The newly elected President of Nigeria Wrestling Federation, Daniel Igali, has reaffirmed his commitment to reviving wrestling in the country. In this interview with IFEANYI EDUZOR, the Chairman Technical Commission of the Nigeria Olympic Committee speaks on his Sydney 2000 gold medal win for Canada in freestyle wrestling and his plans to take the sport to greater heights.
It was jubilation galore when you were voted in as President of Nigeria Wrestling Federation, can you give us an insight of what to expect from your new board?
We have a very robust plan for Nigeria Wrestling Federation. We have plans to intoduce about three or four championships each year, as a way of developing the game. We also want to ensure that our athletes compete in about three or four internationally competitions every year to enable them get the desired exposure. We also have plans in the next four years to ensure that wrestling gets into the NUGA Games because I think that is necessary since one of our priorities is to give a lot of emphasis on youth development.
Plans are also on ground to ensure that discussions are opened with those states like Ebonyi and Bayelsa just to mention a few on the need to sponsor wrestling tournaments in those sates as a way of developing the game.
Apart from the aforementioned, we also want to involve a lot of women in wrestling because we have neglected women to a certain level. So, we want to do more in that regard, especially based on the fact that our female team currently does better than our men team.
Currently, the new board has an array of events for the sport, commencing with the proper constitution that we are putting into place which I think will be ratified by the general congress in the next three weeks.
I assume that with proper funding network, in the next three years (in 2016), to be specific, we should be competing very favorably for medals. If we are able to get all the things accomplished by 2020, we should be winning not just one medal, but a couple of medals at the Olympics and our ultimate aim is that within four years of our tenure, we will give wrestling a new lease of life.
You have just been appointed Chairman, Technical Commission of NOC, how are you going to carry out this assignment?
I must have to thank the President of Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) for the enormous show of faith on me by finding me worthy to be appointed to the position. I am also grateful to my colleagues for their support because like I told them in my acceptance speech, I feel every Federation President is part of the technical committee.
My job essentially is to streamline the activities of the NOC and to work very closely with the National Sports Commission, Presidents of sporting Federations and stakeholders of different sports to ensure that we have a proper functioning system at the NOC.
I think it is a huge responsibility because the position entails that I will oversee the activities of all tournaments in the NOC calendar such as the Olympics, Commonwealth Games, Junior Olympics and All African Games, but I believe that with the support of the aforementioned persons, I will succeed. So, in a nutshell, I will carry everybody along in the discharge of my duties.
Don't you think your new positions will affect your job as a lawmaker in Bayelsa State House of Assembly?
There is no way my position as President of Nigeria Wrestling Federation and chairman of Technical Commission of the NOC will affect my position as a lawmaker, rather it will compliment it.
You are aware that I am the Chairman of Bayelsa State House of Assembly committee on sports and because of my background as a sportsman who competed at the highest level which is the Olympics with a gold medal to show for it, I take all the responsibilities as an opportunity to contribute my quota towards repositioning sports in my country.
I also want to tell you that there won't be any conflict and as President of NWF, I will be looking at only my athletes with the added responsibility.
I am going to be looking at athletes from about 25 to 26 sporting Federations and it will be more about monitoring how teams participate at the world level, their roles and to streamline the process so that we know at each time how our athletes are performing. In doing all these, we need to work very closely with the NSC to achieve all these.
What is your impression about the preparations ahead of the Commonwealth Games?
It may appear nothing is happening, but at the Federation level, I think something is happening because competitions are going on. And it is from these competitions that athletes are selected to represent the country. I can tell you that in wrestling, we are having a competition in three weeks time in Warri, Delta State and it is being hosted by Delta State Government in honour of Chief Edwin Clark. The same thing has been going on in quite a few Federations.
Talking about the Olympics, are you not concerned that IOC's decision to remove wrestling as an Olympic sport will affect the development of the game?
I do share your position because I think that wrestling if removed from the Olympics would affect its development drastically. It will also mean that the sport is now treated as a recreational sport. If wrestling was not an Olympic sport when I competed, I don't think I would have followed the game with the same zeal and passion I did. Having said this, I want to tell you that I was among those chosen by the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles as one of the spokespersons for wrestling.
I was one of five people in the world that went to St Petersburg just three weeks ago to make case for wrestling to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive committee and out of eight sports that are vying to be part of one spot at the Olympics, wrestling was also shortlisted as one of three sports. On September 9, we are going back to Buenos Aires Argentina to make another case to the IOC to have wrestling put back in Olympic programme, as a core Olympic sport which means it stays there forever.
What is your general assessment of the NOC considering that some people do not believe they are playing prominent role in the development of sports as is done in other countries?
Well, the role of the IOC is very clear on the matter you raised, as the major role of the NOC is to prepare athletes for such championships as the All Africa Games, Commonwealth Games and the Olympics.
Specifically, it is the role of the Olympic Committee in every country to prepare and take their athletes to the Olympics Games. But you know we are operating a system where things are done differently. But in few countries like Canada, things are done the normal way.
In Canada for instance, we have Sports Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC) who work together to help drive that process. So, I wouldn't say there is much confusion, but as long as we get the desired result at the end of the day there is no cause for alarm. When we prepare our athletes the way it should be done, our athletes will definitely win a lot of laurels for Nigeria.
As a person who has been actively involved in sports for many years, what do you think is preventing Nigerian sports from moving forward?
Well, I don't know, I am a very positive person. I really do not like focusing on what has gone wrong, I like focusing on the future because I was always told by my grandmother that you cannot continue looking back while running unless you stumble.
But I think there is need to develop our sports at the grassroots, give scholarships and employments to deserving athletes and take the issue of exposure of athletes serious as that is the only way to get the best result from them.
National Mirror