Glory to God as the
team Nigeria Came back from the London Olympics without a single medal. It was
a fantastic experience indeed. For a
nation to have a large population is a challenge on its own, but her situation becomes
worse if she cannot make use of one of the few advantages accrued to a large
populated country, which is the ability to select from a large pool of options.
China is still regarded as one of the developing nations in
the world,
in spite of her over 7 trillion Dollars GDP and a per capital income
of $5 430 in 2011 according to the World Bank economic index. Even though the
China economy is the second largest in the world, trailing the United States of
a per capital income of $48,400 and a GDP of over $15trillion, her per capital
is still relatively small because of her
choking population that is eating up her earnings. While the Great Britain with
a per capital earning of $39,600 and a GDP of about $2.4trillion is regarded as
a developed nation. This is one of the problems of a large population
especially if it is not adequately managed. This is because, no matter how much
you are actually making as a nation, you have a lot of people to contend with.
But the only obvious advantage in a large population is the
opportunity for a nation to pick the best of the best from the large pool of
options. This is what China and America have proven to us in the last London Olympics.
China has a population of about 1.6 Billion people, while the United States can
boast of about 315million people. Nigeria with a population of about 170
million returned without a single medal. NO gold, NO SILVER and No bronze, N2.3Billion
down the drain. Even smaller African countries like South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya
, Tunisia and even Uganda have shown their worth.
China participated in all the games. America did same except
in the men football. Nigeria participated just in nine. We have the Fulanis who
could only kill an army general on the Lagos-Ibadan express way with an arrow but
that skill cannot be refined for them to become archers and javelin throwers in
the Olympics. Do we mean the Ilajes and the
Niger Delta guys can only fish , stay under the water for hours and engage in oil theft, but when it comes
to the Olympics, they become allergic to water? That is the problem we have as
nation. We have talented people without training and skill.What an irony.
This is where corruption, lack of discovery, innovation and
development have led us as a people. Why doing something the same way and
expecting different result. It is disheartening and highly shameful. It is high
time we stood for the right thing and processes. It must start from our local communities
and schools. The sport curriculum must be reviewed and made compulsory in all our
schools. The participation in games and sport must be part of the grading
system for any academics promotion in our schools and not just voluntary. Doing
this, everyone would be influenced to participate in at least a sport in one
form or the other. And in the long run, the entire nation will be better for it.
God bless Nigeria.You can make your comment in you have any and do not forget to share it with loved ones.Thanks for your time.
Tunde Adenuga
true talk sir
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