I will never support foreigners competing for Nigeria —Toni Urhobo

Coach Toni Urhobo remains a household name in athletics in Nigeria given his antecedents as an athlete and coach. The former national pole vault record holder was the chief coach of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) until January 1990 when he voluntarily retired. The product of the Government College, Ughelli, also worked briefly for Benin Republic as technical adviser. In this interview by Tribunesport’s GANIYU SALMAN, the Delta State-born coach who initiated Adopt a Soar Champ (ASC Network), a programme designed to produce medallists for Nigeria in various events at Tokyo 2020 Olympics, declares he will never support the idea of recruiting foreigners to compete for Nigeria, amid a pool of untapped abundant talents which the country is blessed with. Excerpts:

 

WHAT is your assessment of the state of athletics in Nigeria in the last eight years?

My assessment of the state of track and field events in Nigeria, simply put, is below average. I give it 25 per cent in my scoresheet. That translates into gross underachievement both in performances and administration.

 

Were you disappointed that Nigeria did not win any medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics in athletics?

No, not in the least in terms of expectations, because I was certain we would not win any medal at the Games as I was abreast of our team’s preparations and knew we were headed for a dead end. I was called upon by well-meaning Nigerians to offer solutions for improvement, which I did on at least two occasions, but my solutions were not heeded to, so I left them to their own devices. The humiliation was shameful, especially taking into account the performances of other ‘smaller’ countries with less potentialities and material resources. Yes, it was disgraceful, inexcusable, and totally avoidable. As a patriotic Nigerian, I felt sad at how Nigerians should be made to suffer something so easily preventable.

 

How was Nigeria sports being managed, especially in the 70s through the 80s?

Then, there was better sports administration at the federal and state levels. Merit was key in the appointment of technical personnel in the various sports associations. Discipline was maintained in the national and state camps, and both foreign and home-based athletes were made to understand this.

Grass-roots sports development was better managed and sports was a staple in most primary and secondary schools. It was also better value in the college system, though not nearly as much as was desirable. Even with the quota system in place, only the best, qualified and tested professionals with sound knowledge of their areas of specialisation were appointed as chief or head coaches in the various sports associations. And they were made technical representatives of the various boards of their associations. That way associations were set up in those days and the Federal Ministry of Sports was in total control of the activities of the association. This made for a synergy in the relationship.

Of course the down side was that some sports ministers sometimes exerted overbearing influences over sports associations, and the bureaucracy in the ministry often filtered down to the associations’ activities, especially with regards to when those funds were released, how they were released, and how much was actually released. There was endemic corruption, but the association heads a lot of times were obligated to sign for amounts much higher than what they actually got just to keep their programme of activities running for the good of the athletes. Well, those committed to their sport and their head coaches found a way of making do with what were given for the good of their sport, their country and the athletes.

At present, some sports federation heads have grown bigger than the supervising Ministry (of Sports), and this has led to acrimonious relationship with the supervising ministry heads. There seems to be insincerity of intent on both sides, and their cat-and-mouse game has led to the poor and ineffective running of the associations or federations. A situation where state governors contest for the presidency of the sports federations leaves room for questioning. What time or meaningful effort can a state governor devote to the administration of such sports federations which have such huge technical and administrative demands which must be met in order to generate any appreciable outcome?

As a chief athletics coach of the AFN during this period, without exaggeration or immodesty, I was well-grounded in the areas of administrative theory and practice of major sports as track and field athletics, football, tennis, basketball, and cricket. All of these were through the various training courses, locally and international I had undergone; specialising in fitness training and programming which is the two-pronged success key to high sports performance.

As far back as the 1970s and 1980s, sports had taken more prominence in the world such that only nations with better programmes and special interest in well coordinated and well executed grassroots sports development with experienced technical and administrative professionals, aggressive sports marketing and promotion activities as well as a robust private/public sector partnership can excel. Most of Nigeria’s current sports administrators may have stayed long in their jobs, mostly due to manipulations, corruption, and overbearing political influences, but a good number of them lack sufficient knowledge and practical understanding of current international practices in the administration of the sports they manage. Some may have a head knowledge of these practices and policies but lack the skill to effectively execute these plans and policies for desired results.

The most critical issue in every sport is the appointment of the chief or head coach. The English Premier League has blazed the trail in club football by not only changing the nomenclature from coach to manager; it also redefined the status, duties and stature of their club bosses. As for the chief coaches of countries, they are well respected, well-remunerated, and honored. In other words, it is no mean feat to be the chief coach of a nation because it is a highly specialised professional and technical position that warrants highly skilled and qualified persons to fill it. The appointment of a national chief or head coach should be given the serious importance or attention, adequate remunerations, authority, and honour it deserves to succeed, so no excuses can be accepted for underperformance. As regards presidents or chairmen of sports federations or associations, while a head of such does not necessarily have to be an ex-athlete of his or her sport, they need to be well grounded in sports administration. It is widely accepted that a practical experience in the technical knowledge of his or her sport is a huge advantage any federation head can leverage on for success.

 

How do you feel when you see foreign athletes compete for Nigeria at a major championship?

I have never been, and will never be in support of recruiting foreign athletes from the United States or any other country to compete for Nigeria. Although there are standard rules and guidelines for such practices in line with IAAF rule book, it is not expedient for Nigeria. Truth is… no foreign athlete in the developed world or even developing economies like China, India, South Africa, Jamaica, Kenya and the like will choose to abandon his or her own country to represent Nigeria unless the economic benefits are considerably better. If not for maladministration of many years, why in the world would AFN, with the enormous pool of sporting talents we have, choose this ignoble, unsustainably expensive, and embarrassing path? I have traversed this nation and have been all over the world; truth is no nation has the pool of athletic potential we have in this country, not even the United States. That these talents are grossly under-achieved is a purely man-made problem that can be rectified if we retrace our steps and get rid of the hiccups and clogs in the wheel of our progress.

I say no to foreign athletes taking up citizenship to represent Nigeria. Most are ‘mercenary’ athletes whose main purpose is not love of our country but money, while the rest want to use Nigeria to perform at major meets like the Olympics at our expense and to the detriment of our own athletes. There are Nigerian athletes in the diaspora with dual citizenship that we can persuade to join Team Nigeria. We already have a long-standing practice of having our sons and daughters, especially in American and European universities or professional leagues answering the national call to serve the country of their birth or parentage. If things are done right, Nigeria should not need to recruit any foreign athlete. With the right administrators, the right technical hands, the right programmes, and the right incentives and support, I believe that Nigeria can favourably compete with the best in the world. For example, if I am given adequate support, I can mobilise the kind of effort that will change the story to glory by the grace of God. I did it in the past; I can do it even better now.

On the issue of foreign coach for the AFN, I say an emphatic NO. There are still competent and well-qualified Nigerians that can handle the training of Nigerian athletes to world-class level. If the current AFN president had listened to my advice, we would have been spared the humiliation of Rio Olympics and the under-performances in other global meets. I was approached by the late Sunday Bada to help out the Federation out as a consultant. For the love of country, I accepted, and gave them very reasonable terms but, to my surprise, the current AFN boss’s feedback was that he could not afford my terms, and yet he goes to hire incompetent foreigners and not only pays them much more, but provides very favourable working conditions for them.