WHAT PRIME IS DOING AND WHAT HE SHOULD FURTHER DO

Praise Olorunfemi

In what can be seen as a response to an afore-released article regarding speculations about the promises of the sport director (PRIME), he seemed to have taken things serious in paying attention to the lapses in AFAS sporting activities. Like his predecessor, there are promises to improve sporting activities in his campaign and manifesto, of which, from experience, it has always not been fulfilled. Last session for example, the director promised to introduce another sport other than football, but sadly nothing did materialize. However, looking at the just concluded sporting activities as part of the AFAS fresher’s week, which was held last week Wednesday, 9th of March, it can be said, that there is a possibility that AFASITES may experience an improved sporting activities this session. In the just concluded freshers’ sports day, the faculty witnessed various sporting activities, ranging from football to other indoor games. In fact, there were more indoor games compared to the outdoor game (football was the only outdoor game which held during the sports day). The indoor games played were monopoly, chess, ludo, table tennis, scrabble and an electronic game (play station).

However, it seemed like as much as the zeal to be different from his predecessors is high, there is still much room for improvement, talking about order and a commendable organization of how each activity went. Now, being the head of an office may not necessarily mean or connote that every role must be played by the head of such offices, nevertheless, the successes, failures and redundancy of such office is a responsibility of the head of such office, hence he is held accountable. Therefore, the head of any office is saddled with, as much power and authority as needed by the constitution to ensure a successful tenure. Although, the football match could have passed with a pass mark in terms of organisation, the indoor games were not so. It should not have been on the day of the sports, that representatives for each departments were being frantically searched for. In fact, from the result released, it will be noticed that it seemed like the department of Archaeology were naturally gifted and talented in sporting activities and maybe should have been named departments of “sports” instead of Archaeology. This points out to the fact that there was almost no department to participate in other sports except from football, which has always enjoyed all of the attention of anything sports in AFAS, just as it has played out in past tenures. Although this might not entirely be the fault of the sports’ director, but that passed under the rank of organisation and planning. Also, the fact that the events were held during the strike could be a major contributor as some freshers were not in school, and the events were exclusively for freshers.

Now, on the another hand, the indoor games were poorly monitored, which also had an effect on adherence to the rules in some of these indoor games, such as monopoly and scrabbles. And what is a game without rules, or non-standard rule? In a football match, both players and spectator could go berserk when a rule leading to a penalty kick is ignored. Hence, the importance of playing by the standard rules in any board games within the facility should be a must, so as not to build a team of novices that may represent the faculty at larger competitions. Some of these games such as, chess, scrabble, and monopoly, can possibly be pursued as a career in the real world, as these particular games have recognised bodies at different levels in the real world, from grass-root level up till national and international level. Thus, if sports will be done in the faculty of arts, being a premier faculty in the premier university, at least excellence is expected, and moreover, anything worth doing at all, is worth doing well.

Going back to the issue of being the head of an office, the sport director does not necessarily need to be an ardent fan of all sporting events that can be developed in the faculty, before achieving excellence in the developing or establishment of these sports. He could possibly setup a committee of individuals seasoned with reasonable extent of expertise in these sports, to oversee a smooth and credible executions of these sports. This committee may also be saddled with the responsibility of excellently organizing activities for each of these sports, as against running from pillar to post looking for who will represent department of this or that right on the sport day. Sporting activities such as, volleyball, lawn tennis, racing (relays, sprints, marathon), squash, basketball, are ones in which the university already have provisions for in terms of facilities, and could even be revived where necessary.

Some other indoor games such as dominos, card games, are quite interesting games that can be introduced, which can help stimulate and also help in develop social interactions, and bonds between students, as some of these card games will involve building a team, of which may invariable help in boosting academic performance of students. But, in past years, as a result of being void of creativity there have been a very imbalanced tilt to football as a sport, and was assumed as the only existing sport.

Looking deeply into it, it comes down to an opinion, that since football is the sport that sport directors seem to have interest in and actively participate, (which is not bad if it has no negative effect in functioning as a sport director and a football director) it is then understandable that to them, it is the only sport existing in his universe. Nevertheless, the interest of the sport director in a particular sport, should not translate to death of other sports. There should be a strong case of awareness, sensitisation and education of the different sports available. If attention is given to some of these sports, there’s no limit as to what may come out of it, it may in turn lead to Faculty of Arts sensitizing the whole university in the development and establishment of certain other sports, which may lead to an inter-university affair, then to national levels and international levels. Seeing sports as a whole affects mankind in history, health, economics and finances of whole countries. We are seeing this in the new tenure but there is the need for excellence, hence a need to emphasize again that, anything worth doing at all is worth doing well.

Nonetheless, as much as football has enjoyed much attention, this attention still manages to be imbalanced. The absence of a female football match that day dictates this, even though the Honourables at the FLC advised the Sports’ director to consider females in his plans as they were not included in the budget presented to the house. An AFASITE spoke with a Press correspondent informing him that she told the Sports’ Director about the exclusion of the females in the football match and he replied that it is a tradition not to organise female football match in the Freshers’ welcome events, only male and he sees no reason why he there should be females as that is how it is done. AFAS Press then tried to reach the Sports’ Director but could not as his line was unavailable.

It is important to understand that the university and the faculty of arts is not a “mascu-centric” citadel of learning, in fact when the university’s anthem talked about a mind, it didn’t specify any gender, thus both males and females should be actively involved in the faculty’s sport as far as sporting development is concerned in the faculty. It is imperative to not that traditions are not always right. And this still leads back to the speculations of whether Prime is just another caricature of his predecessors, the question remains for Prime to answer: Prime, can you improve AFAS sports as a whole? There are signs that he can and will but there are still lots of room for improvement.