Editor’s note: This is the final in a four-part series published in the Jamaica Observer over recent days.

THERE is little or no Government involvement in the MTN Champs, and Bambo Akani recalls, during his trip to Jamaica in 2013, having a conversation with Paul Francis, head coach of MVP Track and Field Club.

“He wasn’t the head coach then, but he was obviously already involved as a coach then, and he told us very clearly that, ‘This is not government-led; this is private-led, and it’s not going to happen if people, privately, don’t decide that, ‘We’re going to make this work and we’re going to do this.’ And yes, the Government will get involved, and the Government will get on board, but you can’t wait for the Government to do it.’

“And I think that’s even saying that [this is the case] in Jamaica where you have [a] 100-year history of Champs and the culture, so you can imagine that we don’t have that culture, we don’t have that history. So, going in we knew that if we create something that is special and that creates value for everybody [then] the kids, the schools, the Government, even they will get on board,” he said. “So, we have the Athletic Federation of Nigeria as our technical partner, the Nigeria School Sports Federation is our academic or schools partner — without them you can’t even talk to the schools — and we’re kind of in the middle, helping to coordinate between all the parties and different agencies and governing bodies.”

Ultimately, he said the purpose for MTN Champs in Nigeria is to discover the next generation of Nigerian Olympic medallists and Olympians.

“Our academy is led by our head coach, Deji Aliyu. He’s an Olympic bronze medallist for Nigeria in the 4x100m, from Athens 2004, and the work he’s done over the last decade [in] training our athletes; [the] medallist, silver medallist for Nigeria, Gloria Alozie, she trained our athletes for about three years before going back to Spain — she’s now working with the Spanish Federation — but, you know, we’re hoping to amass a wellspring of support in Nigeria.”

Nigeria’s failure to win a medal at the recent Olympics in Paris has not gone over very well, he said.

“It’s kind of full circle for us; this is actually how I started this. And then, obviously, we’re here in Lima [at] the World Under 20 [and there are] no medals for Nigeria but [it is, nevertheless] the second-consecutive World Under 20 so a lot of Nigerians are now speaking to us at Making of Champions and saying, ‘How do we make sure this doesn’t happen again?’ And we’re saying to them, ‘Look, MTN champs, more competitions, more funding for training athletes in Nigeria.’

“Jamaica realised this 25 years ago: You don’t have to send all your kids to the NCAA — that’s something that we are still trying to explain to Nigerians. [And] while we’re trying to explain it, the Botswanians, the South Africans, they figured it out and they’re working. We’re kind of still lagging behind, but we’ll get there.”

He said the second season of MTN Champs, “just ended in May, and the grand final was in the port city in Nigeria called Calabar. And I remember coming to Champs a decade ago and seeing Calabar High School and the great history Calabar High School had with with winning the Boys’ Champs, and I was fascinated because I knew that Calabar is the city in Nigeria. And I even have a colleague in Nigeria who it’s his dream for us to bring Calabar High School to Calabar in Nigeria, to compete in our champs in Nigeria,” he said. But he then cautioned him, “I just said to him that, ‘Look, let’s give our boys one or two years to train so that we can beat them when they come here.’

“So, we’re we’re very excited to have spent all this time learning from Jamaica’s great history in the sport and adapting it to what we know works in Nigeria. All I can say for now is that the Nigerians are coming.”