Sports Legend Odegbami Highlights Transformative Power of Sports at FULOKOJA

In a compelling lecture that captivated academics and students alike, Nigerian football legend Dr. Olusegun Odegbami delivered the 15th Distinguished Public Lecture at Federal University Lokoja on April 2, 2025 at the Multipurpose hall of the Felele campus, exploring the transformative potential of sport beyond the playing field.

Speaking on the topic "Sport has the power to change the world - how true?", the former Green Eagles captain drew from his personal experiences as both an athlete and sports advocate to illustrate how sport can be a catalyst for social, political, and economic change.

Odegbami recounted his participation in the historic 1976 Olympic boycott, when 27 African nations withdrew from the Montreal Games to protest New Zealand's sporting ties with apartheid South Africa. "Our sacrifice of the 1976 Sports boycott, the first in Olympic history, was finally remembered," Odegbami noted, explaining how the athletes were recently honored with a "Wall of Fame" at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs.

The football icon shared how Nelson Mandela's famous words about sport's power to change the world inspired his own journey of discovery. "From Monte Carlo in the year 2000, Mandela's words kept engaging my head. But was the power of Sports restricted to politics only? Can't it be deployed to impact other sectors?" he asked.