#Sports

Aketi’s mustard seed in swimming

By Steve Alabi
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Men who make history are hardly aware of the immensity of their contributions to posterity. They simply do their bit and move on. They do not play to the gallery. They belong to that exclusive group of people who gaze into the future and create it. They hunger, not after their own comfort, but after a better society. It is upon the shoulders of such selfless souls that the essence of humanity is preserved.

On this day that Nigerians remember the bulldozing General Murtala Muhammed who went through this potentially great nation like a refiner’s fire in six unforgettable months, we acknowledge the recent sowing of a mustard seed on the fertile soil of the Sunshine State he created 43 years ago. The small seed came in the form of a swimming competition among secondary schools in the state put together by the hardworking government of Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN under the direction of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.

It is a seed of restoration, aimed at and capable of restoring the lost glory of the Sunshine State in swimming. Only a year after coming into existence, Ondo State was already rubbing shoulders with the high and mighty of Nigerian sports, returning a very impressive fifth position at the 2nd National Sports Festival, Kaduna ’77. The bulk of the medals that catapulted the young state to that high level came from swimming. In fact, it is in swimming that Ondo State has contributed most to the national pantheon of sports stars. Statistics shows that the state produced not less than 50% of national swimming stars. In five editions of the National Sports Festivals from Kaduna ’77 to Rivers ’88, the state consistently led others, winning 61% of the total gold haul, 58% of the silver and 53 of the 108 bronze medals in the swimming event.

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The irony of these feats is that there was not a single swimming pool in the entire state. The nearest was a miniature pool at the Odua Textile Industry, Ado-Ekiti which was completely unsuitable for professional swimming. The defunct Owena Motels, which had a swimming pool, was still under construction; even after being commissioned in September 1978, the pool provided in it was strictly recreational, and unfit for the sport of swimming.

Those early days belonged to the Digha Baraghaweis, Christianah Oriruns, Martins Adeojos, Naghan Okoros, Roseline Legbes and Regina Figbeles who ruled the waves in an imperial manner despite not having a swimming pool to train in. These exceptional talents were multiple champions over better trained and better exposed competitors for over a decade. At Bendel ’81, Regina Figbele and Martins Adeojo accounted all alone for ten of the 25 gold medals the state won. These patriots were products of the creeks whose daily training took place in the open channels of the sea in Igbokoda. They were complemented by the disciples of Chief Guy Gargiulo, the venerable Italian-Briton high priest of education and sports who built Ajuwa Grammar School, Oke-Agbe into a learning giant and a veritable sports nursery. This wonder worker produced swimmers from the dry mountains of Akokoland, using the dam he constructed in his school to provide a makeshift pool for his wards.

God gave Chief Gargiulo to Oke-Agbe. He is a special breed of human being and a teacher par excellence. He not only impacted on the community, the lives of the students in his charge and on formal education but also on athletes and sports. God also gave him to Ondo State, as the pioneer Chairman of its Swimming Association. It was his ingenuity that ignited the revolution that produced swimming champions from a state that did not have a swimming pool. It was his motivation that made young men and women train in open canals and a dam seeing these with the eyes of faith as Olympic size swimming pools.

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But over time, swimming receded from the sports strength of the Sunshine State. Even when the Olympic size swimming pool in the state’s sports complex was finally ready after years of abandonment and neglect, the sport remained moribund. But now, swimming will be revived with the laudable initiative of the Aketi administration, powered by the forward-looking leadership in the Education Ministry.

Great improvements have taken place in the education sector in Ondo State since Mr. Femi Agagu was appointed as the Commissioner of Education, Science and Technology. A more robust approach to infrastructural development has seen dilapidated buildings in virtually all public schools rehabilitated to very befitting structures, complete with recreational facilities never before provided. Such massive rehabilitation of public schools has not been witnessed before except during the Agagu administration which was unfortunately harried out prematurely.

Kudos must go to Mr. Femi Agagu and his team of technocrats, headed by his Permanent Secretary, Mr. Asaniyan for the positive things happening in education, and particularly for recognizing that education and sports go hand in hand for true learning to be complete. We can look into the future and safely predict that the mustard seed they have planted through the swimming competition among secondary schools in the state will grow into a big tree. When the state starts reaping from what they have so quietly sown, posterity will remember their good deeds.

Last Line: Nigerian football has lost a dedicated servant of the game. Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi gave his life to the game in several capacities, as a top player, manager and administrator. May his dear soul rest in peace.

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