Ever since Nigeria and other Africa countries were divided by colonial masters for easy conquest, there has not been any known serious effort by either the colonial masters or Africans themselves to unite all the divided groups without putting their own conflicting interests first. The little unifying democratic institutions that were left behind were religiously destroyed by African dictators in their own efforts to subdue and control the poor masses forever. Nigerians and the majority of Africans were bad followers because they watch as both the military and democratic dictators destroy one ethnic group after the other. Most Africans stopped speaking out in the face of evil and evil has grown beyond the continent imaginations. Nigeria and other African countries need help to rebuild and restore democratic institutions that would provide them with a noble and respectful status in the global village. Sports should be seen as one of the best tools to accomplish the task of uniting Nigerians and other Africans because some made super-stars would be used to promote peace and unity in all the countries.
Chronic corruption has turned South Africans against their fellow Africans because they started killing non- South Africans from the town of Xenophobia in April 2015, whom they accused of taking away their jobs. People are now blaming the South Africans that are perpetuating the horrifying evils on their fellow Africans without looking beyond the killings. What if African leaders had not looted and embezzled the funds that were required to develop and create jobs in their respective countries, would there be so many job hunters from all over Africa fighting for few available jobs in South Africa? What if the South African government has been quickly engrossed in chronic corruption that the leaders followed the same mismanagement process?
A further probe in South African government might have a chilling revelation to the world, so we should wait for the outcome of whatever investigation that is going on in that lovely country now. Nigerian House of Reps recently passed state of emergency on unemployment and called on the Immigration department to tighten up the nation’s borders as non-Nigerians are suspected of taking up jobs meant for Nigerians, seriously? What happened to the nation budgets that constantly allocate about 75% to recurrent expenditures leaving less than 25% for Capital expenditures? Wake up Africa!
Nonetheless, Nigeria and other African countries cannot continue to wait on the global village before they can figure out the best ways to start uniting the divided tribes and ethnic groups. If Nigeria fails to institute programs or use sports to promote unity in the country, then every effort this administration might make would be futile, because the level of divisions perpetuated by her colonial master and Nigerian dictators cannot allow the manifestation of “common interest” that is require for building a strong nation.
Nigeria has a population of over 170 million people but would not boast of up to 10,000 Nigerians, because everyone in the country identifies with some tribes and not with overall Nigeria. Over 80% of the time, a Nigerian name just like in many African countries identifies the tribal and ethnic orientation of that individual, thereby limiting the scope of potential association of the individual. Professional sports must be one of the next frontiers of growth in Nigeria and other African countries because it breeds love and not racism or nepotism. Instead of African political leaders introducing unifying policies like sports and demographic re-orientations, they were ignorantly engross in using religion and other divisive strategies to destroy good loving Africans. Make no mistake—sports will be a bridge for unity only if African governments can spend money and engage the services of qualified personnel to oversee sporting activities in the continent.Unity is panacea to Africans moving forward, but chronic corruption must be painfully subdued and conquered at the same time, because the continent cannot live up to her potential without confronting this important issue. More importantly, African leaders must hurriedly speed up their alleged reforms because the global village might be sliding into recession by fourth quarter of 2016.
Sports breed unity, unity breeds team work, and team work breeds a unifying beautiful countries with fewer militant groups. America and other developed countries have succeeded in turning sports like Basketball, Baseball, Boxing, Football, Ice-hockey and soccer into trillions of dollar businesses. Sports is over two trillion dollar venture providing employment for over three hundred million people globally. Nigeria and other African countries need to get out of the colonial and dictatorial enslavement syndromes and use sports to start bridging the decades of divisiveness in the continent.
Racism would have still been in a higher level in America today, without the advanced development in professional sports. The racial divide in America and the global village would have made it impossible for our generation to witness Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “dream” come to fruition, when Barack Obama was sworn in on January 2009 as the 44th American president. True, racism and tribal sentiments exist in our world, but they are completely blinded by the fact that humans love winners while they emotionally sympathize with losers. The new administration in Nigeria definitely needs to create over ten million jobs within five years if democracy has to be sustained in the country. However, if the leaders embrace the development of amateur and professional sports in the country, then five million jobs will automatically be created immediately. The Nigerian government definitely needs to look into the development of sports from primary to professional levels (blue print is available up request) because in so doing, unifying ambassadors in form of superstars and stars would emerge. An average Nigerian would remember the name of the country’s football captain better than the governor of many states. Let Nigeria rise up and set good examples in the continent and President Muhammadu Buhari could achieve that once he is able to reduce corruption to a manageable level.
African leaders must speed up their monetary and fiscal policies before American Federal Reserve start raising interest rates that would drain away much of the required resources out of the continent. More details could be found on “Africa, Emerging or Tapering Continent” published 2014 and “Nigerian Promising Era” published June 2015.
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Christopher Okoli (Nigerian-American based Investment Advisor) Dated October 29th 2015
