Godwin Kienka, director of the International Tennis Academy (ITA) and author of the recently published “Sports in Nigeria – Going Round in Circles” has given further insight into his latest book and ways that Nigerian sports can rise again.

According to the author, journalist, and sports administrator, the 404-page book, the third written by him, captures the major works of Commissions, Committees, and White Papers that have been ignored by the sports bureaucrats and administrators but, more importantly, exposes the reasons why Nigeria has not translated potential to results.

As he puts it: “Anyone and everyone who has wondered why Nigeria with its enormous potential in sports has been unable to go from potential to results will find the answer after diligently reading this book.”

He cited the recent two-year ban and, later, urban of Nigeria in international basketball tournaments as one of the wrong decisions that could be taken by administrators lacking passion and love for the game.

“At a time when the national women’s basketball team has qualified for the world championships and the men are on the way to making it a double, how does their participation or not participation impede a grassroots or local league program in Nigeria?

“The decision has now denied home-based players who would have been a part of the two teams the opportunity of being scouted by agents from America, Australia, Spain, France, and Italy where professional leagues thrive from landing dollar contracts that would change their lives and those of their families and communities. It has also wiped out the momentum Nigeria’s basketball is gaining on the world stage.

“We had the same mix-up and confusion in the Athletics Federation before the last Olympics leading to the ban of several athletes essentially because of utter negligence of drug procedures by the federation. It is said that when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers.”

Kienka recommends a more professional approach to running sports in the country. “These situations have again pointed to the need to get the National Sports Commission up and running the way the Nigerian

Communications Commission is operating most professionally under the Ministry of Communications. The Ministry of Sports appears to be overwhelmed by political pressures from so many quarters.”

Second, he proposes a reward system that would be enshrined in a Nigeria Sport Policy.

“I am talking about a reward system like the ‘The Sports Performance Reward Fund (SPRF)’, which I’ve initiated to drive home my point.

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