AUSTIN AKOSA
FEMI ATOYEBI links up with Austin Akosa, a former sports star and administrator to get his views on the state of sports in the country
Then and now Sport in Nigeria will not progress unless the government revisits the developmental programmes that produced great athletes who won laurels for Nigeria. A product of the programme, Austin Akosa, who turns 70 next February, says the steady decline of football and other sports in Nigeria started when grass roots programmes were ignored in favour of organising competitions.
He says, “Things are now bad because Nigerian youths no longer go through developmental programmes that gave us a steady rise three to four decades ago. We no longer have the Manuwa Cup for state football academicals, the Principals‘ Cup that still exists is not properly organised. There are other youth competitions sponsored by some companies today, but it is obvious that they lack the touch of professionals.
“It is not enough to bring young players together to participate in talent hunt programmes; there must be proper planning, coordination and monitoring of the players involved. After the final of these competitions, everybody goes to sleep. There is no effort to examine the competitions and write properly documented reports on them.”
Akosa says it was easy for the school system to produce talented individuals in the past because each school had sports grounds where students trained regularly, stressing that unless the government made it compulsory for schools to revert to the old system, the decay in sport will not end quickly.
“If you go round Nigeria today,” says Akosa, “you will realise that the schools that have sports grounds are the schools established in those days. Those are the schools we attended in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Those who establish schools today only think of the classroom. I was a sports teacher in those days and my understanding is that children must not be confined to a place. They need space to express themselves and that is why sport is important to their growth.”
Akosa, who took the University of Lagos to the final of the football event of the Nigeria Universities Games in 1971, wants state governments to help sport development by sending more coaches to schools.
He says, “That was what was happening in those days and that was why it was easy for students to excel in sport and academic work.
“After I obtained certificates in coaching, I was sent to Methodist Boys High School in Lagos and later Kings College, Lagos, to help their sport development. I took both schools to the final of Principals‘ Cup in 1968 and 1969 and lost to St. Finbarr’s College.
“Because there were a few coaches in Nigeria at the time, I was also the coach of Igbobi College, Ansar Ud Deen College and Zumratul Islamiyyah College during this period. It was at Zumratul Islamiyyah that I taught Haruna Ilerika the basic knowledge of football. He was such a brilliant footballer and I noticed the talent in him. He was always ready to learn new things.
“Today, we have more coaches but the increase is not reflecting positively. Let the state governments take a critical look at the reason our athletes are failing despite attending competitions and going abroad to train. There is something missing and one of the ways to solve the problem is by attaching more coaches to schools with a blueprint developed by experts. The activities of these coaches must also be monitored. Competition is not what we need, but well coordinated developmental programmes.”
Athlete and footballer
A former athlete and footballer, Akosa was born in the Epetedo area of Lagos. He attended St. Mary’s Nursery School and Holy Cross Primary School and got admission into St. Gregory’s College, where he spent a few years as he had to join his mother in Onitsha, his home town.
Despite being Igbo, the Confederation of African Football instructor and match commissioner says he couldn‘t initially speak a word of his native language and that his first real contact with the language happened when he joined his mother at home.
“I was not ashamed of that anyway because I never had the opportunity to learn it in Lagos,” he recalls. “My father worked in Lagos and I was born there. My friends were Yoruba and I grew up speaking the language fluently. It was when I joined my mother at home that I started speaking our language. It was a bit hard but I was able to cope with the learning process.”
The language was not the only value that movement to Onitsha added to the young Akosa’s life. At Metropolitan College, where he finished his secondary school education, he was an instant hit on the tracks, representing the school in junior athletics meets around the country. He competed against athletes like Emeka and Chukwuma Azikiwe, Bobo Modi and Igirapata whom he grew up with in Lagos.
“I was the first hurdler in the college and I also competed in long jump. I was also in the college’s relay team. In 1960, we won the Hussey Shield which is the competition for all secondary schools in Nigeria,” Akosa recollects.
He was also in the school’s football team. When he returned to Lagos in 1961, his track and field talents dwindled as football took control. But years of absence from Lagos did not erase the memories he had shared with his peers, among them Abdul Karim Amu, who died in February this year, Olubodun Jawando, Tunde Ilori, who are also late and Olu Adebulugbe.
Before he left for Onitsha, he was a member of a youth football club in Epetedo. By 1961 when he returned to join his father in Lagos, the club had developed into a real football club called Lagos City Council. Akosa was readmitted into the fold, crowning a glorious return to his place of birth. But there are other suitors, who were ready to offer him better deal.
“I left LCC for P&T,” he says. “I played a match against them and because the management of the club way impressed, they sent Dominic Ukpabi, the company‘s Human Relations Officer, to me and offered me a job as part of the deal to make me play for them. It all happened on the pitch and I accepted the deal.”
Entering the coaching era
His acceptance of the deal would soon bear fruit as the club decided to make use of his managerial skills, which he exhibited as the team leader. He was sent for a coaching course at the Onikan Stadium while still playing. Akosa says it was the beginning of his career in coaching as he also remembers a match against Paul Hamilton in 1964. It was a memorable moment that he recaptures with gusto.
He says, “Lesley Courtier was the course teacher. The course leader was Paulinos Nzarem. It was organised by the Lagos Amateur Football Association in 1962. P&T wanted me to become the coach and they started sending me for courses.
“Hamilton was playing for ECN at the time and we met in a Challenge Cup match. They were leading us 4-1 at half time but in the second half, we scored four goals before they equalised to end the match 5-5. We won the replay 1-0.
“In the same year, the then National Sports Council organised a coaching course and P&T sent me for the course. Arthur Kwame, Godwin Achebe, Eto Amechina Felix Kenine and John Ojido were in my class. The course leader was Joseph Embar, while course instructors were Dan Anyiam, Ayo Adeniji, David Deshi and former Nigeria goalkeeper, Carl O’Dwyer.”
With all the courses completed, Akosa coached P&T from 1964 to 1969 when Lagos decided to utilise his experience to develop schools sports, having also displayed his coaching skills as the Lagos Academicals coach in 1968. According to him, Edmund Akpala, the present St. Gregory’s College principal, was in the team which won a trophy in the year. Akosa, who was the coach of ACB for two years also coached Metal Construction and National oil when both were in division three.
Moving on
In 1972, the National Sports Commission appointed him as its organising secretary; a position that gave him the opportunity to serve in various sports associations. He says grass roots development had always being his priority.
Akosa adds, “Sport is for the young ones because they naturally have the physical balance to cope with the rigours. When I was posted to tennis by NSC, I started some programmes that produced great players like Nduka Odizor, Solomon Onan, Patrick Ojugbela and Patrick Oke. We won the first edition of the African Lawn Tennis Confederation Championship in Sudan in 1973 and got to the final in the second edition. We trained the players in various ways that brought out the best from them. Major Greening recommended a machine that we bought to train Odizor and the rest.”
Having being in sport administration for about three decades, Akosa has worked as the secretary in volleyball, handball, cycling, boxing and swimming associations. He says sport played a major role in entertainment in Nigeria in those days because all those involved were sincere.
“We now have U-17 team with players from clubs,” he says. “Any U-17 player should be in secondary school not a club.”
Samson Siasia
With the Nigeria Football Federation presenting the new Super Eagles coach Samson Siasia to the public on Wednesday, Akosa wants the former Super Eagles striker to drop all players older than 30 and embrace young players. He says there is enough time to build a good team before the next World Cup in 2014, coming up in Brazil.
“I congratulate him for getting the job but he needs our support to succeed,” says Akosa. “He went through an interview before getting the job and we should all respect that process.
“I implore him to visit the match venues in the Nigerian league and look for young talented players. He should be careful about how he treats the issue of players’ age. At 30, it is natural that a player is getting close to retirement. He can only be in the team if he is an exceptional player; otherwise, football belongs to the young ones.
“We have players in the Eagles who will not be in the 2014 World Cup squad and Siasia should work hard to get replacement for them. I believe that we can still get players who can play for Eagles from our universities and secondary schools. In those days there were players like that who were in schools. They are intelligent and respond to training positively because they are involved in academic works.”
Source:.punchng
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