SPORTS DEVELOPMENT AND NATION BUILDING: THE ROLE OF SWAN
Press Releases May 22, 2018 Dianabasi Effiong
A Paper Presented At The 54th Full Council Meeting Of SWAN On Wednessday16th May, 2018, Hotel Presidential Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Peter Esuh
Professor of Marketing Communications
And Applied Rhetoric
Department of Communication Arts
University of Uyo, Nigeria
PROTOCOL
It is imperative to observe the ubiquitousness of sports as it traverses every fabric of human endeavour. The 19 century had witnessed the evolution of sports in a sophisticated direction but between the 20th and 21st century, the dynamics of sports is measured with the general syndrome of globalization and advancement in technology. It is one activity that has helped in shrinking cultural and social barriers in human history and one if not the best way to fight racism. The human passion that follows sports is perhaps second to religious revivalism of the nineteenth century. Of late, there is so much passion in sports which accentuate the continuum of patriotism. From the Greco-Roman era to the technology driven era, sports have always created the spark for nation building. It is the stimulant of the vitality of youthfulness annexed in a positive direction towards the vibrancy of any society. Consequently, one can through sports activities and development measure human development and civilization.
With the capacity of sports to mirror the society in this direction, one can easily find sports culture as a dominant culture of the 21st century.
The Nigerian nation of over 200 million people with about 450 ethnic nationalities comes alive with vigor and steam during sporting activities. In less than a month, the world will gather in Russia to celebrate one of the major sporting activities -the 2018 FIFA World cup. The frenzy of this is already gathering momentum in Nigeria as the adrenaline for patriotism is ignited.
The essence of this great gathering today is sports, and it is pertinent to define sports as any physical activity carried out under agreed set of rules, with a recreational purpose for competition or self – enjoyment or a combination of both, that contributes to physical fitness, mental well-being and social interaction.
The importance of sports as a catalyst for human development and nation building is captured in the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 585 entitled, “sports as a means to promote education, health, development and peace”. Sports provide a forum to learn skills such as discipline, confidence and leadership and teach role principles such as tolerance, cooperation and respect. Sports teach the value of effort and to manage success and defeat. Thus, it is a powerful vehicle through which the United Nations can work towards achieving its goals.
To achieve sports development and nation building, the sportswriter is an exceptional journalist who watches the sails and the horizon of sports and positions it through promotion and presentation as the object of national cohesion and growth.
Sports Development in Nigeria
Yazid (2014) sees sports development as the gradual increase, attainment and advancement of sports from low level strata to a higher level or strata with due consideration of the indices that enhance the realization and actualization of sports. These indices include; sports policy, sports personnel, sports programme (training and competition), funding, facilities and sponsorship.
It is important to submit that sports are an important part of the Nigerian Culture today. The interest and popularity of sports affect political, social, economic and educational dimensions of our existence as a nation. Like the media, sports mirror the society. According to Amuchie (1999), games provide a touch stone for understanding nation’s progress and civilization. Sports in other climes are one of the social services of governance.
Sports development therefore is the promotion of sport activities for the community and depends largely on effective partnership and networking with a wide range of people, service providers, facility operators, voluntary groups, national, state and local authorities and private concerns. The sports development continuum Is a model that represents persons’ involvement in sports by what stage they are. It also highlights the route a performer can take to become an elite performer. This model has four stages:
· The foundation stage
· The participation stage
· The performance stage
· The excellence stage
To understand sports development, an attempt is made here to see development as a process of enlarging people’s choices and increasing the opportunities available to all members of the society based on the principles of inclusion, equity and sustainability, with emphasis on increasing opportunities for the current and future generations. Sports can directly build capacities. Development of core sports is therefore a precondition to use sports as a tool for national development.
However, Kienka (2016) observes that “there is insincerity of purpose, speed, lack of respect for athletes and the failure of not seeing sports as the second largest employer of labour that would create wealth for the athletes, their parents, their communities and society at large”. Kienka observes further that Egypt was able to oust Nigeria from the 2017 AFCON qualifier despite turmoil in that country because sports was not affected by the politics and interest there as they have an entrenched sports system that no matter what happens, it remains operational . He concludes that this is not the case with Nigeria.
In discussing sports development in Nigeria therefore; it is judicious to asses our spots policy so as to factor in the ingredient needed for the next stage of our sports development.
Nigerian sports were first noted in 1950s. Nigeria had its first appearance in the Helsinki Olympic Games in 1952, and its first victory in 1954, when Emmanuel Ifeajuna won a gold medal in the high jump at the Commonwealth Games in Vancouver, Canada. In 1962, the National Sports Council was set up, and in 1971, the National Sports Commission with the following terms of reference:
· To coordinate and integrate efforts to raise the standard of performance in sports in Nigeria.
· To encourage the development, organization and participation of sports in Nigeria.
· To make any arrangement on behalf of the states’ sports councils for competitions technical assistance, recruitment of coaches and for any other matters as the commission sees fit.
· To promote physical fitness and general well-being of all persons in Nigeria.
In terms of physical football, the Nigeria football Federation was created in 1945.
Sports policy is the standard guideline and blueprint or action plan for the development and management of sports in Nigeria. The sports development policy for Nigeria 1989, categorized sports development under five components –International sports, indigenous sports, stadium management sports, institutional sports and sports Associations.
The policy guidelines included in the 2009 document include:
· To develop sports to become an instrument of national unity.
· Utilize achievements in sports to boost the country’s image in the comity of nations.
· Develop athletes, coaches, technical officials, sports scientists, sports medical practitioners and administrators to be among the best in the world.
· Attract major international sporting events to Nigeria and exploit their benefits for tourism and the economy.
· Use sports as an avenue to minimize anti-social behaviour
· Promote sports as a means to generate employment and create wealth.
· To give opportunity to the physically challenged persons to participate in sports of their choices.
· Encourage private sector investment in all sectors of sports.
· Ensure utilization of information technology to collect sports data for effective planning and dissemination of information.
· Encourage the provision of recreational and sporting facilities by the three tiers of government.
· Ensure adequate and proper funding of sports at all levels.
· Promote school and institutional sports development and competition at all tiers of government.
· Ensure that sports is an integral part of curriculum of educational institutions at all levels (Nursery, primary, secondary, tertiary)
· Encourage mass participation in sports and recreation with the view to using exercise for the improvement of the general health and fitness of citizens.
The philosophy of sports policy is to encourage participation in sports as avenue for enhancing of health, exhibition of innate physical attributes, expression of talents, skills and alleviation of poverty. The vision is to: establish a technically efficient institution equipped with the desired professional manpower, resources, right equipment and well maintained facilities for sports development and participation. The mission of this policy is to develop the sports sector to a world class level where it would provide continuous improvement of quality of life for the entire citizenry to the extent that Nigeria would be recognized as one of the leading sporting countries in the world . Our sports policy is based on the following values:
1. Fair play
2. Social justice
3. Equity
4. Self-reliance
5. Discipline
The former Minister of Sports, Tammy Danagogo sums up our documented sports development approaches thus: “Nigeria has blue print for sports development but lacks the will to implement it” According to Danagogo , “the document is bigger than the Chambers Dictionary”. It could be adduced that the national sports development policy is not functional, sports development does not have active base in educational institutions and communities. There is inadequate legislation to stimulate sports development .There is inadequate funding of sports and sports programmes. The National Institute of Sports does not have the capacity to fulfill its core mandate, while the few existing sports facilities in the country are either not functional or fully utilized. Mitchell Obi, president International Sports Press Association (AIPS) Africa, asserts that “the Economic blue prints the Vice President (Osibanjo) came out with included sports as an afterthought”. According to Obi, the way forward is there in the vision 2020 master plan.
To achieve national sports development, Nigeria and the key players must concentrate efforts on sports policy, professionalism, institutions, infrastructure, programmes, funding, promotion and regulation.
Sports and Nation Building
There is no need to overemphasize the role of sports in nation building because it is obvious in every realm of association of a people. Sports trigger patriotism more than anything else on the planet earth. Whenever there is a competition within or outside Nigeria, it is sports that construct the identity or national symbol that the country can rally behind. In sports, the whole country works towards a common goal or purpose thus unifying it. It creates a feeling of belonging and gives everyone an identity that they belong too. During such engagements, there is no Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba Middle Belt and Niger Delta. You hardly would recognize a Muslim, Christian and an atheist. Everyone is a Nigerian without agitation for separation. People forget terrorism, war, hunger, hardship and untold conditions as sports generate a catharsis and kind of orgasmic climax although sometimes temporary in nature.
National teams’ success brings optimism about the general future. It encourages investment in sporting merchandise which stimulates the economy. Hosting a major sports competition or event attracts high profile tourist and money into the economy. The drawback of not hosting sporting competition leads to lack of infrastructure and infrastructural decay, with attendant high cost of repair. Most of our stadia are in decay as a result of this whereas, during major sporting events, the economic effect triggers down to the common man on the street hawking his wares. Countries with this knowledge work extra hard to host major sporting events. Nigeria needs to identify areas of strength in sports and encourage the hosting of major competitions.
Sports create the enabling environment for social change, as it helps bring together groups who ordinarily would not want to interact together. The impact of winning a major tournament or even participating in one is catalytic to social re-engineering. We can remember with nostalgia the 1994 World Cup, 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the 2016 Olympics in Brazil the various Cup of Nations we have won and the grade competitions we have participated as a country and won. Sports brings hope to the lives of thousands of destitute children in the slums. It helps to slow down crime rate and make positive impact on school drop outs. Most of our stars today played street soccer in the slums. Sports create positive attitude and hope among our youths. There is link between sports heroes and imitation of behaviour.
Sports are a tool of international politics and can be used to create international political disposition to fight a cause. In 1976 after spending a week and half in Olympic Games village Montreal Canada, Nigeria withdrew from the games before the opening ceremony and decided to boycott the game in protest to South Africa apartheid regime. This scenario repeated in 1978 in Algiers, Algeria and Nigeria also in the process boycotted the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton Canada.
Nations where sports participation forms part of the national agenda tend to encourage and support youth participation and create capacity for optimal performance. A patriotic mindset and the tenacity to represent your country with commitment and sense of pride show how you feel about your country. In sports, Nigeria has truly established herself so much that our absence in any major continental and global tournament is noticeable. We have done well in football, weight lifting, tennis, sprints, taekwondo, wrestling, jumps, athletics etc. We have set the pace in sports for other African countries and in the process built a sense of pride within our country, African continent and the black race.
Sports have tremendous health benefits for our society. As a physical exercise sports is good for the body, mind and spirit. Sports teach accountability, dedication, leadership, team spirit and other skills. It can help teach us fitness goals and maintain healthy weight; encourage healthy decision making as in smoking and drug abuse. It lowers the chance of osteoporosis or breast cancer. It boosts self- esteem, reduces pressure and stress. A healthy nation is a productive nation.
The impact of nation building is a popular theme in political science and sociology. It is as Labuschagne (2010) observes, hardly surprising that many scholars have studied the potentials of sports as a nation builder in a fragmented society. Those who study the dynamics of sports have accepted that sport is inseparable from nationalism and that it can form a powerful tool in the hands of politicians. Yet, there is also a perception that sports has an inflated status as a social unifier in that it is nothing more than a durational patriotism. With the unique ethnocratization and fragmentalization of Nigeria, whether it is lasting or durational patriotism, sports impact is a disiratum.
Thus, the comparative advantages of sports when used strategically can:
1. address barriers to inclusion
2. act as a platform for building knowledge and awareness
3. build relationship within and between communities and nations
4. foster peer to peer communication that can be critical in building bridge between attitude shifts and behavioural change.
It is deductible, to state here that sports play an important role in promoting nation building, social cohesion and healthy lifestyle. However, unfortunately our sports sector is often plagued by corruption allegations, mismanagement of funds, power struggles etc. all of which hinder our progress as a nation. Challenges facing sports have adverse effects on all facets of our national development.
SWAN, Sports Development and Nation Building
Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) was created on February 1, 1964 and is charged with coordinating the activities of the Nigerian media in the promotion of sports and their socio-cultural values. The National president Honour Sirawoo, in his letter of invite to me, asserts that this lone professional sports journalists association in Nigeria, covers editors, reporters, photographers , researchers, bloggers, cameramen, among others, and that it is an affiliate of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS).
Guided with this assertion, which is in line with the expressed statutes of the association, it is pertinent to understand who a sportswriter is. A sports writer is a special breed of journalist who through the process of news gathering and reporting, delivers engaging and informative news on sports to readers, listeners and viewers through the various media of communications, which includes; television, radio ,newspaper ,magazine, websites ,blogs and media platforms. They may work directly with media houses or as freelance and syndicate their stories to variety of news outlets; the sport writer is therefore a sports journalist. A sport journalist’s duties and job description depends on the media he or she works with.
Sports writing or reporting used to be treated as a branch of journalism that is less stressful, where reporters simply enjoy a game with fans and write stress free account of what they watched. This perhaps is the reason sports department in media houses used to be mocked. Boyle (2006) opines that a reflection of this view was the reason it was seen as sloppy journalism with unserious news reports. The glowing importance of sports in the 21s century has perhaps wiped away this disparaging perception of sports journalism; as sports has grown in wealth, power, influence, national and international status. The dominant political, economic and socio-cultural influence of sports has made a sports journalist or writer in other climes a most sought after.
Nwabueze (2009 p. 302) submits that “sports journalism is now a serious business, often involving issues that seem tougher than what is available to the general news department. Sports reports now have to follow not just sports trends but trends in other sectors”. Today, reporting sports has become one of the toughest areas of journalism profession. Sports reportage goes beyond the traditional reporting to other areas of sports violence, rancor, enmity, international diplomacy, favouritism, reputation management etc.
To understand the role of SWAN, we need to get adequate knowledge of its aims and objectives in the modern day sporting environment. To understand the value chain of the objectives of SWAN, one must first understand the functional principle for its set up. The constitution of SWAN in its preamble professes: “we the professional sports journalists of Nigeria and members of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), resolve this first day of February, 1964, to create a corporate body to be known as the “Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) charged with coordinating the activities of the Nigerian Media in the promotion of sports and their socio – cultural values. Upon this mission, SWAN was established to achieve the under listed aims and objectives:
1. To coordinate the activities of all professional sports writers in the country.
2. To develop and sustain a spirit of solidarity among members without infringing on their individual rights as journalists or as citizens.
3. To defend and uphold the moral and professional rights of members.
4. To explore avenues towards ideal working facilities for members.
5. To contribute through advise, suggestions, criticisms or other means to development and growth of sports in Nigeria and elsewhere.
6. To initiate and engender steps aimed at the continuous training and upgrading of sports writers locally and abroad.
7. To ensure that statutes of organization to which the association is affiliated is respected.
8. To collaborate and promote closer relationship between the association and other stakeholders in the sports industry.
9. To collate and circulate information to and among its members and to convey to other organizations its views and decisions.
10. To establish, maintain, publish, and distribute its official publication.
11. To assist all sports organization by providing the needed expertise.
12. To encourage and assist in the setting up of branches in the states.
13. To engage in any other purposeful things as may advance the cause of sports journalism in Nigeria and elsewhere.
Although it is a well-crafted bundle of objectives, there is no objective/ aim that is directly linked to sports promotion, nation building and national development, it is perhaps embedded in the motto of the association “unity through sports”.
The nexus of this discourse is SWAN, Sports Development and Nation Building. To understand the role of SWAN in nation building, we must appreciate our developmental strides and acknowledge sports indices to nation building. Earlier on, this paper has taken more than a cursory look in this direction. Consequently, the mainstay of Sports Writers Association in nation building must first be assessed from its role in the overall development of sports in the area of partnership with local, state, federal and private concerns, contribution to sports policy development, professional and ethical issues, sports institutions, sporting infrastructure, sports programmes, facilities, funding, promotion and regulation of sports/regulatory institutions and enabling laws.
The motto of SWAN encapsulates the role of the role of Sports Writers Association in nation building. If sports writers build sports, the inadvertently build national unity, patriotism, cohesion and the mental well-being of our country. However, SWAN plays a key role in the following dimensions:
1. SWAN has brought about the development and transformation of sports in Nigeria. Sports provides employment by encouraging the development of sports; sports infrastructure and programmes, SWAN helps in creating employment, wealth and revenue generation for media houses, individuals , sports stakeholders and government.
2. SWAN activities have direct and indirect bearing on the economy of Nigeria as a nation. Sports writers fight corruption in high places ,they expose decay in our sporting polity including decay in infrastructure and facilities,moral decadence, abuse as well as draw attention to them. Sports writers were in most cases the exposers of tournament thus bringing about hosting rights that boost the economy of the people, cities, and states, including security network. A few times Nigeria hosted FIFA Age Grade Competitions; the rip-off was of great economic importance.
3. In the process of doing this, SWAN helps to boost and develop tourism in Nigeria. When major tournaments are held, a lot of people (tourist) move in and depend on the dexterity of the sports journalist to showcase the tourism potentials of the country.
4. When we watch sports and engage in its recreational content, we forget that it is the sports writers that help the media to perform one of its cardinal functions – entertainment. SWAN approach to sports coverage brings about not only the commercial importance of sports to make that sense of pleasure for the well- being of citizens but the social interaction therein provides platform for patriotism and national unity.
5. It is the sports writers that bring to light the performance of our sports men and women, scouting, profiling, talent search and talent exposure.
6. The political angle of sports journalism portends that sports does not only foster nation building but would bring peace and unity. By amplifying sports events and talents, the impact of such events and talents are felt nationally and globally and countries so concerned have a sense of pride of the teams and talents. Moreover, through interpretative sports reporting, sports writers explain implication of sporting engagements within and between nations, including nations with poor diplomatic dispositions against each other.
7. The commercial importance of sports to media houses has led to the sustainability of the media industry and the creation of employment for media workers, especially the sports writers.
To play the role, the president of SWAN stated on the Tide online in 2015: “our task is sacred and demands high sense of responsibility“; it is this sacredness and the demands that should inform its ethical consideration and a re-ordering of its conceptual approach to reporting. Consequently for the SWAN to play its role effectively it must recondition itself in its reportage based on the principles of investigative reporting, descriptive, expository and narrative presentation of sports and its attendant role in nation building.
It behooves to insist that the sports journalist needs better working environment and welfare package; and encouragement from the industry to do well. There should be increased budgetary allocation to sports, and a serious drive for private investment.
The vibrancy of our youths can properly be engineered through sports and those who are concerned with the propagation of sports are doing a great service to the internal and external reputation management of this country, such people should be rewarded appropriately.
There should be enabling laws to protect the sports journalist and sports generally. The SWAN in partnership with the National Assembly should come up with a bill to establish a University of Sports in Nigeria. Sports has been identified as the second largest employer of labour and creator of wealth, establishing such a university as is found in the UK, India, United States etc., will expand the horizon of knowledge, impact on sports development and the general well- being of the country.
Institutions of higher learning especially the universities should be encouraged to establish departments of sports, not necessarily physical and health education. Such, will lead to the production of adequate manpower, infrastructure, facilities and better standard of sports journalism.
There is a popular saying in Nigeria, that when you build the youths, you build the society. Syllogistically, SWAN is a major stakeholder in sports development, SWAN is therefore a major stakeholder in nation building. Consequently, when you build SWAN in proper perspective you are building the nation.
As you cogitate the issues arising from this discourse I wish the 54th National Council Meeting healthy deliberations. Thank you and God bless!
References
Acemoglu, Daron (2005). Politics and Economics in Weak and Strong States. Journal of Monetary Economics 52, 199 – 226.
Amuchie, F. A. (1999). Problems and Prospects of Sport Growth and Development in Nigeria’s Institutions of Higher Learning. Journal of Nigerian association for Physical Eduaction, recreation, Sport and Dance. Special edition.
Goldberg, Daniel (2015). The Role of Sport in Nation Building. Prezi.net.
Labuschagne, P. (2010). The Impact of Sport on Nation Building: A Critical Analysis of South Africa and the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Research gate.net.
Nwabueze, Chinenye (2009). Reporting: Principles, Approaches, Special Beats.
Owerri: Top Shelve Publishing.
National Sports Policy Document
Robinson, James A. (1998). Theories of Bad Policy. Journal of policy Reform 1, 1- 46.
SWAN Statutes Document.
Dianabasi Effiong
