SPORTS PERSONALITY: KWSG should declare state of emergency in Sports – Abdulkadir

With Mike Adeyemi

Mohammad Abdulkadir is the defence correspondent NTA headquarters,
Abuja and the founder Highlander Football Club of Ilorin. In this
interview with MIKE ADEYEMI he speaks on the urgent need for the Kwara
State Government to declare state of emergency in the area of sports
as well as the need for Kwara FA autonomy. Excerpts:

What motivated your interest in football, why not other sports?

My interest in football began at a very tender age. It was a passion
that grew out of natural tendency to kick any object along my path.
During my Primary school years at Oke Aluko Native Education Authority
in the 60s, the interest became so manifested playing barefooted for
my class and for my school team.
Any defeat suffered  by my side in my early exposures to the game
often brought tears to my face and lead to loss of appetite.
My passion propelled  daily participation during break and after
school hours such that I  became  so skillfully conscious of my fans
admiration for me.
Gradually I became a doyen of the round leather object being highly
sought after by  my peers and my admirers especially the opposite sex
encouraged me a lot not minding to exchange blows  fighting over who
among them should be the keeper of my school bag and books.
My interest in football as against other sports grew due to the large
followers and supporters clapping and shouting my name at the
sideline. This  afforded me opportunity to play not as individual but
as a member of a team and scoring goals was an irresistible fun and
form of attraction to the game.
What led to the formations of Highlander Football Club of Ilorin?
I established Highlanders in 1979. I was in form 3 and was 19 years old then.
My outstanding performance and unrepentant die- hard interest and
crazy love for football all through my primary school years
metamorphosed into a bigger, better, and brighter picture of the
height football can be taken as a unifying factor to build virile
youths and a vibrant society.
This high-level consciousness of the impact of football fired my
enthusiasm and optimistic disposition to bring students of like minds
together to form and Captain a football team known as Eleven Bombers
in form Two as a student in Jebba Teachers College which rivalled
Rocks and Yankee football teams in the same school.
Bombers football team from where some of our players including myself
had unique opportunity to be selected to form the  School Team became
the nucleus of the  Highlanders Youth Football Club of Ilorin.
My sustained interest for football grew at an alarming rate  with
unbroken chain of commitment from primary to post primary schools
which gave birth to the formation  of Highlanders F.C Ilorin.
The formation of the team was basically to groom players, promote the
love of the game, to fish out talents and to raise the bar of friendly
competitive participation in the game in our state.
It must be made crystal clear at this point that the formation of
Highlanders had no monetary undertones nor self aggrandizement and
personal enrichment.
How would you rate football commitments in Kwara State in the 70s with
the present time?
Football in the 70s was the king of sports. A most attractive and
competitive sports that won the admiration of youths then and now in
kwara state and by extension in Nigeria.
In the 70s we were playing football purely for the love of the game.
The interest for the game in the 70s was uppermost in our hearths, no
one was playing football to make money unlike now that players take
Sign-on fees, negotiate for handsome monthly  take home pays to play
as well bargain for stupendous perquisites in the name of winning
bonuses, camp allowances, home and away packages before they can lace
their soccer boots to play for a particular club sides and national
teams.
Commitment to the game was higher then than now as players play for
name, fame and pride to do the state and the nation proud which
accounted for the laurels at local, state and national levels won by
Highlanders.
We won State Ramat Cups three consecutive times for keep and
represented Kwara  state at the national level where we won the
tickets to represent Nigeria in Finland and Sweden in 1983.
Highlanders also emerged third best in Nigeria youths football when we
won bronze in the national Trebor Cup in 1984.
So commitment was unconditionally a function of players interest for
the game and not for money and other incentives.
I was putting down my school fees ,feeding allowance and other
personal effects to register the team for YSFON  and state organised
competitions annually without the players asking for a dime.
What do you think the State Government should do to bring back the
lost glory of football?
Kwara State Government need to declare state of emergency in football
to review, revive and reposition football participation and its
administration as well as to rebuild its structure and  infrastructure
in the state.
Let there be proper funding of the game at all levels. Again, Kwara
Football Academy should be diagnosed to purge it of its ailments to
deliver on its mandate to produce the likes of old football legends in
the state like Busari Ishola, Gani Brimo,,Baba Eleran, Tolagbe Shuaib,
late Kalala,late Folorusho Gambar Gambus ,Tunde Sani  Casidy,Toyin
Ayinla and late Tunde Ayinla Rondow.
Lastly, Inter schools football competitions should be revived while
private ownership of football Teams of the yesteryears should be
brought back and investors should be attracted to compliment
government efforts since government alone cannot do it.
Kwara Football Association and administration should be given autonomy
to perform and to be headed by those who have the knowledge of the
game.
What is the motive behind the proposed Highlander foundation?
The proposed Highlanders Foundation is a child of necessity that will
be given birth to in a couple of time to build the game of football
using bottom-up strategy .
The Foundation will look at sustainable support system to fish out
hidden treasures and talents at the grassroots and nurture them to
stardom.
It will also be a  support system to complement government’s efforts
to raise the bars of sponsorship of football competitions through
donations of trophies.
The HF will own a youth team to be known as Highlanders Babes to
immortalize the name for posterity to keep the undying memories of our
milestones contributions to football development in the state and in
Nigeria.