Opinion

By John Kiwanuka Ssemakula, 18 June 2002

Anyone who has any remote interest in football knows that the world cup is taking place in Korea and Japan in June 2002. Those following the world cup will also know the only Africa representative left in the world cup is Senegal.

Vive la Senegal!

I recently went out on a limb a couple of months a go and stated this is the year that an African team will lift the world cup as champions (see The Football Field analogy ). I still believe it.

So what does the world Cup have to do with health and development I hear you ask, after all this site is devoted to health and health related issues.

Everything and nothing!

Firstly World Health Day was devoted to the need for people to exercise more. Football is great exercise and judging by the way supporters of Senegal have been dancing and celebrating each of their victories they have been getting quite a lot of exercise! So supporting football is a good thing. I am of course over looking the drinking and hooliganism that is sometimes associated with football.

More importantly in the context of health, capacity development and the brain drain, Senegal offers and objective example of the sons of Diaspora working for their nation.

Most of the players for the Senegalese team play abroad, mainly in France (the former colonial master beaten 1-0 by Senegal). Yet the players came back to represent their country and they are succeeding on the world stage.

While the world acts surprised that a small nation like Senegal can produce players able to compete with much richer countries, we in Africa should not be so surprised. After all one of Africa’s greatest and most valuable export has been her people. Taken to distant shores to build nations, able to participate actively in countries abroad. (see the Brain Drain)

Senegal offers another objective lesson, especially when compared to her larger and richer neighbour Nigeria.

Nigeria though putting up a spirited performance in the latter stages of the first round failed to live up to their potential. A familiar song, heard too often.

Comparative data for Senegal and Nigeria

	Nigeria	Senegal

Population	123,337,822	9,987,494
Life expectancy at birth	51.56 years	62.19 years
Literacy	57.1%	33.1%

GDP purchasing power parity –(1999)	$110.5 billion	$16.6 billion
GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - (1999 est.)	$970	$1,650


Infant mortality rate /1,000 live births	74.18 deaths	58.08

HIV/AIDS (1999)
Adult and Children deaths 1999	250,000	7,800
Men (15 –49)	1,200,000	36,000
Women (15-49)	1,400,000	40,000
Total Adults	2,600,000	76,000
Percentage of population	5.06%	1.77%

Doctor ratio per thousand pop	5405	13333

Access to Clean water – Urban (2000)	81%	92%
Access to Clean water – Rural (2000)	39%	65%

Health expenditure per capita (current US$) 1997	$26.5	$23.2
Health expenditure, total (% of GDP) (1997)	2.3%	4.7%

Public spending on education, total (% of GNI, UNESCO) 1995	0.7%	3.95%
Sources for data – WHO, UNICEF, World Bank, CIA Factbooks, Medilinks.

From the data it is clear that Senegal outperforms the Nigerian powerhouse, whose output has been below par for years.

Senegal spends twice as much on health compared to Nigeria and almost six times as much on education. They have been doing this for years. As a result they have held their HIV/AIDS rates to below 2%, whereas Nigeria's which for year were low are starting to creep upwards inexorably.

Moreover Senegal has one of the most progressive and open governments in Africa today. So it is no wonder they are outperforming their giant neighbour!

Felasophy (a website in tribute to the late great Fela) sums it up best:

“….Having talented players is a necessary but insufficient condition for success on and off the soccer field. The hardest working striker is ineffective without a strong midfield to feed opportunities, the best goalkeeper (and Ike Shoronmu is the best Nigeria has had in ages) is a sitting duck without a solid defence.”

“….As satisfying as scrapping the team would be to the "action men" of the NFA, it would only be treating the symptoms as the cause. The problems with Nigerian football start from the top. The fact is that there are little or no meaningful opportunities to develop world-class skills playing within the ranks of the Nigerian soccer leagues.

Rather than address this issue by building up the domestic league and national training facilities painstakingly, successive government have been satisfied to dangle gifts of plots of land and cars to the players in case of success. A nation must PLAN for success, not try to purchase it at the last minute without having made adequate preparations.

The bottom line is that Nigeria will never fulfill its potential on a world-class stage on a heady combination of talent and organizational chaos. It doesn't work in the soccer arena, it doesn't work in economic and social development either….”

Good governance is just as critical for the development of a nations economy as much as its national football team.

Investment in education and health are the only ways to ensure continued and sustained growth.

SENEGAL - WORLD CHAMPIONS!

YOU HEARD IT HERE

SEE YOU ON JUNE 30TH 2002

Senegal for the cup