Our new sports minister has to put the disappointment of the ongoing World Athletics Championships behind him and start preparing for the Paris Olympics today

Ayo Akinfe

[1] Team sports. When I was in secondary school, we participated in team sports every day. Handball, basketball, volleyball, football, hockey, etc were events in which we were all trained. Across the spectrum we had national games festivals for universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, police colleges, etc, in which talent emerged. We then had the National Sports Festival which produced the crème de la crème

[2] Walking - Nobody can walk like the Nigerian villager. Some women and children have to walk 2km to the stream and back every morning just to fetch water at dawn. Olympic gold should be a Nigerian preserve

[3] Table tennis - There is a table on every street corner in Nigeria. We should be sweeping the medals table in this event at every Olympic Games

[4] Cycling - This one gets to me big time. Every Nigerian villager owns a bicycle and cycles to their farm on a daily basis. Nobody cycles more than the Nigerian villager

[5] Swimming - There are about 20m Ijaws in Nigeria. We also have 853km of Atlantic coastline. Why are the Ijaws not natural swimming champions?

[6] Triathlon - This is running, swimming and cycling. We do all three. Again, Nigeria should be sweeping the tables in this event

[7] Long distance running. Physically, the Hausa, Fulani and Kanuri and almost identical to the East Africans the Luo, Kikuyu, Tigray and Oromo. How come the Kenyans, Ethiopians and Ugandans are excelling at marathons, steeple chase, 10,000 metres, 5,000 metres, etc and we are not?

[8] Wrestling - Do you all remember that it was wrestling that brought Okonkwo to the fore in Umuofia? In many of our local communities, wrestling is part of the culture. Another area in which we should be excelling

[9] Judo - Given its similarity to wrestling, we should easily excel in this sport. In Things Fall Apart, Amalinze the Cat was actually more of a judoka because you could not throw him

[10] Archery - Every maiguard in Nigeria is a bow and arrow expert. Why has this not translated to sporting success?

Our new sports minister will have his work cut out. With a population of 200m, you simply have to be at the top of the sporting ladder!