports event was held – the 21st\u00a0Senior Athletics African Championship tagged\u00a0Asaba 2018.The event was organized by the Nigeria Athletics Federation, AFN, in conjunction with a Local Organising Committee, LOC, headed by Solomon Ogba. His signature was all over it.\u00a0Solomon has always dreamt big.\u00a0 \u00a0He was a politician that became Commissioner of Sports in Delta State many years ago. Then he became president of the Nigerian Athletics Federation. Then he wanted to become President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee but failed. Then he became President of a federation with a sport that did not even exist in Nigeria, yet he groomed and presented 4 Nigerian athletes at the 2017 Winter Olympics, and created history.The girls became the toast of winter sports, the first African girls to compete in the winter games. They went on to become global celebrities even without even coming close to winning a single medal!That\u2019s the nature of the Solomon Ogba \u2013 always seeking new grounds in sports to conquer.It did not come as a surprise, therefore, when Delta State, where he wields tremendous political influence, took on the responsibility to host and organize the first such international track and field event in Nigeria\u2019s history.\u00a0 Solomon Ogba might still get the reward and honour he has obviously worked for and probably deserves, even though, some stakeholders may vehemently hold a contrary view.\u00a0 A lot has been written and said about the event.This is my humble take.For 7 days, last week, the track and field fraternity from across the African continent descended on Asaba for a sports festival which, under normal conditions, would have been a perfect opportunity to \u2018market\u2019 a pre-conceived social, cultural, political, or even economic agenda for the State.\u00a0 Meanwhile,\u00a0Asaba,\u00a0a beautiful small city, the pride of Delta State has a small brand new magnificent stadium, the\u00a0Stephen Keshi Stadium complex, that was not completely ready before visitors started to arrive in the country.Final-minute construction works and furnishing were still going on and created a few glitches here and there.The most obvious intention of the Delta State government in hosting the event may have been to showcase the capital city and its environs as a possible future tourist destination in West Africa\u00a0because the opportunity the event presented was perfect.\u00a0 All that was needed was a seamless and smooth organization, a friendly welcome for all the visitors, a good sports event and daily social tours and programmes to entertain the visitors during the period of their stay.\u00a0 I do not know if the objectives were achieved, but the games came and went well enough.As the teams departed Nigeria a few of the athletes from Cote D\u2019Ivoire, Kenya and one or two other countries vowed not to return to Nigeria following their poor experiences.\u00a0 Fortunately, such sentiments are minimal.\u00a0 \u00a0Many other athletes had a ball, dazed by the energy and vibrancy of the Asaba people and their environment. They won\u2019t forget their experiences in a hurry and cannot even wait to come back and experience, once again, the exuberance of the Nigerian people.The pictures and reports out of\u00a0Asaba 2018\u00a0are unique for those that can look beneath the poor start and minor hitches.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-development"],"gutentor_comment":0,"yoast_head":"\n