Complicit administration, dearth of efficient sports activities federations, failure to put money into athletes’ growth, and prioritise the implementation of the Nationwide Sports activities Coverage; failure to cease wholesale participation in all of the sporting occasions, and focus on those who the nation has a comparative benefit in, are a part of the legion of demons which can be afflicting the nation’s sports activities growth. The just-concluded Olympic Video games in Paris, France, supplied a spectacular alternative for the nation to indicate the way it has didn’t study from previous experiences. Aside from the result of the sporting ensemble making jest of the Federal Authorities’s boast that Paris 2024 would present how effectively the nation’s sports activities has grown within the final couple of years, CHRISTIAN OKPARA experiences that the anti-climax has somewhat proven that it’s time Nigeria modified her method to getting ready for and competing in main worldwide championships. It’s Los Angeles’ flip for the torch in 2028. Will Nigeria change its course?
The Paris 2024 Olympic Video games was presupposed to witness Nigeria’s finest efficiency for the reason that 1996 version, the place the nation received two gold medals and some silver and bronze medals.
The Sports activities Minister, John Owan Enoh, was so certain of the standard of labor his ministry and its affiliate federations had completed on the nation’s staff that he promised the nation a improbable outing in France.
Buoyed by the assurances and want to see the most effective of the nation on the largest sporting canvas on the earth, President Bola Tinubu gave the staff over N9 billion on the eve of the Video games. To not be left behind, members of the Home of Representatives collectively donated N100 million to spice up Group Nigeria’s marketing campaign on the Video games.
Armed with enough monetary muscle, Group Nigeria set out for France boasting of their preparedness to ruffle many feathers in Paris. Sadly, that didn’t occur. Fairly, Nigerians had been compelled to observe in horror, as their representatives crumbled one after the opposite as the best sporting extravaganza on the earth wound up, final weekend.
And so, as a substitute of the glory promised by the nation’s sports activities leaders, what got here out of the Nigerian camp had been tales of maladministration and nepotism, the place some ministry employees peopled the delegation with members of the family, who had been designated as journalists, medical assistants, and varied personnel.
Nigeria’s fall in Paris was so loud that officers, together with Sports activities Minister, had been compelled to organise hasty press conferences to clarify how the nation arrived at a state of affairs the place it watched whereas different much less endowed nations picked medals within the 16-day competitors.
Group Nigeria’s fall began even earlier than the primary athlete entered the ring, as boxer, Cynthia Ogunsemilore, was banished from the Video games following the World Anti-Doping Company’s (WADA) declare that she had spiked her system with a drug-masking substance.
The Bariga, Lagos State-born Ogunsemilore, who was marketed as a certain medal hope, was adopted out of the competitors instantly by her compatriot, Olaitan Olaore, who was defeated 5-0 within the first spherical of males’s 90kg boxing. As if on cue, the boxers had been joined on the exit door by the desk tennis staff, and the lone badminton entrant, Anu Opeyori, who all misplaced additionally within the first spherical.
The ladies’s nationwide soccer staff, the Tremendous Falcons, who did so effectively on the 2023 World Cup in Australia/New Zealand and had been anticipated to go a step additional by coming into the medals zone at these Video games, had been so poor that on the finish of the primary spherical of video games, they had been already eradicated after conceding three defeats and three targets with out scoring any.
Because the Video games regularly progressed, Nigerians began shifting their focus from one occasion to a different, hoping that one, at the very least, would give them one thing to cheer about. That didn’t occur till the curtains fell final Sunday.
With the acquainted state of affairs taking part in out but once more, the query many have requested is, “What went improper in Paris?” Many stakeholders say that for the umpteenth time, mediocrity permeated the system, whereas sporting officers bought a false hope of success on the Video games to Nigerians whereas doing little or nothing to help the athletes to the kind of superlative outing that they promised.
Additionally they level on the infighting in a number of the sports activities federations as one of many causes that the groups didn’t dwell as much as expectations. As an example, the nation’s boxing household is alleged to be divided by the ability tussle between the Nigeria Boxing Federation (NBF) President, Gen. Kenneth Minimah, who’s backed by the board, and the federation’s Vice President, Azania Omo-Agege.
This tussle, in accordance with inside sources has so paralysed the affiliation to the purpose that some officers secretly labored in opposition to the staff.Ogunsemilore’s drug woes and the damage that compelled Nigeria’s third entrant within the boxing occasion, Dolapo Omole, out of the competitors with out throwing a punch, had been additionally blamed on the disaster, with some officers saying that some folks intentionally uncared for their duties to make sure that the boxing staff failed in Paris.
Aside from allegations of sabotage, some stakeholders additional alleged that giving the sports activities ministry greater than N9 billion on the eve of such a serious competitors constituted a waste of assets as a result of, presently, the cash couldn’t assist to enhance any athletes’ capability to excel on the Olympics.
Most of the stakeholders had been scandalised when Sports activities Minister, John Owan Enoh, introduced that the Federal Authorities had paid coaching grants to home-based athletes on the Video games Village.
The argument was that any cash given to athletes on the competitors venue wouldn’t assist or improve their efficiency. Of their opinion, the cash would have made sense if it was given to them to boost their preparation for the Video games.
One other level raised by stakeholders was the sudden change in fortune for athletes, who dumped the nation barely three years earlier than the Video games and ended up profitable medals for his or her adopted nations.
One such athlete is Annette Echikunwoke, whose bid to characterize Nigeria on the Tokyo 2020 Video games was aborted by “corrupt’” officers, who didn’t pay for her out-of-competition checks, therefore she and a few others, together with Favour Ofili, had been stopped from taking part within the final Video games.
Irked by the poor dealing with of affairs by the Nigerian staff, Echikunwoke opted to change allegiance to america, and that call was rewarded with a silver medal for her adopted nation.
As if Group Nigeria didn’t study something from the 2020 catastrophe, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), on the Paris Video games, as soon as once more denied Ofili the chance to take part within the ladies’s 100 meters race, by omitting her title from the checklist of athletes submitted for the race.
Nigeria’s efficiency on the Video games in Paris clearly confirmed that somewhat than bettering on her previous outings, the nation has been happening with each championship. No because of the shenanigans by sports activities officers.
Nigeria received two gold medals, one silver, and three bronze medals at Atlanta 1996, went down to 1 gold, and two silver medals at Sydney 2000, and obtained solely two bronze medals at Athens 2004, earlier than climbing to a few silver medals and two bronze medals on the Beijing 2008 version of the Video games.
Fairly than consolidating on the Beijing outing, Nigeria fell to no medal on the London 2012 Video games, earlier than profitable solely a bronze medal at Rio 2016 Olympics.The Tokyo 2020 version was a slight enchancment as Group Nigeria received one silver and one bronze medal earlier than sliding to a different no-medal outing in Paris. That is the state of affairs that has prompted requires a change in techniques, and whole cleaning of the sports activities structure to allow the movement of contemporary air throughout the system.
X-raying the nation’s efficiency in Paris, former nationwide staff captain, Segun Odegbami, who was within the nation’s staff on the botched Olympic Video games in Montreal, Canada, in 1976, mentioned Nigeria didn’t make investments sufficient within the athletes to count on any improbable efficiency in Paris.
He, due to this fact, urged Nigerians to be glad with the athletes’ efficiency, stressing: “We can not count on greater than now we have achieved as a result of we didn’t make investments sufficient in creating the athletes. Among the many eight finest nations on the earth, our lady, Favour Ofili, made it to the ultimate in 200 metres. However the Video games have proven that we didn’t do sufficient to count on a deviation from what we had completed prior to now. If we wish to be among the many finest, we should do what the most effective do.”
To a former Tremendous Eagles coach, Adegboyega Onigbinde, Nigeria’s poor outing on the Olympic Video games, in France, exhibits that the nation lacks good sports activities directors.
Onigbinde mentioned that he was fed up with discussing the ills afflicting Nigerian sports activities and its administration as these involved may mistake his real love for searching for place and relevance.
“You see, why Nigerian athletes should not performing effectively within the Olympic Video games and different worldwide sports activities competitions should not technical, however administrative.
“Is it technical that an athlete who certified correctly in her occasion might be ridiculed by not being registered to take part in an occasion that she certified for? Conditions like this can proceed if our directors don’t separate politics from sports activities,” the veteran technical sports activities director mentioned.
Based on him, most sports activities directors have forgotten the core goal of developmental programmes, which earned the nation some measure of success prior to now.
“The identical administrative downside, which has stagnated developmental progress in sports activities is affecting us in nearly all elements of our nationwide life. No nation is healthier endowed than Nigeria so far as sports activities abilities are involved, however are they well-developed? I’ve labored with the Federation of Worldwide Soccer Affiliation (FIFA) for over 20 years, visiting many nations and within the course of, seeing their developmental efforts in sports activities. In Nigeria, if sports activities directors don’t like your face, there is no such thing as a approach for you,” the previous Common Supervisor of Taking pictures Stars Soccer Membership said.
Based on Canada-based sports activities analyst, Adewale Ajayi, Nigeria would proceed to stutter in world championships till she learns to register for sports activities disciplines that she has a comparative benefit and cease wholesale participation in all of the sporting occasions.
Ajayi mentioned that the nation ought to cease treating the Olympic Video games as a jamboree, the place officers go to take pleasure in themselves somewhat than overseeing profitable participation within the varied occasions.
He additionally urged Nigerians to carry the Ministry of Sports activities accountable, saying that the over 50 officers that travelled to France, with 88 athletes should inform Nigerians how they spent the finances for the Video games.
He mentioned: “The Federal Authorities should ask this sports activities minister to offer an account of his stewardship. Nigerians wish to know the way N9 billion was spent on a staff that might not win a single medal. Many are dying of starvation; many haven’t any jobs, some can not pay home lease, and lots of have turned beggars, but the Nigerian authorities spent N9 billion on Group Nigeria on the Olympics.
“Of the over 50 officers taken to the Olympics, I used to be instructed that about 20 of them are political touts, pals and households disguised as journalists. It is a pure waste of funds.”
The Chairman of the Gombe State Athletics Affiliation, Shaibu Gara-Gombe mentioned that Nigeria has failed to grasp that “the Olympic Video games is just not a tea social gathering, a moi moi social gathering, or a village assembly.” He described the Olympic Video games as a well-planned programme dominated by “transparency, accountability, planning, welfare, infrastructure, and effectivity. None of those is current now in Group Nigeria.”
The previous member of the Nigeria Soccer Federation (NFF) board mentioned that President Bola Tinubu has invested a lot within the nation’s sports activities since he assumed workplace final 12 months, including, nonetheless, that such investments haven’t resulted in success resulting from poor administration.
Gombe mentioned: “You can’t begin to construct from the center; you construct from the muse upwards. So, they can’t be speaking about the most effective outing within the Olympics after we don’t have all these traits. The management of the sports activities ministry is just not good, honest, or environment friendly. It’s certainly corrupt and helps corruption. So, you can not have the most effective outing on this state of affairs.
“The most effective outing we had in 1996 didn’t occur by probability. After the 1992 Video games in Barcelona, the late Chief Alex Akinyele, who was the chairman of the Nationwide Sports activities Fee (NSC), and the de facto sports activities minister arrange a technical committee to begin getting ready for Atlanta 1996, and the consequence was the gold medals in soccer and lengthy bounce. Correct planning did the magic.”
Gombe accused the Federal Ministry of Sports activities, and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) of constructing a mockery of the nation on the greatest stage in sport, by not registering a certified athlete for her occasion.
“I feel the cash given to the sports activities ministry for this Olympics was wasted. The Presidency ought to scrutinise each finances introduced by the ministry as a result of these folks finances for all kinds of issues that don’t exist. There are such a lot of leakages and padding that they current to the Presidency. They even invoice the nation for a number of the expenditures taken care of by the host nation.
“I learn the place the minister mentioned that he has paid athletes allowances and he recorded it as an achievement. It’s a disgrace. Group Nigeria has fared badly in nearly each space, and it isn’t the athletes’ fault. What occurred to Ofili in 200 meters was the impact of the psychological disturbance from her incapability to run within the 100m.” Gombe referred to as for a radical cleaning of the system if the nation should rise once more on the subsequent Olympics.
“We’ve got to return to the drafting board and trend out a workable sports activities coverage as a result of the one the previous minister foisted on the nation was lopsided.“You can’t have a sports activities coverage with out bearing in mind the peculiarities of the element our bodies. A coverage that works in Rivers, Delta, Imo and Lagos states might not work in Gombe, Plateau, and Borno states. After which, at the same time as imperfect because the coverage is, it has not been carried out. I’ve been organizing grassroots programmes in Gombe State, but the AFN or the Federal Ministry of Sports activities has not deemed it match to put in writing a letter to us.
“There are grants for grassroots sports activities growth to be accessed from World Athletics, however we don’t make use of them as a result of a number of the our bodies would not have financial institution accounts. They use people’ accounts, which the worldwide our bodies don’t recognise,” Gombe alleged. He continued: “To maneuver ahead, we should have a look at our coverage; have a look at our infrastructure; develop ourselves after seeing the place we’re poor; combat corruption, develop capability, purge ourselves of inefficiency, and attempt to attraction to the company world to sponsors sports activities.”
Gombe suggested the Federal Authorities to alter the nation’s sports activities structure fully, return to the Nationwide Sports activities Fee mannequin of administration, “and most significantly, we must always put together a transitional programme in direction of stopping the federal government from sponsoring sports activities.”
To Sabinus Ikewuaku, a lawyer, who can be into sports activities administration, Paris 2024 has proven that the nation is just not prepared for change irrespective of the great intentions of some stakeholders.
Taking place reminiscence lane, Ikewuaku recalled that after the London 2012 Video games, the place Nigeria additionally didn’t win any medal, then President, Goodluck Jonathan invited all of the nation’s sports activities specialists to clarify what occurred in London and the way in which ahead. “I do not forget that after the summit, the specialists submitted a paper the place all the issues had been revealed and options proffered.
“President Jonathan then set the sports activities sector aside and gave them direct entry to funding so that cash would now not cease our athletes from coaching, getting ready, and excelling at main competitions.
“Jonathan established a youth programme referred to as the Nationwide Academicals Sports activities Committee (NASCOM), which was to make sure that no Nigerian expertise is left undiscovered irrespective of the place that expertise relies.
“Sadly, Jonathan left authorities and the Muhammadu Buhari administration, which had Solomon Dalung as sports activities minister, discarded that effort. And so, the nation returned to budgeting for competitions on the eve of such competitions.” Ikewuaku mentioned the doc from the 2012 summit is someplace within the sports activities ministry, including that it isn’t too late for the present administration to return to it.
A former African tennis champion, Dr Sadiq Abdullahi, who participated within the 1980 Video games in Moscow, Russia, mentioned that one of many main causes that Nigerian athletes fail to make the rostrum on the Olympic Video games is as a result of sports activities directors typically fail to do the issues which can be obligatory to organize coaches and athletes for podium success.
He mentioned: “The Olympic Video games is a gathering of the most effective athletes on the earth. They’re all the time within the temper to characterize themselves and their nations. Every of those athletes typically has gone by a rigorous coaching routine over a given time in readiness to compete on the highest stage. As soon as athletes arrive on the Video games Village, their mindset modifications.
Abdullahi emphasised that two basic causes accounted for the colossal failure of the Nigerian contingent to the 2024 Paris Olympics. “The primary was the opening ceremony fiasco. A number of the athletes particularly members of the nation’s feminine basketball staff, D’Tigress weren’t given tickets to take part within the opening ceremony.
“The second was the dearth of efficient coordination of athletes, coaches, and directors on the Video games. Because of this, most of the athletes misplaced confidence however competed in opposition to the most effective on the earth. Coaches too had been distracted and needed to showcase their teaching expertise and expertise among the many finest coaches on the earth. The stakes had been excessive for coaches and their athletes. A number of the secondary causes embrace insufficient preparation resulting in the Olympics, and athlete’s choice as seen in athletics.”
To curb additional poor outings on the Olympics, Abdullahi mentioned that nationwide sports activities federations ought to determine and monitor the progress of potential athletes, whereas the sports activities ministry ought to launch funding for coaching and competitions regionally and internationally.
He added: “The sports activities ministry ought to arrange a physique to coordinate elements of worldwide competitions, and in addition create a database for potential athletes who will characterize the nation on the African Video games, Commonwealth Video games, and the Olympics. This ought to be completed in collaboration with the technical administrators of the sports activities federations.”
Abdullahi urged the Federal Authorities to discover a approach of releasing funds for main competitions that come 12 to 24 months earlier than the Olympics, including, “The African Video games and the Commonwealth Video games all the time precede the Olympics. Coaches too ought to be recognized and be inspired to go for additional teaching programs for self-improvement.” He referred to as on the Federal Ministry of Sports activities Growth to redefine its goal and set real looking, particular, measurable, and achievable targets.
“The ministry ought to strengthen the capability and create a Key Efficiency Index (indicators) for nationwide sports activities federations, together with a reward and punishment mechanism, including that the sports activities ministry ought to evaluation and implement some elements of the 2022-2026 Nationwide Sports activities Trade Coverage to begin the method of constructing the sports activities sector self-financing.
Giving his perspective on why the nation failed in France, a former chairman of the Sports activities Writers Affiliation of Nigeria (SWAN), Lagos State Chapter, Fred Edoreh, mentioned {that a} mixture of disagreeable components resulted within the nation’s poor displaying. He mentioned scenes of above-average efficiency by Nigerian athletes within the heats, quarter, or semifinal rounds paled into insignificance within the finals, that are “all the time a distinct ball recreation.
“I, nonetheless, will proceed to cherish the ladies’s basketball staff, which dared the chances and confirmed promise by qualifying for the quarterfinals the place they misplaced to the USA Had former Sports activities Minister, Sunday Dare, not disrupted their movement with the two-year ban from worldwide occasions, which he introduced upon the staff (in a bid to put in his most popular allies into the management of the NBBF) a growth that made D’Tigress to lose the chance to taking part within the 2022 FIBA Ladies World Cup maybe the women would have been richer and higher by expertise.”
Apparently, Edoreh absolved the Sports activities Minister, Enoh, of the blame for the poor present in Paris, saying: “The Olympic Video games has a four-year preparation cycle, and Enoh is new within the system, nearly a 12 months and a few months. Due to this fact, he couldn’t have been an ideal a part of our preparations, aside from making certain the discharge of funds for the ceremonial a part of the method.
“I say ‘ceremonial’ as a result of champions are made within the health club, not on the competitors floor. It takes between eight to 12 years to construct a possible Olympic champion, relying on when she or he is found, and one other 4 years to organize her or him for the win. Enoh might solely have labored with what he met on the bottom.
“Which means that it’s the two sports activities ministers within the eight years of the final regime which can be in charge for having planted nothing from which now we have now harvested nothing in due season. One was bereft of decorum, loquaciously malicious, and cantankerous. The opposite was a mere propagandist showman, primarily empty, however filled with self-conceit even in his horrible ignorance.
“I have to additionally say that our complete sports activities institution has not been doing any correct SWAT, if in any respect, on our participation in world sports activities, in any other case it ought to have been in a position to discern our regular decline on the Olympics, identical to in another world competitions, prior to now 20 years, and to plot strategic programmes to drag us up.
“The information are there. The mid-90s was the golden period of our sports activities. In soccer, we received the Africa Cup of Nations in 1994, for the second time since 1980. Identical interval, we certified for the World Cup for the primary time. FIFA ranked our nationwide staff fifth on the earth, and, as first-timers, we posted a good efficiency on the US ‘94 World Cup.
“Maybe we have to evaluation the sports activities and athletes’ growth programmes, organisation, and administration of that period. We anticipated that we’d have constructed on them for extra wins however, from the six medals at Atlanta, we declined very steadily in subsequent Olympiads,” Edoreh lamented. He regretted that Nigeria has continued to dwell in self-deceptive propaganda, and went to sleep after Tokyo 2020, “most likely believing that, in spite of everything, now we have Tobi Amusan, who emerged a world champion, with a brand new world report on the World Athletics Championship, Ese Brume, Blessing Oborodudu and another athletes whom we celebrated, however with out efficient monitoring, substantial materials, nor well timed technical help for them to construct, and maintain greater efficiency forward of coming occasions.”
Like so many stakeholders, Edoreh referred to as for a evaluation of the system that foists politicians on the sports activities business as ministers, saying that these politicians come to the job with none prior data, or involvement in sports activities.
“Being a political head maybe wouldn’t have mattered a lot, but it surely turns into worrisome if a minister of sports activities can be coming to work with a everlasting secretary who, probably, has served most of his profession in both the ministries of stable minerals, water assets, atmosphere or the like which can be fully unrelated to sports activities. That leaves us with a state of affairs during which each the political and the executive/accounting heads haven’t any hands-on expertise on the beat, besides normal pedestrian data.”
To Nigeria’s first Olympic gold medallist, Chioma Ajunwa, who can be the primary black African lady to win an Olympic gold medal in a discipline occasion, the nation will solely begin doing effectively when it stops “recycling good for nothing directors.”She mentioned: “Allow them to put in place, those who love and know sports activities, the ability of sports activities, and what it may possibly do for a nation, somewhat than these which can be there for pecuniary causes.
“There’s a must re-vamp college sports activities (each secondary and first ranges), deliver again sports activities councils, and native authorities grassroots competitions, which is the breeding base for sports activities growth in each state.” One other Olympic gold medallist, Enefiok Udo-Obong, believes that the nation will proceed to fail at main competitions if the present leaders at sports activities federations are allowed to proceed “messing up the system.”
Udo-Obong a gold medallist within the 4×400 metres relay on the Sydney 2000 Video games, mentioned: “The failure of our athletes to win any medal is because of a mix of things, together with lack of preparation, incompetence of a number of the handlers and dangerous luck. And it’s time to say, ‘Sufficient is sufficient.’ Folks have to be held accountable. The very first thing to do is to impact a sweeping change within the executives of sporting federations.“We’d like new concepts and contemporary actions. It’s good that elections for sports activities federations are coming quickly. Numerous board members don’t have anything to supply. They’re solely in want of the titles, which they’re able to pay for. We additionally want an efficient technique, which ought to be led by the sports activities ministry, and there have to be a deliberate plan to reach at fastened targets, starting from quick, to medium and long-term targets.”
