Sports development in Nigeria has become a major source of worry for stake holders as after 55 years of Nigeria’s independence, attention has been focused more on football.
In an exclusive interview with Naij.com, the great living-legend and current oldest boxer in the world, Bash Ali, revealed that corruption solely responsible diminishing status of other sports, especially boxing.
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It is because of corruption, confusion and government officials and other sponsors wanting to reap where they have not sown. In the 50s, 60s and 70s, Boxing was the most popular sports in Nigeria,” he lamented.
“In 1957, Hogan Kid Bassey became the first Nigerian to win a world title, which was followed by Dick Tiger who won the world title at the middle weight and went-on to become the light-heavyweight champion of the world. After that, we had other boxers who had won world titles for Nigeria.
Bash Ali bashes an opponent
The third was Bash Ali, Henry Akinwande too and Samuel Peters. If we look at it, all these champions tried to host their fight in Nigeria just like me. But the government, I mean the people at the National sports commission to be exact frustrated all efforts just because they want money.
Ali who has 75 wins with 57 knockouts recalled how frustrated it is dealing with the national sports commission for the realization of his project to become the oldest boxing champion and put Nigeria’s name in the Guinness Book of Records.
“In 2006, I met with former president, Olusegun Obasanjo and we put together machineries to hold my fight in Nigeria. That fight will put me in the Guinness Book of records as the oldest boxer to fight for a world title.
“This fight because of my age will be seen in 132 countries on pay-per-view television. It is estimated to be watched by an audience of between 10 to 12 million people in America alone, at the rate of $50 per viewer; this would be over $500million.
“People want to see if truly this old man from Africa can fight a young, strong white American champion. For now, the people at the National sports commission starts to demand for money. They want a cut from the money that would be used for this event. I said NO!
“From there, Obasanjo left and Yar’Adua came-in. I met with Yar’ Adua, he told them to go ahead and do the right thing. The people then in-charge was Patrick Ikeji. I met with Patrick the same thing, monetary demands I said NO!
“Then I met Goodluck Jonathan to be exact on October 22, 2012. He apologised for what I have been through and promised to make sure it is looked into. He brought Nexim Bank and “Bank of Industry to sponsor the event. We had to do another inauguration.
After several meetings with them, they agreed to release the money for the fight but want 10million dollars bribe. The person who demanded for the money was the MD/CEO of Nexim Bank Robert Oya and one of the directors in the communications department one Chinedu.
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“I went back to the president (Jonathan) and he said I should not worry. Nothing was done. I went to the bank three times, same thing. They now made up one thing and then the police was invited to arrest me. They took me to court three times.
Former president, Goodluck Jonathan exchanging pleasantries with Bash Ali at a dinner in 2003.
“The third time I refused to make bail. I spent forty-one days in Kuje prison. Fourty-one days! In my own country, Bash Ali the boxing champion, a national honour holder; Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) in Kuje prison from February 18 to April 2, 2015.”
Bash Ali retained his World Boxing Federation cruiser weight after his opponent Tony Booth from Britain threw in the towel after just three rounds in their scheduled 12 round encounter in Lagos. He is the only boxer with a world title without being an amateur.
The post #NigeriaAt55: How Corruption Crippled Other Sports – Bash Ali appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read on NAIJ.COM.
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