Compulsory insurance for sports people, by Patrick Omorodion
I started this piece by observing a minute silence for these 22 heroes from Kano State who lost their lives while returning home after representing their State at the
22nd National Sports Festival tagged Gateway Games 2024 held in Ogun State from May 16-30, 2025.
They are Nasiru Abdullahi, Aminu Muhammad, Shehu Saidu, Usman Muhammad, Sani Yusuf, Muhammad Aminu, Hamal Dahiru, Abdurrahman Muhd, Abdul’aziz Auwalu and Nasiru Adam.
Others are Ibrahim Salisu, Bashir Bello, Imamumalik Umar, Bilal Salisu, Ashiru Shu’aibu, Abdussamad Rabiu, Abubakar Isma’il, Bello Muhd, Usaini Garba, Isah Usman Aliyu, Isah Ibrahim and Abdullahi Saleh Trigger. May their respective souls find rest in God’s bosom.
After denying themselves some comfort to train hard for the Sports Festival, these athletes and officials departed Kano on May 14 or thereabout for the event which started on May 16.
They participated in their various disciplines, some winning medals while some others were not so lucky winning, but were happy their names were written on the register of participants for posterity.
As the competition ended, joyfully they boarded the bus the way they came, heading back home to join their families they left two weeks earlier.
And shockingly they never got back home alive as their bus was involved in a fatal accident which took their lives while some lucky ones are in critical conditions in hospitals as you read this.
The news of the accident and the casualties spread like wild fire. Less than 24 hours after the accident, news filtered in from Kano that the State government had approved one million Naira for each of the deceased athletes’ families.
This action raised questions about the haste of the government in approving what has been termed an insult to the souls of the dead athletes.
Has life become so cheap that what a family gets for losing a loved one who was bubbling with life two weeks earlier representing his state is a meagre one million Naira?
Majority, if not all the deceased, could be the bread winners of their families and yet the government was quick to announce that insulting sum as compensation for their families.
Why couldn’t the government officials wait to get a full report of what happened, think out a proper way to commiserate with the affected families and then work out a befitting compensation to support the families and help fill the gap their death would create?
The rush to announce a compensation shows that there was no life insurance for the athletes and their coaches in the first place.
If there was, the immediate thing to do after visiting the families of the deceased athletes as well as the injured ones still in the hospital was to reassure them that the payment clause for their insurance would be triggered, while supporting them with whatever money they could muster momentarily.
To press home the fact that States don’t insure their athletes and technical officials, the National Sports Commission, NSC, owners of the National Sports Festival in a swift reaction following the Kano contingent accident, issued a statement, describing the incident as a painful moment for the entire Nigerian sports family.
The NSC Chairman, Madam Shehu Dikko expressed sadness over the loss of lives, stating that the “tragedy has cast a dark shadow” over sports in the country.
He stressed that the NSC would “stand in solidarity with the Kano State Government and will support them in every possible way as they navigate this difficult period.”
The NSC statement revealed a sad development on their part, that is, they have been organizing the sports festival without proper coordination for its effectiveness, including, of course, “a national framework for safety and welfare” of the participants.
As is typical with government, the NSC statement hurriedly announced that it has “made it mandatory for all contingents to have comprehensive insurance coverage, and for all vehicles used for official movement during the Sports Festival to be mechanically certified and fully insured”.
The decision, though a laudable one, the NSC should have waited to meet with all the relevant bodies concerned with formulation of policies and rules for the sports festival to give it legitimacy and make it binding and enforceable on all the States.
Like putting the cart before the horse, the NSC statement read thus:
“The Commission will convene a post-Games safety roundtable with all State Sports Commissions to review travel protocols and share safety best practices”.
This should have been done first before announcing the decision that was unilaterally taken by the commission.
According to the NSC, “a compliance audit will be conducted ahead of subsequent festivals to ensure that all contingents meet the minimum safety, insurance, and welfare requirements”, while “Stronger monitoring mechanisms will be deployed during national events to prevent avoidable tragedies”.
It is never too late to make amends, so these measures are laudable and the NSC must ensure that all states comply with it beginning from the 23rd edition which will be hosted by Enugu State in 2026.
Apart from taking care of the insurance and welfare of athletes and their technical officials from the next festival, the NSC must monitor Enugu State to ensure that they not only meet up with the deadline for the event to prevent incessant postponements, but see that facilities put in place for the festival meet with international standards.
Fifty two years after the first National Sports Festival was staged in Lagos, the issue of standard in every area of the competition shouldn’t be a thing of concern for Nigeria, a country that has been participating in international competitions since her first appearance at the Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland in 1952.
I conclude this piece by wishing all Muslim faithful a momentous Eid El Kabir celebration.
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