Nigeria is at peace, anywhere you see those who should be in battle field playing sports, it’s a sign that country is in peace-Major General Maikano

Sir, can you introduce yourself to us for record purposes and benefit of our readers?

My name is Major General Maikano Abdulahi, I am the President of Organization of Military Sports in Africa (OMSA). OSMA is not an English name, OSMA is a French name meaning organization de sports militari in Africa, but when you translate in English, it will give you Organization of Military Sports in Africa (OSMA), which I am the 5th President in Africa. CISM is also a French name meaning French militari de sport council which is the International Military Sports Council, when translated in English I am also the Vice President. OSMA was formed from CISM about 20 years ago. CISM was formed about 76 years ago immediately after the second World War. After the second World War, five countries came together to form the International Military Sports Council, with the sole aim of fostering unity, stability and understanding among the armed forces of the world. And they fixed our motto to be “friendship through sports”, which we didn’t have before the second World War. It was from there OSMA was formed. This thinking was started by five Generals in Africa, that is General Ishola Williams of Nigeria, Col Poten of Senegal and Col Habul of Cameroon among others. This OSMA was accepted and endorsed by the CISM General Assembly. It was approved and accepted by the African Union delegates led by the former President of Algeria, Late Abdelaziz Bouteflika. From there we started our programme. We have African Military Football Championship, African Military Handball Championship, African Military Volleyball Championship and Sahel Games which was established about two years ago. We went to the heads of states of Africa during the African Union meeting and asked them to host the African Military Games because they are our Commanders- in- Chief. The President of Kenya, Late Daniel Arap-Moi accepted to host the first edition of this game. About 30 African countries participated in that game about 22 years ago. So, the sole aim of this game is not just to come and play football, play handball, basketball, teakwando and go home. No. The aim is to unite the armed forces of Africa together, unite the officers of African armed forces together, to exchange ideas and understanding of ourselves. Remember in Africa, we have about four to five languages: English, French, Arabic, Portuguese and Spanish. But you can see that all these languages are no longer a barrier to us because sports is a universal language. So, the aim of this our coming together is for unity for the armed forces of Africa and , the next question is how does it impact on the African comity vis-à-vis the insecurity issues we are having? Sports is a strong tool used in bringing peace in the society. It is only through sports we forget who we are, we focus on the sports. Like if we are Nigerians, whether you come from Lagos or Enugu or Anambra, when they say Nigeria is playing, you forget about where we come from. Our joy is that Nigeria wins. So, sports is a non-kinetic means of bringing the armed forces closer to our civilian counterparts. We use sports as a language for civilians to understand what we are as a military and integrate them with us because we are part of them; they should come to us and we should go to them. So, we use sports to achieve that aim. We cannot be seen or heard only in the combat place, but we can be seen in the sports field also playing like them, playing with them and achieving unity, solidarity and camaraderie among us. That is the aim of hosting this game and we have achieved it.

How has OSMA ensured inclusivity and gender balance in the games?

I will not agree with you that sport is seen as a male thing. If you say about 100 years ago that sport is biased to gender, I can agree with you but nowadays, sports encompass male and female and that is what you can see here in our African Military Games. We have many female athletes competing in this game. We have zero barrier between male and female. We all call ourselves men of the service. In these games we also try to bring all the genders together in search of peace, in search of unity and understanding. There is no barrier at all.

Sir, can you tell us specifically how the collaboration between OSMA and AMGA 2024 has impacted on the Games?

When OSMA was created many years ago, we asked ourselves: what is our aim? Our aim is to bring the armed forces in Africa together. So, the question here is that, how are we going to bring the armed forces together, is it by weapons? is it by carrying arms? Is it by eating food? We said let’s use sports to bring the armed forces together.That gave rise to the African Military Games where we can have as many sporting activities as possible, so all the African countries will come and participate, that is where the idea came from. So, it is like you want water, you start digging a well, what is your aim, it is to get water, even if you dig the well, you have to get something that can go and bring out the water, so for us to have unity, it is for us to bring all the armed forces together to play in the field of sports. Then we can achieve unity, then we can achieve understanding, we can also achieve collaboration. For instance, in this game, there are some grants that will come in the next few days. Chiefs of Defense staff of other countries will be here to grace the closing ceremony. If they come, there will be a discussion between our CDS and other nations’ CDS. So, by these activities, there is understating and collaborations, that is why you can see the theme of this year’s game is: “Enhancing Military Cooperation through Sport” that is through the African Military Sports.

Sir, as Vice President of CISM, and also OSMA President, are there plans to bring CISM to impact on AMGA given that the initiative is gaining prominence?

No, we have the international body that takes care of international Military sports. About three years ago, we held the world Military Games in Wuhan in China. About 100 countries participated with about 30 to 32 coming from Africa. So, the world body has its own duty, it is left for Africa to organize, improve and make sure that the African Military Sports moves to the next level of understanding, next level of making sure that our own activity is well planned and executed. The world body can only come as observers, if we invite them. For instance, the President of the World body is coming during the closing ceremony. The Secretary General and Ambassador of CISM was here during the opening ceremony to see how we are performing and he will still be here for the closing ceremony. That is the collaboration. But in terms of financial or organizational collaboration, there is no such things. As Africans, we are of age to take care of ourselves. We contribute to the world body both financially and organisationally. So Africa, like other regional bodies such as the Asian Military body, the American Military body that make up the world body, we are independent.

The significant aspect of AMGA 2024 was that some countries who had previously excused themselves from the ECOWAS were part of the games in Abuja. What role did OSMA play to make this a reality?

What I forgot to mention earlier is that our organization is an apolitical organization. So, we don’t involve ourselves in any political issue. But we are 100% submissive to the political leadership of our nations. We are not involved in any political interference, that is why when we send our invitation to all African countries, irrespective of whatever, they all agreed to participate. Some countries were not here before the start of the games, because of genuine reasons. Niger Republic were about to come when their flight developed some problems. Congo Kinshaha, were leaving their camp area to the headquarters of their country, their boat sank, about 10 of their athletes died, so you don’t expect them to come and participate. Chad, about two weeks ago, had an attack which left about 50 of their soldiers dead, so that made it impossible for their soldiers to come. Majority of them were here, some as observers and others came with their athletes. So that is why you find our West African brothers like Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry, were all here to participate because military is a universal language.

Sir, what can you say were the challenges you faced in hosting this event of this magnitude?

If I say, we didn’t have challenges, would you believe me?My headquarters is in Yaoundé, not in Nigeria, but I decided to stay in Nigeria for the execution of the games and presently, I am a Nigerian. Second issue is that I am a sports person. Everyone that knows me know me because of sports. So, the challenge I was facing was different anticipation from people. Anybody that says he wants anything, they will say go to General Maikano, he is there, forgetting they have Local Organizing Committee. It is just like FIFA giving the hosting right to Nigeria, for U-17, do you expect the president of FIFA to come here and organize the U-17 for Nigeria? We have the Local Organizing Committee by the government, so we only came here as guests and to monitor the games? But people do not understand, they think I am the one organizing because I am a Nigerian. So, everybody, even those that I think they are elites, they don’t understand. Everyone is coming to me, you are organizing African Games, I will say I am not the one, they will say, okay you are not but still you can do something. But luckily I have a very wonderful, courageous, humble and understandable Chief of Defense Staff, that is General Christopher Musa, he has taken over all my worries and done very well to make sure that this game succeeded. And you also know that he is a sportsman, that means, he knows the importance of sports, the internal fabric to our youths, to our military personnel, he knows the importance of sports to our men and to our women and he knows where to get all his resources to make sure that this game became a success.

After the first edition of the Games in Kenya about 22 years ago, Nigerian couldn’t host the game due to one challenge or the other and given the magnitude of preparation seen in this game, what can you say were the improvements from the first edition?

The only improvement is the modernization, anything you do 20 years ago, and you are doing this year, they must be an improvement and modernization. The Squadron system, the track system, the opening ceremony fireworks and closing ceremony, the kind of musical interlude, are some of the innovations we had, they were not there during the first edition. We used electronic method of scoring in most of the sports. Transportation and feeding were better than 20 years ago.

Can you tell me about your previous sporting activities, which sports was your favorite and how far have you taken it to?

I was a basketballer. I played at the national level. I represented my state, Sokoto. I played for Bauchi State, the Armed forces Team. All through my university and other schools I attended, I was in sports. I was director of sports in most of the institutions I attended. When I joined the Nigerian Army, I was posted to the sports directorate to continue my sporting activities. I was posted to the Military Sports Council Board in West Africa at a time as Technical Sports Officer. When I came back to Nigeria after my assignment, the president of OSMA organized election and I was elected as President. I won the election by 75%. Four countries contested the election with me and I was able to win the election. So, sport is in me and anybody you mention my name to from our contemporaries, they will say, Maikano is a Volleyballer, or Sports Administrator or sports Organizer. My name is synonymous with sports.Finally, what message will you want to share with athletes from nations, that participated in the games?I mentioned to them during the opening ceremony that they should contest fiercely buy fairly and they should understand that we are here not only to win medals but we are here to unite ourselves as Africans. We are here to understand our culture as Africans, we are here to know ourselves and we are here to show the world that Africa has come of age. Africa is in peace despite the issues here and there. Any place in the world, where they are playing sports, that translates that the nation is in peace. So if we can come here, about 22 African countries, we are here playing sports, and even those who should be seen in the battle field are here playing sports, that means Nigeria is in peace whether we believe it or not.