By Karo OGBINAKA
The 2022 NUGA games recently came to a close at the University of Lagos. It was well-organized. The host university and its leadership should be commended.
The University of Lagos will surely have a lasting, good and memorable impression on the athletes and other universities participants.
The university used the opportunity to showcase its facilities and serene and well-kept learning environment. The University of Lagos is simply one community where municipal services, especially uninterrupted electric power and water supplies are guaranteed.
Throughout the tournament, traders had a field day. It provided a great opportunity for sales of various goods. During the sports festival, there was also a showcase of arts, cultural and musical festivals.
The entire university community was colourful as it was painted by a diverse array of visitors and sport personalities Sports activities are big businesses today. Sports positively enhance the corporate image of organizations that identify with it.
Nigerian universities were reputed for their contributions to Nigerian Sports, especially the quality athletes they offered. This has waned over the years.
But in the University of Port Harcourt, there seems to be hope. The final result of the week-long games easily established that it was a one-horse race for which University of Port Harcourt had no mates as fellow competitors, The Trumpet gathered.
Why would other universities not go to the University of Port Harcourt to adopt their successful sports’ model? Why do we as a people fail to adopt good models?
It amounts to a waste of limited university funds if thousands of our youth are gathered in one arena for sporting competition that is devoid of true competition.
Only competition brings out the best in athletes, and would consequently lift them up into becoming internationally rated athletes. The argument may be put forward that the universities are not established to promote sports. This argument is only tenable to a one-dimensional thinker.
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Universities ought to be centres where the best of our youth’s abilities are discovered and developed to their full potentials. The development of the full potentials of our undergraduates in other life skills they may possess is missing in our school system – in music, entertainment and in all other aspects of human creativity.
There are two ways the youth of any nation may be perceived. Negatively, they may be adjudged as a liability. Where this is the case, institutions see them as enemies that should be kept at bay.
Many public institutions from primary to tertiary levels usually treat the youth under their stead as liabilities that should be dispensed as quickly as possible.
The other way of treating the Nigerian youth is seeing them as agents of development, change and national pride. We subscribe to this attitude.
Here, we proposal a reversal of the negative trend as well as argue that a platform for sporting programme that is built upon a business model, should be adopted and developed by all Nigerian universities.
The gain of this is that Nigerian undergraduates would constitute the base of Nigerian Sports. Consequently, we suggest that all our tertiary institutions should set up Sports Academies.
The academies should be domiciled at the Sports Centres and headed by a competent staff that must not be lower than a Senior Lecturer in status. It should also be affiliated with the relevant sports bodies in Nigeria.
All athletes affiliated to the academies should be recruited and put under contract.
There is also the need to use the foundation and pre-degree programmes of our universities to attract secondary school pupils within the catchment areas of the universities into the academies.
Such athletes should be registered as would-be programmed athletes; and subsequently admitted into relevant departments depending on their performance after the requisite qualifying examinations such as UTME, JUPEB and IJMB.
In doing this, the institutions should be guided by the age of the athletes, and their ability to cope with the stress of university education.
One is convinced that with relevant counseling, an average student should be able to succeed in sports and learning even to the highest level. In order to hold a successful sports event, new facilities were built and old ones were rehabilitated or upgraded.
What would be the post-NUGA state of these facilities? It is doubtful if there is any university in Nigeria that is capable of maintaining such huge infrastructural outlay.
Not even the Federal and State governments have been able to maintain the various stadia spread across the country. Events are hardly held in these stadia to keep their facilities occupied and busy.
The best way to save these capital intensive structures from decay and waste is to either convert them to sports training institutions or academies for our youth; for whom they were set up in the first place.
Not many primary and secondary schools in cities like Lagos and Port Harcourt can boast of play grounds and facilities for sports. It is thus suggested that those who run our universities should liaise with the relevant ministries in the various states so that schools can register and be attached to their sports academies.
This will also keep the various universities coaches engaged throughout the year. Most universities’ coaches idle away in our campuses except during the “season of NUGA.”
This makes them obsolete in the art of their chosen profession. The gains of the NUGA games may be appraised by what we do after the games.
That is by learning our lessons and turning our losses into good success. The performance of most of the privately owned universities was quite appalling.
The just concluded NUGA games was clearly a completion between team University of Port Harcourt and others. If the medals won by all other universities are added and put in a common pool, they would still not beat the University of Port Harcourt.
Therefore, NUGA, as the games organizing body, must go to the University of Port Harcourt to understudy her winning template in order to recommend same for the other universities in Nigeria.
Just as FIFA does, the games’ tournament is as good as how athletes are prepared for it. NUGA must have an assessment and accreditation team that moves around universities to monitor their sports facilities and training programmes.
