Kindly accept my belated congratulations on your election last April as leader of our great country. It has been over 100 days since then and I have been following with interest reports of the activities of your government in the period. Indeed I have been a participant at a very low level in promoting the cause of academics and sports in your government.
I must say that running Nigeria has not been the usual piece of cake. The honeymoon era is over, now is the time to confront the very serious issues, far beyond what the ordinary man on the street thinks is a life of power and opulence! I know better though, that you require a heavy dosage of God’s munificence and his abundant grace to manouvre through the minefields that litter the path of governance in the country. Where does one start from in counting the endless battles and challenges mounted by formidable forces of retrogression, short-sightedness, corruption and injustice? It is so hard in this environment to change things and to lay new tracks of development. 100 days into your tenure one can notice the struggle to kick-start the promised transformation with little success. New and unforeseen problems have emerged and have become irritating distractions from other major social, economic and political problems that would ordinarily have taken up all your attention. The more I look at you from the distance of my television set the more I see the scars of having passed through the crucible of fire resolving seemingly intractable political, ethnic and religious crisis. I see also how much time has been expended sifting through the sea of candidates that can carry out your mandate and make your vision for Nigeria a reality. I do not envy you at all sir even as your government may finally be settling down. The job you have chosen, to manage the affairs of this very impossibly complex country, is a truly daunting one. I join millions of your other admirers to wish you God’s guidance for the rest of your tenure.

When the last Minister of Sports invited me to head your committee, and told me about your desire to see that sports are revived as a tradition in our secondary schools, I felt it was merely a confirmation of your genuine love for sports, particularly football. I stand to be corrected, but I cannot recall any number 1 or 2 citizen of this country since Independence that has physically been present at more sports events than your self. Not even late Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, whose interest in football propelled the country to its most successful era yet! He watched most of Nigeria’s football matches in the comfort of his home on television. Let me confess that I was excited about the assignment. This is a project that fitted completely into my activities for years before now. I have supervised the organisation of the only secondary schools, nationwide, football competition for 13 years. I have established my own secondary school fully dedicated to the combination of sports with academics. I have served as Nigeria’s Ambassador for the global campaign to promote education for all children around the world. I have been writing about the need to go back to the grassroots of sports development through the schools’ system for years. I have been an unrepentant critic of the ugly strategy of using older persons and mercenaries in school sports and age-group international competitions. Since 2004 when I went to the first World Scholar Athletes Games in the United States and witnessed how the UN birthed sports as a tool to drive the Millennium Development Goal objectives of eradication of hunger, poverty and disease in the world, my world view about sports changed completely. In his famous book ‘What Sports Tells Us About Life’, Ed Smith puts it aptly: “Sport is a condensed version of life”.

In appreciating all that I have said so far, I also know without doubt (and justifiably too) that in the midst of the myriad of problems around the country what would be of least concern to most persons in government would be the state of sports. That’s why from State to State very little is heard about the positioning of sports for purposes beyond sport. That’s my present worry and thats why I am writing this public letter. I hope that the headline would interest one of your aides enough to make them read it for whatever it is worth. My message is simple, the scope of sport in governance, and the use to which it can be put, particularly at this time in our political evolution, is far wider than it is given credit for. As part of the assignment that the academicals project has placed before me, I shall spread the following words as far and wide as possible within the Nigerian space; in posters, in publications, on television, on radio, and even in my columns as I am doing here, hoping that the message would make a little impact and attract some reaction from your government, from State governments and even Local governments to take the cause of sport beyond the level of just organising a competition between selected secondary school students in the country.
This is a simple pointer as to the scope of sport. Enjoy!

SPORT FOR SPORT
To encourage mass participation in sports in schools to create a larger pool of those with exceptional talents from which the best can be discovered.
To properly discover, train and direct gifted athletes towards the different sports in schools.
To engage the students by organizing competitions amongst / between schools and students in the country.
To provide opportunities for the best student athletes to represent their school, state and the country.
To prepare the best student-athletes for possible careers in the very lucrative sports field.
To provide essential information for interested student-athletes about other career opportunities that abound within the global sports economy.
To inculcate in student athletes the best habits and values inherent in sports namely: friendship, healthy competition, the winning mentality, team work, fair play, fighting spirit, discipline, life of regimen, patriotism, unity and peace.

SPORT FOR HEALTH
To encourage mass participation of the youths in secondary schools in physical and sports activities to promote good health.
To inculcate the habit and culture of physical exercise as an essential part of good physical and mental development, and education.
To reduce the tendency and cases of heart–related diseases amongst the youths (and adults) through sports and regular exercise. There are 34 million Nigerians with heart-related diseases traceable directly to a life style devoid of exercise (High Blood Pressure, Obesity, diabetes, etc.).
To increase the average life expectancy of the citizenry from the present low of 45 years!

SPORT FOR EDUCATION
To provide a well-rounded education that combines sports with education.
To use the passion of the youths for sports to raise their enrolments into school and retention in school.
To use the love and followership of sports to drive continuous learning / training in entrepreneurship, other skills acquisition programmes, and opportunities into higher institutions after secondary school.
To establish a proper sports culture in all secondary schools in Nigeria.
To use sports to teach and inculcate discipline, patriotism, leadership, team work, ethics, fair play, friendship, competitive spirit, and the winning spirit in our youths.
To use sports to engage a large audience of secondary school students and pry them away from cultism, prostitution, cheating, mercenary attitudes, and other social vices.
To use sports to drive the campaigns for educational causes like eradication of illiteracy, girl education, adult literacy, etc.
To use sports to eradicate cheating in sport, age falsification, document falsification, impersonation, etc.
To use sport to establish academies where the best sport talents can practice their passion and also acquire needed education.

SPORT FOR THE ECONOMY
To make sport, even at secondary schools level, to become a contributor to the country’s economy.
To exploit the power of sport and its followership to develop and prepare students to join the global sport industry through international sport competitions, exchange programmes, cultural and tourism-related events, and so on.
To provide useful information to secondary school students about the opportunities that abound in the global sports business  - sports agency, sports events, sports media, sports law, sports facilities / grounds construction, sports management, sports lottery, sports administration, coaching, sports marketing, sports merchandizing, sports  equipment manufacturing, sports lounges and bars, and so on.
To host sport events at academical levels to drive development of sports facilities and infrastructure in schools.
To use sport to drive entry into higher education on sports scholarships

SPORT AS A DIPLOMATIC TOOL
To use academicals sports to project the country’s image through success at international competitions.
To use academicals sports to drive unity and peace and social integration among the youths in the West African sub-region.
To use academicals sports to drive international collaboration and friendship amongst the youths of participating countries.
To use academicals sports to promote the image of the country, bridge the differences amongst the different ethnic, political and religious groups within and outside the country.
To use academicals’ sports heroes as Ambassadors to promote different social, national, regional and global good causes amongst the youths.

SPORT FOR SOCIAL INCLUSION
To eradicate the potential for hunger and poverty and disease amongst the youths in rural communities through education.
To influence social economic and infrastructural development in the communities around schools particularly in rural areas – electricity, hospitals, roads, women empowerment, etc.
To draw attention to the plight of rural communities around schools and fast-tracking action on them.

SPORT FOR LIFE BEYOND ACADEMICALS
To use sport to influence opportunities that provide a better life beyond secondary school.
To provide all secondary school students with the information and guidance about opportunities that exist in Nigeria and internationally to pursue a career in sports and outside it.
To provide easy access to sources of information on institutions and scholarships for the student-athletes that excel in sports and academics at secondary schools level.
To promote information on entrepreneurship and skills in sport and sports related fields for student-athletes that may not qualify for further academics in tertiary institutions within the vast global sport economy.
I rest my case!