Former African triple jump champion and vice president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Rosa Collins-Okah tasks lawmakers to help make sports thrive
Rosa Collins Okah
By Rasheed Adewuyi
Former African triple jump champion and vice president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, Rosa Collins-Okah has urged the incoming National Assembly to enact laws that would aid sports development in the country by keeping politicians out of sports administration.
One of such laws, according to Collins, should be to prevent career politicians and their cronies from contesting for positions in the various sporting institutions and federations in the country. She said during an interview on Eagle7 FM that only ex-internationals, sports men and women and technocrats should be allowed into the nation’s sporting bodies.
“To avoid some of the crisis we have in sporting federations, the national assembly should look into the possibility of making laws preventing politicians from occupying our federations,” she said.
“Former sportsmen and women should be in the helms of our sports. This is what we see in many countries that are doing well in international sports, some countries have even made it a law.
“In fact, the President, Bola Tinubu, in his consideration for a sports minister should think about having an accomplished sports person in that position.
“ Bringing people who know next to nothing about sports who come and buy everyone with their money, has more than anything contributed to the decline of sports in the country.”
Collins noted that the country, corporations, and individuals should invest massively in sports, particularly in women because female sport stars have made the country proud more than their male counterparts.
“We have more potential world record holders like Tobi Amusan out there. That girl is cooking in the house, the girl carrying jerry cans of water and those hawking in the streets could be the next world champion. We have to bring them to the stadium and train them. We need to encourage parents to allow their girls to come for sports,” she said.
“We need to have track facilities in almost every local government of the country to make it available to these raw talents, if we can do close to half of what America is doing, we would surely have more champions.”
She called on the government to create a conducive environment for corporate and individual sponsors to come into sports.
She also lamented the lack of women participation in administration and coaching. “In Nigeria, once a woman tries to be head of a department, they are resisted by men, the men feel threatened, women need to be respected and allowed to be in authority” she said.
“In athletics for instance, before I became vice president, it was only Violet Odogwu-Nwejei that was the woman president of the AFN and the men kicked her out. She was allowed only one tenure.
“Women are born leaders and I’m encouraging women to come out, be respectful and also, be stubborn when necessary. Don’t allow anyone to bully you”
