Mallam Ibrahim Mohammad, remember him? He is the President of Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF) that organized the 6th edition of the National School Sports Festival in Ilorin, Kwara State. In this interview with ANDREW EKEJIUBA, the Kano State-born sports administrator speaks on the successes recorded in this year’s competition and beckoned on the media and corporate bodies to support the activities of NSSF, so as to brighten the future of sports development in the country, through school sports. Excerpts.

What is your personal impression regarding the standard of the competition at Kwara 2013?

I’m happy with what we have achieved so far in terms of the quality of athletes discovered and the general organization of the competition. Remember that the 6th edition of the National School Sports Festival here in Kwara State commenced on November 20 and ended on November 30 with lots of new discoveries from the competition. We discovered many future Olympians at Kwara 2013. Can you see the enormous number of gold medals Cross River won in swimming alone, and the number of gold medals Lagos won in gymnastics? They are a testimony that if we train these athletes effectively, in the next two Olympics, Nigeria is sure of picking medals at these events.

On my impression regarding Kwara 2013, I want to cast my mind prior to the competition and all the efforts we made to see it come to fruition following the sudden decline of Akwa Ibom State to host the competition. As soon that happened the leadership of NSSF did not just go to sleep because the competition was made to unearth future sportsmen and women from schools. And for Kwara State to have agreed to host the competition at a very short notice was an indication that we were bound to succeed and we did succeed. So I’m very happy for the journey so far in the competition because what we have achieved is in collaboration with the NSC and the sporting press who believed in the vision of NSSF in this regard.

During the screening exercise which was done prior to the competition, there were some protests and complains by few officials from some states that their athletes were wrongly screened out; how did the NSSF handle the issue in such a manner that there were no hard feelings at the end of the day?

Actually, NSSF frowns at allowing age cheats to have their way in any of our competitions because of the negative effects it may have in the career of a promising athlete later in life.

If you look at it also, it is morally wrong to allow a 15-year-old athlete to compete with a 13-year-old kid because you will be giving the former an undue advantage over the latter. NSSF is very strict on the type of athlete presented to the festival by states and that is why we insist that they must be of the right age bracket; be it U-13, U-15 and U-17 categories, NSSF abhors cheating. But in a competition of this magnitude, there is no way you cannot see some deviants, so be assured that with time they will key into our vision of presenting athletes of the right ages.

Can you throw more light on the yardstick applied by the NSSF during the screening exercise?

The yardstick is easy to understand because as a father when you see a child of 13, 15 and 17 years, you will know, but some people may like to turn a blind eye or feign ignorance to this assertion because they want to cheat by all means, so as to win which is wrong.

The growth pattern of a child of 13 years is different from that of a 15 or 17-yearold child, so we are very careful in screening so that cheats are kept at bay.

Our screening method has actually given so many officials from states a sense of direction as they work hard to see that they present the right athletes for competitions, than allowing overage athletes to filter into their camps and consume their foods since at the end of day, they will not compete. NSSF is not after winning the competition but giving the right child the opportunity to compete in order to excel. So, we have zero tolerance for cheating in this regard.

There are some young athletes who excelled in athletics, gymnastics and swimming; can you comfortably say that if these categories of athletes are groomed, they have the potentials to hit stardom and make Nigerians proud in future international competitions like the Olympics?

Before answering the question, I want to tell Nigerians that what gladdens my heart most in Ilorin is that potential future Olympians were discovered at Kwara 2013, especially in so many events.

Also you could see that what made China great in table tennis and US great in athletics is that they went back to the grassroots to discover future athletes and groomed them to stardom. This is exactly what we want to replicate here in Nigeria with the school sports festival.

After the discovery of these athletes at their tender ages, it is now left for the National Sports Commission to map out modalities on how to train them, so as to make them hit stardom in no distant time. I am happy that the Sports Minister, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi is a great supporter of the youths and that is why he has achieved a lot since coming into office.

He recognizes the need for school sports competitions. I also recall that in the past, most of the products of NNPC/Shell Cup Football Competition which we organize annually were not given recognition at the national youth teams, but since Abdullahi came on board, Coach Manu Garba was called up to coach the U-17 national team because he understands youth football.

Remember that the highly experienced Gombe Stateborn soccer tactician use to be NSSF football coach, no wonder he won the FIFA U-17 World Cup in UAE recently with his team.

Also, one major advantage of school sports is that it involves athletes from schools from every part of the country, so, you can see that every geopolitical zone of Nigeria is represented.

What is so unique about Kwara 2013? Kwara 2013 is so unique because when Akwa Ibom State declined to host the competition at the eleventh hour, Kwara State came to the rescue within a short period of time. It has never happened in Nigeria’s sporting history for so long now.

Within two weeks, Kwara State worked assiduously to actualize the dream of hosting this competition meant for our kids in schools. The Sports Minister was the instrument God used to facilitate the hosting of the competition by Kwara State and I want to state that the entire NSSF family remains grateful to him in this regard.

Aside the aforementioned, the Sports Minister went ahead to support the National School Sports Festival with N16million which is what celebrating because this kind of gesture has never happened to NSSF before. Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi deserves to be thanked by every Nigerian because when you train a child, you are training a nation since they are the leaders of tomorrow.

In the press conference held during the competition, you revealed that there were some states that have not taken part in this competition for so many years; what do you think was responsible for this anomaly?

I cannot lay my hands on any reason for this misnomer because one cannot say that finance is the problem. How much does it cost a state to send these kids to competitions like this? What I see here is that many states are in the habit of neglecting our future leaders and they are less concerned because they do not want to train and support the kids in their domain, which is sad. They simply do not have feelings for the future leaders, as their priority is on what they will gain before leaving office. At the end, they will continue to blame the youths for indulging in criminality instead of keeping them busy, using the instrument of sports.

There are some states that since 1976, they have not allowed their kids to come out and participate in school sports competitions at the state and national levels. I want states in this habit to have a change of heart because we in NSSF pray for the complete development of the child academically, mentally and physically through sports development. Remember also that participating in sports helps in national integration among these future leaders.

On Thursday, you were unanimously returned as NSSF President during your organization’s National Executive Council Elections, what was the magic? My people saw the works I did during my first tenure as President, and they requested that I must come back and finish the good works I started, so I had no choice than to heed to their advice. I’m always ready to serve!

My advice to my people is that they should continue to render their support to the leadership of NSSF because that is the only way we can be challenged to give them our best. It is our prayer that God should give us the leaders of NSSF wisdom, strength and the ability to discharge our duties transparently without any fear or rancor.

Finally, I want to use this opportunity to call on the media to support us by reporting our activities effectively because we need this collaborative action in order to excel in sports development, beginning with the grassroots competition we are engaged in from schools.

I also want to appeal to more sponsors to come in to support NSSF competitions because the administrators of sports in the country are now in the right path trying to resuscitate sports development in the country from the grassroots, which is worthy of emulation.