Between the 5th and 17th October, 2003, the Commite’ d’Organisation de Jeux Africaine (COJA), organized the 8th All Africa Games in Abuja, Nigeria which will go down as one of the most colourful and expensive hosting event in Nigeria’s history.
The administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo was just beginning its 2nd term in office and it was desperately looking to not only stimulate the local economy, but also as a reminiscence of the FESTAC ’77 which made a poignant statement around the world. But did the COJA Games match FESTAC ’77 in caliber eventually? Pundits are doubtful of that even as some have tagged the COJA Games of 2003 as a merely aesthetic show with no long lasting legacy.
The event had 53 participating countries drawn from across the African continent this time and with participants being mainly sportsmen. In all, 23 different types of sports ranging from Athletics, Football, Para sports, Gymnastics, Handball, Judo, Karate, Squash, Swimming, Taekwondo, Volleyball, Boxing, to Wrestling and many others, were slated to hold with many of them stationed centers in and around Abuja Stadium.
Perhaps COJA Games was an experiment to validate what the ideal sequel to FESTAC ’77 was; having been championed by the same person – Obasanjo. But the test for validation would not hold to be true even as residents within the environs of Abuja were said to have largely boycotted what should have been a historic outing. Reports had it that, for the fact that tickets to the sporting events were billed at #1500 and above, residents decided to stay back at home and opted instead to watch on TV.
That the Amos Adamu led organizing committee may not have done a thorough job of analyzing whatever the failures and shortcomings of FESTAC ’77 is, and employ same in planning an even better COJA event which Nigerians will jostle for, is a testament of the occasional shoddy preparation or shortsightedness common with some national projects.
Just as the Games Village in Abuja stands abandoned, 16 years after the highly wasteful and largely aesthetic event; several other national monuments and edifices are rotting away. The National Theatre gets no respite because it is perhaps hurting from the ghosts from FESTAC; the Games village in Abuja too is no longer in use. In fact, the first pot of call whenever the Super Eagles have a home match to play is now the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state and not even any stadium in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) or Lagos supersedes it. If the legacy of massive infrastructural projects cannot be maintained, then why set about it in the first place?
As recently as 2018, the Ministry of Sports, Delta State government, the Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) were furiously lambasted for a poor outing at the African Senior Athletics Championships in Asaba. At a point, over 200 athletes from several African countries were stranded in Lagos, even when the games had begun in Asaba. It is evident now that dysfunction in governance and inconsistency with policies can cascade into painting the country bad even in sports tourism.
The intention to stimulate the Nigerian economy with COJA Games and situate the country in a place of pride was a lofty and patriotic one, but there was no matching zeal to keep such a lofty initiative running.
So while we puff in pride at hosting one of the continent’s most colourful sporting events, we can atleast also hold onto that figment of our collective memory as we figure out better ways to be consistent at national development.
Featured image source: Wikipedia