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We will never abandon our sporting icons again – Buhari
The President, Muhammadu Buhari administration has assured all Nigerians, especially sportsmen and women, that the country would no longer abandon past heroes and heroines. The President mentioned this in his speech at the unveiling of Nigeria’s 60 Sports Icons, one of the events scheduled to celebrate the country’s diamond jubilee, at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, on Friday.
The President said the recent re-categorization of sports from recreation to business was targeted at ensuring professionals benefit fully from their talent and hard work.
“Today’s event is the beginning of deliberate and sustained efforts to correct the errors of past neglect of our sports heroes and heroines,” President Buhari said. “We would continue to lend the necessary support to the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development towards the actualization of the dreams of our sportsmen and women.
“The recent re-tagging and approval of sports from mere recreation to business is an attestation of this administration’s commitment to ensure that sports are used to the maximum benefit of the athletes and our economy. Sports without a doubt have the potentials to create job opportunities for our teeming youths, take them off the streets and grow our gross domestic earnings.”
In his speech, the President traveled down memory lane, recalling some historic feats by past sporting icons.
“Historically, our great country has a rich sports culture dating back to the empire games when the colonial masters used sports as a vehicle of recreation and fostering of unity. The inherent talents of young Nigerians blossomed in our schools in the pre-independent era and exploded with the exploits of talented athletes like Sam Igun who put Nigeria on the sports map with his gold medal feat at the 1966 Commonwealth Games, Emmanuel Ifeajuna also made a tremendous impact shortly before our Independence. How can the history of our sports be written without a mention of the legendary Teslim Thunder Balogun, Ogan Kid Bassey, Dick Tiger, and Power Mike, who won world titles in boxing and wrestling? Who can forget the exploits of the goalkeeping wizard Inua Rigogo, Sam Okoye, Olawunmi Majekodunmi among others?”
“As a country, we have a responsibility to not only recognize these icons but to celebrate them to inspire the younger generation to attain greater heights. From that first Olympic medal win in Boxing by Nojeem Maiyegun in 1964 to the Nations Cup win in 1980, 1984, 2013 to the feat in Atlanta 1996 to the Eaglets feats at the Under- 17 World Cup, Nigeria is a force in the comity of sporting nations. We must harness these talents to the development of our dear nation.”
The President reminded the nation that the talents that abound in those earlier periods were anchored on the die-hard Nigerian spirit, resilience, and patriotism of the great sports heroes and heroines.
“Once again, I salute the courage, determination, and patriotism of these great icons. While there are others out there who are not listed among the chosen 60 sports icons, be rest assured that your labour and love for Nigeria is not in vain,” he said.
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ELECTING A POPE: THE BURDEN OF MAKING CHOICES
By Olubunmi Mayaki
“Habemus papam!” which in the English Language means, “We have a Pope.” was pronounced by Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, a French Catholic prelate, His Eminence, Cardinal Dominique Mamberti from the iconic loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican City on Thursday 8 May 2025 after white smoke billowed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel. Those Latin words proclaimed to a tensed global audience the result of the election of a new Supreme Pontiff after the death of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) on 21 April 2025 at the age of 88 years.
The Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Cardinal Robert Prevost (Pope Leo XIV) emerged as primus inter pares (first among equals) from the cardinals after undergoing detailed election rituals, which have been the process of selecting the head of the 2000-year-old Catholic Church for centuries.
A papal conclave, the process by which a new Pope is selected, was held consisting of one hundred and thirty-three (133) College of Cardinals, drawn from different parts of the world converged at St. Peter’s Basilica for a public mass before heading to the Sistine Chapel to cast their votes to elect the 267th Pope. During the mass, part of the choir renditions reminded voters to remember their last day when they would stand before God in judgment to render their stewardship on earth, which is to prevent them from rigging the voting process. At the behest of the senior cardinal deacon, voting formalities were read to the electors, which included- oath-taking- “I call as my witness Christ the Lord, who will be my judge, that my vote is given to the one whom I believe should be elected according to God”. Other processes are banning phones, jamming calls, forbidding speaking or contacting any of the candidates, voting rounds, spiritual pauses etc.
Looking at the voting process, one should be curious about how an election to pick a leader for a religious body could be so systematic and attract such global attention. It is a sharp contrast to elections where political leaders are chosen. Even in the so-called advanced democracies, we have seen electoral flaws and a dearth of political leaders. States are finding it difficult to pick genuine statesmen, giving rise to hegemonic leaders. These political imperia ums are emerging and stoking crises in their domain. Fallouts of elections are no longer favourable due to unpopular candidates forced on citizens.
Africa, as a case study, shows that no matter the rules put in place by the continent’s leaders, our election processes have been fraught with rigging, corruption and waste. In most cases, the leaders who set the rules are the violators of the same process. Governments conspire with electoral bodies to truncate election processes at will. Such political brigandage has destroyed the progress of the continent.
Closing this view, I hope that African leaders will take a cue from the Catholic Church’s election process to reinvigorate and rejig the continent’s faltering political process for the good of its people. Better still; political scholars from the continent can study the Catholic model. The common features of elections in most parts of Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, are riddled with vote rigging, violence, human rights abuse, repression, barbarism, crises, untold hardship, and sometimes, outright war. This is the bane of Africa’s development.
The burden of making good political choices should ordinarily rest on citizens. However, politicians have hijacked this process for selfish reasons. It has given birth to bad leaders. If we fail to get it right, what we see is what we get. That is the story of the world politics!
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