“With up to five Nigerian-born Athletes at the World U20 Championships for Bahrain, and seven of them set to represent Bahrain at the Rio Olympics, it is high time that Nigerians awoke to the fact that there is virtually no functioning athletics development structure in Nigeria currently.” – Bambo Akani, founder Making of Champions.
What is ‘the’ B(ah)rain drain?
I honestly feel there’s no need to explain this. I mean it’s quite self-explanatory. Brain drain = Bah-rain drain.
Caught it yet?
No? Shame, if by now, you haven’t caught the wit. I’ll just explain then.
The Bahrain drain is the emigration of stellar and highly talented Nigerian athletes to the kingdom of Bahrain, an island country in the Persian Gulf, surrounded by the sea and other magnificent kingdoms like Saudi Arabia and Qatar (technically, Qatar is not referred to as a kingdom. But it is ruled by a monarch, so why not?)
Back to the matter at hand. So Nigerian athletes are migrating to this island?
Yes they are, in throngs. According to a report by writer, Bambo Akani, quite a number of talented Nigerian athletes are giving up their nationality and identity to chase their dreams.
Precious Moses, now Moussa Ali Issa
Endurance Essien Udoh, now Iman Isa Jassim
Lolade Shodiya, now Basira Sharifa Nasir
Abbas Abubakar Abbas
Aminat Yusuf Jamal
Kemi Adekoya, Ofonime Odiong, and Femi Ogunode, these are just some of the brilliant talents Nigeria has lost to Bahrain, and will continue to lose to other countries if they do not get their act together.
How do you mean?
You know it’s funny you should ask that? Have you been living under a rock? Didn’t you hear that the Nigerian government gave all of their athletes’ permission to leave the country? They didn’t say it outrightly but:
- When you ask your athletes to sponsor themselves to an international event like the Olympics, you are indirectly saying “OYO – On your own.” As an athlete, why should I hustle my welfare to go and REPRESENT my country? Save my name is Regina George, and it’s not.
- When you leave them stranded in foreign airports, making them the subject of international ridicule and embarrassing news headlines across the globe. It’s shameful and disrespectful to the athletes but the irony is, the situation was relatively disgraceful to the Nigerian government itself.
- When you expect your athletes to perform without food. “Nobody cares about us …we didn’t eat for three days … not everybody can run with stress,” Nigerian athletes told sport news organisation, Athletics Africa. Without meaning to, they seem to echo the words of Nigeria’s Olympic gold medallist, Chioma Ajunwa when she said, “While I was competing, each time I have an injury or anything, I’m on my own. My country never took care of that.”
- When you do not provide a conducive, interactive and competitive environment to harness potentials, nor prepare your athletes for competitions. AKA, the talent killing system. AKA, dream killers.
That’s unfair. The government/system may have failed but they are certainly no dream killers, that’s extreme.
You think? What do you think would have happened to the young brilliant Nigerian talents the kingdom of Bahrain adopted?
If people like Blessing Okagbare weren’t offered scholarships by the United States, what would have become of them? Never mind, Okagbare has the answer, “I would not have come this far if I had remained in Nigeria…It is not as if I’m trying to talk against my country, but it lacks the right facilities and these things limit us.” In other words, “the Nigerian system would have killed my potential had America not swooped in to save me.”
But she (Okagbare) is representing Nigeria, not America, and its not just her. Despite being trained by foreign coaches in foreign schools, a few of them like Okagbare, Regina George, and Chierika Ukogu, are committed to flying the country’s flag high. That’s true patriotism, and Nigeria will always have those.
True patriotism? No. I call that, true foolishness. Where have their patriotism gotten them if not turned them to refined beggars. Yes, I said it, 21st century cyber beggars – #HelpMeGetToTheOlympics #ReginaGeorge. Lets just hope Ukogu or some other athlete is not compelled to launch a GoFundMe campaign in 2020.
On a second thought, maybe they should actually start “begging” now in preparation for the 2020 Olympics. Or better still, switch base to other countries like their peers have done.
Who patriotism don epp for this country?
It’s true that Nigeria will always have those athletes who are ready to slug it out on their own to represent their fatherland, but the number of such loyalists is fast declining. Thanks to the shenanigans the government dish out year after year, and to enticing offers from other countries. Soon, Nigeria will be looking to adopt athletes to represent them in international competitions, and guess what? No one will be willing to be adopted by a country that sucks.
This worrying trend of athletes leaving Nigeria will continue without some kind of urgent, drastic intervention in Nigerian Athletics. In fact the trend will only increase…
Now we get to the interesting part … Have you seen Team Bahrain at the Olympics?
A good number of them are Nigerians. Actually, the team is led by a Nigerian, Oluwakemi Adekoya. Earlier this year, Adekoya won the women’s 400m gold medal at the IAAF World Indoor Championship in Portland, USA for her new country, Bahrain. Visit here to see the Bahrain Olympic team, and do not be fooled by the Muslim names, most of them are non-Muslim Nigerians and other adopted African athletes rocking their new identity and nationality.
If Nigeria isn’t going to look after the obvious talent in its fold, Bahrain has swooped in, looked after them properly, touched them up a little and given them new identities that reflect the brand, culture and religion of Bahrain.
