Sports And Diplomacy Unite Africa
GENERALLY, the conception is that Sport and Politics do not mix. No country in the world wants to disrupt the sanctity of sport. So, as much as humanly possible humans avoid the incursion of politics into man’s greatest social activity.
Sport is the one area of human activity that has remained largely above the fray of all human divisions, in colour, race, religion, status, and so on.
That is confirmation of just how powerful sport is, how every nation wants its youths to be involved in participating in all the major sporting events without prejudice.
Even when the USA wanted to ‘ punish’ China for human rights abuses on the eve of the ongoing Winter Olympics in Beijing, unlike in the past when it would have led several of its allies to withdraw from the games in protest, the best the country did this time is slap China on the wrist with a ‘ toothless’ declaration of a Diplomatic boycott by US officials ( and those of Canada and Australia) at the opening ceremony of the games.
The world is coming around to realise that sport has the power to do what no other human activity has achieved in history – bring about global peace, friendships, justice and equity in human affairs, even if only temporarily during the events. Can that situation be sustained beyond competition periods?
Nigeria may have stumbled on that secret weapon and is taking the lead in exploration and research on just how powerful can sport be in the world in a creative relationship with Diplomacy.
In history, Sport and politics often collided. It happened at the Berlin Olympics in 1936 with Jesse Owens, the Black African American athlete.
It happened at the 1966 World Cup when Ghana led an African boycott in protest against only one slot allocation to Africa and Afro- Asia at the global football fiesta.
Nigeria led the protest the African boycott of the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
Nigeria also led the resistance of the call to boycott the 1980 Moscow games by the USA in protest against Russia’s invasion of Afghanistan.
That Apartheid ended and a Black prisoner became President of South Africa was influenced largely by the power of Nigeria- led deployment of sport to fight racism.
It is now most instructive and revealing that in 2021, despite the unprecedented crisis, conflicts and a pandemic in the world, every country participated at the 2021 Olympics.
Sport may actually united the world.