Only 2 days ago, President Jonathan at a ceremony organised for Blessing Okagbare announced a cash gift of N3 million for her and N3.5million for her coach. Blessing is Nigeria’s golden athlete of the moment and has won medals for the country at the Olympics and the recently concluded World Athletics Championship where she won the silver medal in the long jump and also placed third in the Women’s 200m race.
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President Jonathan also said Blessing, who happens to be Africa’s 100m record holder, and her coach would be considered for national honours. I personally believe that 3M is pretty small to appreciate this young woman who has single-handedly brought honour to a country of 160M. She made history when ended Nigeria’s 14-year wait for a World Championship medal of any colour at the IAAF in Moscow becoming the first Nigerian to win a medal at the Championships since Seville’99 where Gloria Alozie won a sliver medal in the 100m hurdles and Francis Obikwelu won a bronze over 100m.
I’m glad that the President takes time to honour our footballers and athletes but then government shouldn’t be saddled with the responsibility of rewarding athletes for their performances. A government should focus more on building ultra modern training centers, facilities and programs for sports to thrive.
I believe she deserves a lot more than 3M cash reward but that can only happen if the private sector see the opportunity to contribute to the development of sports instead of looking for quick wins. If this happens our athletes will make a lot more money through endorsements as done in the developed nations. Footballers like Messi, Basket ballers like Lebron James, Golfers like Tiger Woods and Tennis Stars like Roger Federer all make millions of dollars from Nike, Rolex and Pepsi endorsements.
Going back to the title of my post. I have nothing against Don Jazzy or the musicians or the actors who get millions in endorsements from Glo, MTN, Airtel and Etisalat. What I have a problem with is where someone like Blessing goes unnoticed without being celebrated. She has done a whole country proud and there are not many like her. How about giving upcoming athletes something to aspire to.
If we only celebrate music and movies in our dear country why won’t every Tom, Dick and Harry want to go into music and create some false talent for themselves. In terms of priority, I think a Blessing should be endorsed ahead of a Don Jazzy but then Don has a higher fan base and appeal than she does. It shouldn’t always be about business and profits though. (Disclosure: I think Don is a fab producer and has done well for Nigerian Music)
This is a call for sports and athletes to be celebrated more in Nigeria. We can do a whole lot more. We have what it takes to dominate athletics, football, boxing, weightlifting, cycling, tennis etc globally but we need our government and private sector to invest more in facilities and talent. Football is one of the major points that unites Nigeria and we can have a lot more points through other sports. Lets keep the green flag flying. As you can see from the picture below by Asukwo.
Someone said; “when it comes to endorsements you have to have a manager who will convince companies to use you to promote their products. You can’t sit and wait to be called, you have to market yourself”. Well, I want to serve as Blessing’s manager for today, MTN go and endorse Blessing quick quick!
I believe she deserves a lot more than 3M cash reward but that can only happen if the private sector see the opportunity to contribute to the development of sports instead of looking for quick wins. If this happens our athletes will make a lot more money through endorsements as done in the developed nations. Footballers like Messi, Basket ballers like Lebron James, Golfers like Tiger Woods and Tennis Stars like Roger Federer all make millions of dollars from Nike, Rolex and Pepsi endorsements.
Going back to the title of my post. I have nothing against Don Jazzy or the musicians or the actors who get millions in endorsements from Glo, MTN, Airtel and Etisalat. What I have a problem with is where someone like Blessing goes unnoticed without being celebrated. She has done a whole country proud and there are not many like her. How about giving upcoming athletes something to aspire to.
If we only celebrate music and movies in our dear country why won’t every Tom, Dick and Harry want to go into music and create some false talent for themselves. In terms of priority, I think a Blessing should be endorsed ahead of a Don Jazzy but then Don has a higher fan base and appeal than she does. It shouldn’t always be about business and profits though. (Disclosure: I think Don is a fab producer and has done well for Nigerian Music)
This is a call for sports and athletes to be celebrated more in Nigeria. We can do a whole lot more. We have what it takes to dominate athletics, football, boxing, weightlifting, cycling, tennis etc globally but we need our government and private sector to invest more in facilities and talent. Football is one of the major points that unites Nigeria and we can have a lot more points through other sports. Lets keep the green flag flying. As you can see from the picture below by Asukwo.
Someone said; “when it comes to endorsements you have to have a manager who will convince companies to use you to promote their products. You can’t sit and wait to be called, you have to market yourself”. Well, I want to serve as Blessing’s manager for today, MTN go and endorse Blessing quick quick!
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