African sportsmen are not only leaving the continent for greener pastures abroad,those born in Europeam countries,but of African parentage,are also refusing to compete for African states.
These developments have,once again,opened the debate on whether patriotism matters in the economics of sports.
Some analysts regard the defection of African athletes to other countries as a vestige of colonialism .But to some,there is nothing wrong if Sportsmen sell their talents to other countries for economic reasons and to guarantee a secured future.
At the 2003 World Athletics Championship,Saif Saaeed Shaheen won the 3,000 steeplechase for Qatar to give the oil-rich country its first medal at a global event.For his effort ,he earned $1 million .But prior to that,Shaheen,formerly known as Steven Cherono ,had featured for his country of birth-Kenya.For switching allegiance to Qatar,he was reportedly paid $1,000 monthly.
Nigeria has also suffered from the trend as some of its finest athletes have donned the colour of different countries and won laurels for such.These include Gloria Alozoe{Spain,110meters hurdles},Francis Obikwelu{Portugal,100m},Christ ine Ohuruogu {England,triple jump},Gabriel Agborlahon{England U-19 and U-21,Football},and Victor Anichebe{England U-19,football}.
After the exploit of Kenyan born Shaheen in 2003,the BBC’s Africa alive programme asked, “why is Africa losing its best to the Western countries and does patriotism really matter in sports?” Listners of the BBC programme were asked to respond through e-mails.
Of interest was the position canvassed by a Nigerian residing in the United Kingdom, he said, “patriotism? What is patriotism? Who can blame these young men and women for deserting Africa,given that in virtually all cases,these are young men and women from very poor families who have struggled to achieve success,in spite of the obstacles placed in their ways by the enormous socio economic problems in Africa?”, most of them were born had to struggle their ways to become very good and successful in their chosen career and as a matter of fact,these sportments stumbled into sports as a means of livelihood when other means have failed them.
Many sports enthusiasts and analyst have blamed Africa as the architect of its sportsmen’s defection .They observed that most African countries lack a well defined and consistent sports policies .Where policies are formulated,they either pay “lip service” to them or are allowed to gather dust on the shelf.Many sports programmes formulated by African governments to sustain sports developments have not been successful due to corruption.
Apart from corruption,nepotism and archaic bureaucracy, African countries lacked state-of-art facilities and,where facilities were available,they suffered from a poor maintenance culture and soon became derelict.
Africa’s fastest man-Nigeria’s Olusoji Fasuba,in an interview with the BBC{british broadcasting commission},in 2006,said “the situation in most African countries does not favour athletes to prepare well enough for competitions ,there are no training grant for most of the athletes to train in developed countries,and when the grants come,they are very small, big coporate entities and companies also fail to sponsor athletes unlike what happens in developed countries of the world.”
In terms of athletes’ welfare,most African countries will score zero.For those athletes who died at their prime,they soon become unsung and uncelebrated heroes and heroins;they sink into oblivion while their families and dependants continue to live in abject poverty. As long as this trend continues,African athletes would not hesitate to represent other and better countries
