BY KEN UGBECHIE

The 2022 edition of the National Sports Festival (NSF), the 21^st edition, has ended in Asaba, Delta state capital. And you don’t need to stretch your brain to guess the over all winner. It’s Delta State. They always win. Even President Muhammadu Buhari was not surprised. He attributes the victory of Delta to the supreme dominance of the state in Nigeria sports.

Buhari asserts that Delta is Nigeria’s leading state in sports development. He commended Team Delta athletes and officials for doing the state proud.

Team Delta was simply bullish in victory, winning a total of 320 gold, 200 silver and 128 bronze medals (648 medals) to emerge winners for a third consecutive time since 2018. There must be reasons why Delta has dominated the NSF. This is the same sports festival where Nasarawa, Bauchi, Ebonyi, Kebbi, Ekiti, Taraba, Jigawa, Sokoto and Gombe registered not a single Gold medal; though they won a few silver and bronze medals. Zamfara state did not win any medal, not even the one made of clay.

Team Bayelsa placed second with a total of 337 medals, comprising 132 gold, 115 silver and 90 bronze medals.

Team Edo came third with 339 medals, comprising 78 gold, 94 silver and 167 bronze medals. Oyo State disrupted the south-south states’ dominance to place 4^th with 50 gold, 51 silver and 62 bronze, a total of 163 medals, while Lagos State was 5^th with 41 gold, 57 silver, 74 bronze, a total of 172 medals.

No fewer than 14,000 athletes participated in 38 sports at the festival which was first held in 1973 at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, as a biennial sporting festival to promote national unity, peace, cross-cultural affiliation among Nigerians and ultimately enhance the development of sports. The next edition of the NSF will hold in 2024 in Ogun State.

Since 2006, the only state that has upstaged Delta was Rivers state when it hosted in 2011 and won, though controversially. The NSF has suffered hiccups, needlessly. There was no NSF in 2015. Cross River won the bid for 2014 but could not host it after Governor Liyel Imoke left office. His successor, Governor Ben Ayade jettisoned the festival upon assumption of office.

However, in 2018, Abuja moved in to save the face of the nation. The Federal Capital hosted the NSF and Delta won. In 2020, Edo was up to host. Because of Covid-19, the Edo edition was held in April 2021. Delta won. And in 2022, Delta hosted. Expectedly, Delta won. It means that since 2015 when Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa became governor of Delta, the NSF has held three times. In all three editions, Delta won, and always by a wide margin. The question is: Why always Delta? What is the x-factor that Okowa flaunts as the state’s talisman?

The answer is captured in the phrase: Sports Development. Okowa from inception never hid his intendment to make human capital development the fulcrum of his vision for the state. Aside the state’s brilliant run in education (cognitive and technical) and healthcare, Okowa has placed premium on sports development as a tool for human liberation and advancement.

Nationwide, Okowa stands out as the governor who has encouraged athletes the most. He has upgraded sporting facilities in the state. One of his strategies is to adopt athletes, send them overseas for further training and still pay them remuneration. In the national human development index, Okowa has positioned Delta as the model state. The result is the superlative performance of Delta athletes at both national sports fiestas and at the international circuit. In the last three editions of the NSF, Delta has consecutively outperformed other states by very wide margins. It’s no magic. It’s a consequence of Okowa’s deliberate policy to build and promote the total man concept in education. National development is not attained only by cognitive education. Some individuals have made a success of life – creating jobs, adding values to lives, ramping up the gross domestic products of their nations – by their remarkable achievements in sports. Though highly educated, they shunned their certificates, opting to develop their talents and skills. Today, they grace the cusp of success in society.

Just imagine how much individual footballers and their countries earned at the Qatar 2022 World Cup. For just qualifying for the Mundial, each of the 32 countries harvested millions of dollars. One of the brightest sparks at the World Cup, Kylian Mbappe of France and PSG, is currently the highest paid player in the world. He will pocket “roughly $110m between his salary and a share of his signing bonus for this season – 2022/2023”, reports Forbes. The 23-year-old, known for his burst of speed and powerful shots, will also earn an estimated $18m in annual endorsements from partners including Nike, Dior, Hublot, Oakley and Panini. Most of his mates are still undergraduates, some struggling with their postgraduate programme and many more out in the streets chasing after elusive white collar jobs.

The next top earner to Mbappe is seven-time Ballon d’Or winner, Lionel Messi, who is Mbappe’s teammate at PSG. The Argentina captain at 35, will earn a total of $110m ($65m on-pitch and $55m off-pitch) in 2022-2023 season. Note that the same Messi was born with a heath defect (growth hormone challenge) which could have shoved him into the scum of the earth club. But he found solace and success in sports, today ranked among the Greatest of All Time (GOAT).

Retired US basketballer, Michael Jordan, is currently the richest athlete in the world with a net worth estimated to be $2.2 billion in 2022. Jordan played a total of 15 seasons in the NBA for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards. Since retirement from active basketball, he became the principal owner of the Charlotte Hornets. Basketball, not cognitive learning, gave him fame and fortune.

Sport is life. Sport is wealth. A large chunk of Diaspora remittances to Brazil has come from sports: Football. A nation that develops her sports is a nation building her future. This is the context in which other governors should copy the Okowa template of bottom-up sports development.

Nigeria’s 2022 population, according to Worldometer, is estimated to be 217 million. A good 70 percent (151 million) are said to be youths, with 42 percent of the 70 percent under the age of 15. This leaves the nation with huge number of raw talents waiting to be honed.  And if you consider that 63 percent (133 million) of persons living in Nigeria, are said to be multi-dimensionally poor, then you will appreciate why every government should focus on sports development as an effective tool for poverty alleviation.

Events like the NSF presents our governors the opportunity to double their efforts and investments in grassroots sports development. Or better still, as part of the peer review mechanism at the Nigeria Governors Forum, they should entreat Okowa to avail them with the creeds and code of Delta sports development that has put the state at unassailable commanding heights in the nation’s sports agora.