There is doubt that Delta State is the home of sports. According to the Delta State Sports Commission chairman, Chief Tonobok Okowa, “We will continue to dominate until we are tired.” Truly they will continue to dominate not because God kept it in their custody but because they are doing the right thing.

Many accused Delta of age-cheat, some said they snatched other States’ athletes, some also gave excuses that the Youth Games was not all about winning but development, while some claimed that the Games was valueless and yet they participated in it. Another sets said Delta used referees and intimidation; and when they couldn’t see anything again, they used poor accomodations as excuses why their athletes didn’t do well.

Former Director-General of the National Sports Commission, who was also a FIFA Executive Committee Member, Dr. Amos Adamu once said, if people are talking about you whether negatively or positively, it is because you are doing well and if they are not saying anything about you, it is because you are not doing well. That is how to describe the Deltan situation. If they accuse Delta of cheating because they are hosting, but the same Delta have been participating away from home and won past editions.

Meanwhile, there are some states that cannot win the National Youth Games let alone the National Sports Festival, they know themselves and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja is one of them.

Although, the FCT athletes have been trying in their little ways but they cannot go beyond participation except they put some things in place and the only way they can achieve that is if the new Minister of FCT, Barr. Nyesom Wike intervenes and do what he did in Rivers State while he was governor. Recalled that he provided facilities like Real Madrid Academy, amongst others and also motivated athletes and players especially Rivers United despite the fact that they didn’t live up to his expectations.

Meanwhile, the following reasons are why FCT and others continue to struggle:

Lack of Facilities
Any serious State that wants to make impact in sports must provide facilities for its players, athletes, fighters, wrestlers, etc. In FCT, most of the facilities are obsolete. Some of them were provided even before FCT was formed especially the boxing ring. No place for athletes to train. And that is the case with so many States in the country. In FCT for instance, they have more than 30 football clubs fighting over who to train first and the same synthetic pitch at Area 3 which is already bad is also used to host most league matches. The worrisome aspect is that there are no place to sit and the toilet there is an eyesore and unusable especially for ladies. The other Area Councils train and play matches on muddy or dusty pitches.

It is the opposite in Delta State, that is why they can host any sporting event at any time. They are like South Africa and North Africans who can be called upon to host the African Cup of Nations, AFCON because of the facilities they have on ground.

Investigations carried out showed that every local government area in Delta has a standard mini-stadium with other sporting facilities in it hence it is easier to discover and nurture talents from every parts of the State.

In FCT, the other available facility, the Old parade is suffering from wear and tear. Ever since Emmanuel Attah left as Football Association chairman, the pitch has never been good, it is bumping because they used the pitch for all sorts including harbouring cows, usage for religious activities, musical shows, storage of items, amongst others.

Interest
Bishop David Oyedepo always says, “Where your treasure is, that is where your heart will always be. Delta State’s heart is always in sports because of what they believe in. Ever since former Governor, Chief James Ibori used sports to stop the tribal crisis that ravaged the State some years back, every other governor that have ruled after him have continued to build on that legacy. After Ibori built mini-stadia, the others including the present Governor, Chief Sheriff Oborevwori continue to add more facilities and maintain them.

The FCT must first of all show interest if they want to do well. They are supposed to be dominating in sports by now because of the assemblage of different people or talents from all walks of life who came to source for greener pastures in Abuja. The talents are actually there but no facilities because of lack of interest by past Ministers.

To prove that FCT is not ready, they changed the Sports Council to Sports Department. It is not about nomenclature but about the seriousness they attach to sports. When others are moving from Sports Ministry to Sports Commission, to give room for technocrats, they are moving to department. What that means is that anybody can head it and sports might just go into extinction.

A situation wherey you hardly see people in the office to carry out their administrative duties let alone athletes on the field practicing. The only time you see athletes, or others training rigorously or in camp for FCT is when sporting events are around the corner. In Delta, anywhere you go, as long as there is a sporting facility there, you will see people training on daily basis for the State not for clubs. They don’t wait until events are around the corner.

Funding
Funding has always been a serious issue with FCT. There is no Games or Festival they attend that they don’t borrow money. They raise money from friends and families with interest rate, to take care of their needs and fuel their vehicles. It shows the level of seriousness attached to sports. And because of that, the athletes hardly have new kits to wear and when they get, they are inferior to their mates. Most times athletes, players and others are owed for several months, sometimes, they don’t pay them and have to forget the money. It is the reason why many athletes train with them and when competitions are around the corner, they escape (japaa).

Motivation
My lecturer once told us that one of the ways to get the best out of your staff is motivation (pat on the back or encouragement or financial inducement or gift, etc). The FCT athletes are not well motivated in any way. They are not enjoying what their mates are: money to recharge their phones and call their family members and loved ones, no daily allowances, living at the mercy of the organisers to feed. They don’t have money on them to buy snacks or do small shopping, etc.

Their vests, tract suits and others are inferior and just one hence they have to be washing it on daily basis unlike their Deltan counterparts who are well-kitted with quality branded T.Shirts. Many of them have more than enough hence they don’t need to use the time for training to be washing clothes every day or borrowing canvas to practice or compete.

Just like it is said in the local parlance that, “The way you dress is the way you are addressed. There is no doubt that if your tract suits or vest or jerseys look inferior to your opponent, psychologically, you will loose the bout, or game and that is one of the reasons why Delta seems to be winning. Their outfits are intimidating and that is one area FCT must focus their attention on. The FCT is supposed to take the lead in quality and good enough, the present Minister has taste that is very high.

And to crown it all, another motivation for Deltan athletes is that the athletes and others are placed on monthly salaries and when they are entering the field, they have it at the back of their minds that their governor is going to reward them handsomely after the Games hence they will double their efforts to achieve that feat so as to enjoy the largesse. In FCT, before now, athletes go to events and are forgotten until the media starts making”Noise” for them to be rewarded.

Sponsorship Drive
There is no doubt that government cannot do everything alone, they need the corporate bodies to help and that is what FCT is not doing. Even if the headquarters of most companies in Nigeria are not in FCT, they have zonal offices/branches or contractors coming to do business in the FCTA. If comedians can get so many sponsors for their events, how much more a whole FCT.

Well, many residents will not be surprised because a situation whereby some administrators want to do things by themselves but they forgot that they are heading sports which is a team game. Once upon a time when the sports Council was deserted because a particular director of sports was doing everything all alone including photocopying documents outside his office. If only they can engage a professional marketing manager, there won’t be any need crying for money or waiting for “manna” to fall from government.

For instance, in Delta, they have sponsors line up even though they don’t have headquarters of those establishments in the State. They had many of them during the Sports Festival, some during the ongoing Youth Games and after that, the Inter-School Sports competition will commence with a bank and some others sponsoring/supporting already on ground.

The State also budgetted huge sums for sports and it is on record that they sponsor athletes representing Nigeria to International events because of the influence of the duo of Chiefs Solomon Ogba and Tonobok Okowa respectively.

One thing many States of the Federation failed to understand is that sports is a tool that can be used to eliminate or reduce crime rate. Children at teen age want to explore many things because they have the energy and of course, that is the best time to engage them in positive ventures especially sports. All of them might not be sports men or women in future but if not engaged during that period, they will engage in other negative activities.

If they are engaged in sports and they train morning and evening, they might be tired and might not have time to sit with friends to plan how to commit crime. And if you don’t engage them now positively, they will make life uncomfortable for everybody in future. This is one of the reasons why most developed countries invest more on their teenagers/youths by making life more comfortable for them.

Meanwhile, instead of pointing accusing fingers at others, the States directors and others should borrow a leaf from Delta, to move sports to another level in their various states.

Another way out is to have a deliberate policy just like Delta is doing. Bayelsa is already on it, Edo and Lagos had the same policy but their governors derailed hence they seem to be starting all over but the good thing is that many States are catching up in other sports like Wrestling, Badminton, Gymnastics, etc. That is the joy of the just-concluded National Youth Games but if they must unseat Delta State, they must put some of the things above into consideration, even though some stakeholders are enjoying Deltan dominance because of their huge investments both at the national and international levels.