Sports is usually employed as an essential instrument for development as well as a powerful tool for diplomacy.
For complete 16 days between August 1 and 16, 1936, the world’s attention was focussed on Chancellor Adolf Hitler as Berlin in Germany dramatically but symbolically played host to the 11th edition of the Olympic Games. Berlin had already been billed for the Games before the Nazis came into power. It( the Nazi government) therefore exploited every opportunity offered by the Olympics media glitz to market its policies and concepts to the world.
That sophisticated idea sensationally worked miracles for Hitler and his Nazis gladiators.
Two leading African leaders who practically understood the immense potentialities of sports were Ghana’s Kwane Nkrumah and DR Congo’s Mobutu Sese Seko. Both men invested heavily nay positively into sports and both of them as well as their countries reaped bountifully from their respective investments.
It is on record that Nkrumah built Ghana’s Black Stars into a continental brand that the national team was on several occasions nicknamed Black Stars of Africa. That absolutely brought well tailored global attention to Ghana, with its attendant economic prosperity.
On the other hand, Mobutu, sensing his government was in dire straits and in the shambles, as the world was poignantly treating then Zaire as a pariah state, quickly brought the famous Rumble in the Jungle fight between returnee Muhammed Ali and George Foreman, to his country.
It was indeed a master stroke as the international media directed their gaze, positively, on Mobutu’s Zaire. That singular diplomatic move was intricately launched by Mobutu so as to attract international attention for economic, social and political progressions.
Here in Nigeria, the regime of the late General Sani Abacha knew the gains inherent in a well articulated international sports diplomacy. It therefore did all it could to ensure Nigeria’s successes at both the Tunisia ’94 Nations Cup Finals as well as the USA ’94 World Cup Finals.
It was the first time Nigeria would qualify for the Mundial. Even, the regime made it possible for Nigeria to hit gold at the soccer event of the 1996 Olympic Games and all the good rewards accruing from such a . monumental feat was ascribed to the hitherto discredited and maligned Abacha’s regime.
When Rt Hon Emeka Ihedioha emerged Imo State governor, he not only made sports a hallmark of his administration but, he also employed it as a guide for growth and compass for development.
Unlike Hitler, Nkrumah, Mobutu and Abacha who categorically used sports as a means of image laundering and propaganda, Ihedioha’s idea of sports was pragmatically to use it to drive growth in the rural communities and bring about development in the urban areas.
With sports, Ihedioha was poised to systematically hold insecurity at bay, fight unemployment by engaging the youths actively thereby creating jobs, as well as using it as a social crusade for the overall well being of the citizenry.
To achieve such noble highpoints, Ihedioha, a man of notable achievements, created the Imo State Sports Commission which the Imo State House of Assembly passed into law thereby scrapping the ministry of sports. The commission had a board, even as the director of sports provided all the needed administrative backups.
For the newly created sports unit to fly and deliver, Ihedioha looked into his crystals and appointed an international sportsman of repute, Chief Fan Ndubuoke, the chairman of the commission. It was a perfect match.
Within two months, sports in Imo State took an encouraging shape. The reconstruction and refurbishment of the Dan Anyiam Stadium were awarded, ditto The Grasshoppers International Handball Pitch. The indoor sports hall was under reconstruction, with an Olympic sized gym, the basketball, tennis, badminton and volleyball courts witnessed all manner of rehabilitation.
The athletes, coaches and managers were given new leases of life as their outstanding salaries, allowances and pensions were paid. To crown it all, sports equipment was imported to enhance both the coaches and athletes performances. In addition and to ensure that his vision of engaging the youths through sports was well delivered, Ihedioha embarked upon the construction of a stadium in each of the 27 Local Government Areas of the state.
The mission was to use sports to make Imo youths self dependent. To make them believe in themselves. In fact, the mission was for the youths to be proud of who they are by their own performance, using their God given talents and skills.
Primary and secondary schools sports were reintroduced. The once suspended LGA Sports Competition was revived and re- started. Imo athletes scattered all over the country, and few special cases, in Africa, were recalled. An understanding was reached between the commission and the ministry of education for the establishment of Imo Sports Academy.
As a follow up, an Imo Sports Summit was held with the now late Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu as special guest of honour. The essence was to hammer it home into the minds of athletes and coaches, the new line of sports in the state. It really caught fire!
Imo was sparkling with various sports events that during an official tour, the then sports minister, an APC and Federal Executive Council member, proclaimed it, not in hush tones, but on the mountaintop, that “Imo State is now the home of sports in Nigeria”.
The minister’s testimony was a simple truth made public by a man who ought to know. Remarkably, the minister’s pronouncement gave credence to Ihedioha’s avowed mantra of sports being a pathway to economic prosperity and infrastructural development.
The real philosophy was to recreate new generation of Sam Okwarajis, JayJay Okochas, Nwankwo Kanus, Emmanuel Amunikes; Chioma Ajunwas, the Ezinwa Brothers, and Chidi Imos of this world in Imo State.
It must be frankly noted here that Ihedioha achieved those sports milestones within his shortlived seven months reign because he has effectively mastered the art of democratic processes and procedures. In other words, Ihedioha is a leader with panache, an administrator par excellence and a man of vision who has the required skills to provoke massive development across fields.
To have comprehensively resuscitated the dilapidated sports orbit in Imo within seven months truly demonstrates Ihedioha’s pedigree as an expert at managing men and resources. His report card on sports in the short period he reigned shows the former deputy speaker of the Federal House of Representatives as a man who can make things happen for the benefit of all. Omenkeahuranya is a man of honour, integrity and character.
