Senator John Owan Enoh: How to succeed as a Sports Minister
Professor Emmanuel Ojeme
Consequent upon President Tinubu’s Ministerial appointments, Hon. Senator John Owan Enoh, of Cross-River State emerged as the Minister of Sports Development.
Hon. Minister, three gboza for you and huge congratulations for your appointment as the 36th Sports Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. At 57 years of age, one can say that you have the energy and verve to drive and direct the affairs of sports development in Nigeria and we all pray for your tenure to be one of testimonies of great accomplishments in sports development. It is our belief that you will quickly gear up for the task ahead in the next four years of your tenure as the Chief Sports Officer of Nigeria at this period.
As a concerned stakeholder, this writer has volunteered to provide some tips that perhaps would be useful to you in your quest to make a mark of legacies in sports development in Nigeria. In this regard it would be necessary to enumerate and briefly explain some facilitatory ingredients for sports development, which is the main purpose of your ministry, as follows:
1. What is sports development?
2. Factors of sports development
3. Benchmarks or indices of sports development
1. What is sport development?
In a nutshell, sports development could be conceived as the operationalisation of the independent and dependent variables of sports to bring about elevated attainment of set objectives in different aspects of sports in terms of;
a. Sports institutions and organisations
b. Sports infrastructural facilities and equipment availability and maintenance
c. Sports personnel training
d. Athletes vertical and horizontal training programmes participation and welfare of athletes and personnel
e. Sports programmes and competitions
f. Sports finance and investment
g. Pragmatic sports research and knowledge development.
From the foregoing, it could be gleaned that sports development is a cross-cutting multi-sectoral endeavour and the helmsman of the process must be capable of mobilising and synthesising these sectors into a unified whole to achieve the objectives of sports development in Nigeria which would be measured in terms of;
1. The extent to which the process is driven by a properly articulated compass (sports development policy).
2. Whether the sports institutions and organizations are effective and efficient in the discharge of their responsibilities
3. Where there are square pegs in square holes in relation to their roles and positions
4. The multiple sports programmes in Nigeria are running smoothly
5. There is a differentiation between ‘chefs’ and ‘nutritionists’ or ‘technicians’ from ‘engineers’ in role assignments, metaphorically speaking. Is the Hon. Minister able to differentiate knowledgeable and trained professionals in role assignments and engagements as sports development is knowledge driven?
6. Whether there is consistency in the deployment and application of Nigeria sports development compass such as the sports industry policy and the football development blueprint developed by Hon. Sunday Akin Dare, former Minister of Sports. Without a policy in line, sports development can hardly be systematic and purposeful.
7. Bridging the gaps in all areas of sports development that are evident today.
It is thus obvious that Hon. Senator John Owan Enoh would need to quickly assemble a core of cognate stakeholders to articulate a distilled template that could be useful in his assignment of taking Nigerian sports to the next level.
Furthermore, it must be noted that Nigeria has great potential for excellence, nationally and internationally if the right things are done as a successful sports sector development, no doubt means so much to Nigeria in terms of:
1. Youth development
2. National integration
3. Economic development
4. International diplomacy
5. Enhancement of Nigeria’s image
6. Technological development
7. Positive health impact and fitness of the citizenry, amongst others
The ball is now on your court and make hay while the sun shines. Goodluck and best wishes, Hon. Senator John Owan Enoh, Minister of Sports Development. Hoping that the ideas in this brief article would be useful in your pilot of Nigeria’s sports development affairs in the next four years. History beckons on you and sports scholars and stakeholders are taking note as you march on in the execution of this task. You can count on us as partners in this endeavour.
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PROF. EMMANUEL OJEME
EMAIL:successojeme@yahoo.com
