The Bolt Principle: Hamzat’s Ride to Marina House

When we talk about the Olympics, we think of ancient Greece, Mount Olympus, Pierre de Coubertin, the Olympic Rings and athletes. In addition to being the largest sporting event in the world, many stories are woven into that laurel wreath.
They are stories of grit, determination, disappointment and triumph.
Each Olympics heralds the arrival of young hopes, the emergence of new stars, the meteoric rise of champions, the glittering dominance and consolidation of great athletes, the dimming of fading stars and, finally, the swan song of legends.
A strand of history woven into the iconic laurel wreath began in 2004 at the Athens Games. It was here that Usain Bolt, a promising young man, graced the slopes, finishing fifth in his heat and not making the final.
Away from public attention, Bolt incorporated Wayne Goldsmith’s “Train Your Brain” formula. Train emotion management. Train the ability to perform when and where it counts, no matter what the event throws at you.’
His efforts began to bear fruit at the 2005 World Championships in Helsinki, where he reached the 200 meters final, but a hamstring injury ruined his save.
Subsequently, Usain Bolt had moments where he remained in the center, right and left of the podium at the Lausanne Grand Prix (2006), the Osaka World Championships (2007), the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2009 World Championships, breaking the world record in Beijing and breaking his own record in Berlin.
Usain Bolt’s story shows that the journey to the top begins with one step. It vividly supports the popular aphorism that Rome was not built in a day. A popular Yoruba adage says, “Ikoko ti yio je ata, idi e gbona,” meaning that a pot that eats soup cannot escape the heat of the fire.
This adage is an evergreen homily that runs through all traces of the titans and public spheres.
This theme, exemplified in Usain Bolt’s journey from ex nihilo to the top of the world of sports, fits perfectly with the journey of Dr Obafemi Hamzat, the current deputy governor of Lagos State. With a brilliant doctorate and a distinguished career working in world-class organizations such as Oando, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, Obafemi was appointed Commissioner for Science and Technology in 2005 by Governor Bola Tinubu.
Under his control, the digitalization of all processes was achieved using the Oracle ERP system. This brought corporate governance – the Holy Grail of the private sector – into the public sector. Furthermore, as Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure (2011–2015) during the Babatunde Fashola administration, he oversaw the expansion, improvement and completion of many roads.
His hiatus in public service came during the time Akinwunmi Ambode presided over the affairs of the Center of Excellence. A break here is not a period of idleness; rather, it’s a time to take stock, refresh yourself, and devise new ways of doing things. The hiatus was brief, as he briefly served as special advisor on technical matters to Fashola in his capacity as a federal minister, before emerging as Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s deputy governor following his victory at the polls.
For almost everything Usain Bolt has experienced, excluding injuries, Obafemi Hamzat has had a parallel. Bolt earned a mixture of bronze, silver and gold; Hamzat served in several roles. Bolt learned from the masters before breaking the world record in Beijing; Obafemi learned from three different Lagos governors before becoming deputy governor.
Bolt and Obafemi’s trajectories in sport and public service are not absurd. Such trajectories are explained in psychology, as elucidated in the work of Anders Ericsson, a Swedish psychologist famous for his work on expert performance and the concept of deliberate practice. Its delayed mastery curve frames learning as progressively slow and invisible in the inertia phase. However, through constant practice, the jagged edges are gradually smoothed out. With consistency in skill acquisition, through repetition and correction, an accumulation that leads to improved performance becomes evident in the next phase. Obafemi, over time, as a two-time commissioner, special advisor and deputy governor, has mastered the governing curve and is poised to peak as Usain Bolt did in Beijing.
While peaking at the right time is pertinent in sport, the road to the podium is not a given. No free food even in Freetown, as they say on the street. Even if you peak at the right time, you still have to compete with others. For the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Usain Bolt did it. And for the record-breaking Berlin 2009, Usain Bolt competed with Asafa Powell, Tyson Gay, Marc Burns and Daniel Bailey, among others. Already many names are being touted as the next tenant of Marina House, including the name of Dr Obafemi Hamzat.
For Dr. Obafemi Hamzat and other touted names, a brief history of another sporting event is instructive. It shows the importance of practice and innovative strategy over speed.
John Landy, an Australian, won the bronze medal in the 1,500 meters at the 1956 Olympic Games held in Melbourne. In 1953, he wanted to be the first man to run a mile under 4 minutes, setting a world record. As much as he tried, his efforts ended in failure. Then came Roger Bannister, an Englishman who was creative about the sub-4-minute mile task. Bannister welcomed the help and used two Olympic runners, Chris Chattaway and Chris Brasher, as pacemakers; running with pacemakers, Bannister became the first to accomplish the four-minute mile feat, a feat John Landy accomplished six weeks later. So you might ask: who was the better runner?
The best runner isn’t necessarily the fastest, like John Landy, but Roger Bannister, who figured out how to take advantage of his pacemakers. This advantage Dr Obafemi Hamzat had in abundance from Tinubu to Fashola and Sanwo-Olu.
All the advertised names also have sweat on their temples due to persistent training. But training alone doesn’t win a race. You need to execute a game plan. Do you start off strong or do you move away from the group at a decisive moment? Yet there must be something in Hamzat, who ran alongside three different pacemakers in governance: Bola Tinubu, Babatunde Fashola and Babajide Sanwo-Olu. The “JAMB question” that requires an answer is whether Hamzat will benefit from the pace and lessons of these pacemakers.
If he does, he will have taken a sip from the fountain of knowledge captured by advertising legend Bill Bernbach, who once said, “It may be that creativity is the last unfair advantage we are legally permitted to take over our competitors.”
Will Obafemi Hamzat be able to exploit this “unfair legal advantage” and stand in the center of the podium?
I’m not looking!

*Toluwalope Shodunke, a media professional, can be reached via [email protected]