Sir Itiako Ikpokpo: Recharging Sports in the Niger Delta By Fred Edoreh

In the quiet of his home in Asaba, Delta State, Sir Itiako Ikpokpo called a few people together to discuss Nigeria sports. He was concerned about the dwindling fortunes of the sector, and the immediacy of his concern was accentuated by Team Nigeria’s return from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games without any medal

He recalled that the two medals won by Nigeria at the preceeding Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were delivered by Ese Brume and Blessing Oborodudu, both from Delta and Bayelsa states, and that in the glory days of the Super Eagles, when the team won the Tunisia ’94 Africa Cup of Nations, qualified to the USA 94 FIFA World Cup, its first time, and won the football gold at Atlanta ’96 Olympic Games, the teams were heavy with players from the Niger Delta region.

Truly, those successes were anchored by the likes of Stephen Keshi, Augustine Eguavoen, Finidi George, Samson Siasia, Sunday Oliseh, Austin Okocha, Victor Ikpeba, Friday Ekpo, Friday Elaho, Jonathan Akpoborie, Nduka Ugbade, Wilson Oruma, Nwankwo Kanu Taribo West, Emmanuel Amuneke and many more Niger Deltans.

Similarly, the beautiful days of Nigeria women football paraded the likes of Captain Florence Omagbemi, Patience Avre, Mercy Akide, Stella Mbachu, Maureen Madu, Perpetual Nkwocha, Vera Okoro, Florence Ivwueta, Efionwan Ekpo, and others from the region, with clubs like Pelican Stars of Calabar, Ufuoma Babes of Warri, Rivers Angels of Port Harcourt and Delta Queens of Asaba, providing the nucleus.

Nigeria secured African, Commonwealth, Olympic medals and world reckoning in boxing with names like Isaac Ikhuoria, Hogan ‘Kid’ Bassey, Davidson Andeh, David Izonritei, Peter Konyegwachie, Jerry Okorodudu, Samuel Peters, Efetobore Apochi, Efe Ajagba and more. All Niger Deltans.

The story is the same in weightlifting, tennis, wrestling, the para sports, table tennis, and athletics with the likes of Oliver Orok, Chioma Ajunwa, Enefiok Udo-Obong, Endurance Ojokolo, Mercy Nku, Gloria Alozie, Patience Okon, Gloria Kemasuode, Tamunosiki Atorudibo, Yusuf Ali, Henry Amike, Charlton Ehizuelen, Nduka Odizor, the Offiong sisters, Cecilia and Edem, Blessing Okagbare, Seun Ogunkoya and more.

He also recalled with relish the global energy which the Ogbe Hard Court brought to Nigeria but regretted that it is no longer in existence.

“As we can see, things have fallen badly apart, and we must do something to revive our sports,” he declared.

“It is not enough to just rue our declining fortunes, blame sports administrators, and fold our hands. All of us who love sports and understand its power in the transformation of society must do something from any space we find ourselves. We need to do this to recover and sustain the place of the Niger Delta in sports, for the benefit of our people and for the nation, by extension.”

Ikpokpo may have been in the circle of friends who are sports administrators, but he is better known as a politician, entrepreneur, and public servant.

A former Students Union President of the University of Port Harcourt, he was a two-time Chairman of Isoko South Local Government Council, Director General of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria, ALGON, he has been quietly minding his business, Dunamis Icon Limited, with interests in transportation, catering, hospitality, entertainment, event management and business consultancy services.

Yet, he has always recognized the economic potentials of sports and has had a burning zeal for the repositioning and development of sports, especially at the grassroots levels.

Accordingly, as Chairman of the Delta State Chapter of ALGON, he introduced the Local Governments Sports Festival in Delta State, a project which should have been escalated and elevated nationwide, had the national leadership of ALGON caught the vision.

Obviously not deterred, he reasoned that the Niger Delta, being the bastion of sports in Nigeria, must take the lead and show the way. Thus was the Niger Delta Sports Festival born.

The idea of the festival was to spark massive enthusiasm, greater interest, involvement, and participation in sports in the grassroots and inner communities of the region, to precurse the enduring deliverables of talent discovery, grooming and nurturing of outstanding athletes unto high performance class, all aimed at empowering and uplifting the youth of the Niger Delta through sports.

As noble as the intention is, the challenge was always going to be funding, but as they say, “where there is a will, there is a way.” In finding the way, Ikpokpo identified the Niger Delta Development Commission as a fitting anchor for the cause.

The NDDC has been intervening in the provision of multi sectoral infrastructure and various forms of youth and women empowerment across its mandate state for the 25 years of its establishment, and Ikpokpo thought that the Commission should as well intervene in a bigger way to uplift the sports sector of the region, especially to provide the teeming youth population a wider and more global consciousness beyond the expectations from the region’s crude oil.

Ikpokpo’s presentation to the NDDC was articulate and moving, but he says that the real heroes are the leadership of the NDDC, which not only fully understood the dynamics of development, but also had even far deeper convictions about the power of sports.

“The Chairman of the Board, Chiedu Ebie, had sourced private sector sponsorship to revive the Principals Cup in Delta State, while as Commissioner for Education, with the programme running into its tenth year. The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dr Samuel Ogbuku, is not only a protagonist for all-around development of the Niger Delta, he has an unquenchable passion for youth development through the multiple platforms, and he is leading the repositioning of the NDDC into a more transformative institution, for deeper and more enduring impact on the people. The Executive Director, Administration and Finance, Alabo Boma Iyaye, had been three times Commissioner of Sports in Rivers State. He not only understood exactly what was at stake, he knew the needed bricks to the works and when and how to deploy them. Then, there is Hon Erhiatake Ibori-Suenu, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on the NDDC, who takes the overall development and progress of the Niger Delta so heartily personal,” he revealed.

“These are the people who gave heart, flesh, life and blood to what has now become a movement for the revival of sports in the Niger Delta. They not only agreed with our proposition, they possessed it, deepened its reaches and gave it impetus as a platform for the building of greater, unity, friendship and integration of the region, recast it as a platform to retell the true story of a unique people whose abiding greatness and cultural identity have been seemingly shadowed by their oil wealth, and positioned it as a pad for the empowerment of the people to unleash their innate wealth of talents across all spheres of life.

“Their understanding, foresight, passion and commitment, provided the enabling atmosphere for us at Dunamis Icon to execute the project.”

Ikpokpo was strategically disruptive and innovative in conceptualisation, recruitment, and operations in pursuit of the success of the Niger Delta Sports Festival.

As they say, the rest is history. Nigerians have adjudged it as one of the most valuable, best organised, and highly enjoyed events in the nation’s sporting history.

Not only were the grassroots and inner communities across the over 185 local government areas of the Niger Delta region been awakened to sports, but the youngsters who made it to Uyo have had a life changing exposure and positively challenging experience. The host state, Akwa Ibom, has been left a legacy of upgraded sports facilities, but even more celebratory is the programme put in place for the continued nurturing of the youngsters discovered at the festival, the quintessential victory for not only the region, not only the sports community, but for the entire nation.

Fred Edoreh is a former Chairman of the Lagos State Chapter of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN)