Nigerians were almost in a mourning mood as the curtains came down on the Paris’24 Olympics. Nigeria did not win a single medal despite the high hopes in track and field, female basketball and boxing. So, the reverse of the joy and enthusiasm that victory in sports brings was the lot of Nigerians. It is on record that no human event brings the unity that comes with sports, especially in Nigeria, a country so divided by political shenanigans.

While the general belief is that mere participation in the Olympics is an honour and a privilege, victory bestows honour and glory to both athlete and country. Since the modern Olympics began over a century ago, it has brought the best in human feats, testing the limits of physical and mental prowess, and establishing heroics of the kind that can only be watched with amazements without the accompaniments of bloodsheds as in war or stunts as in Hollywood movies. It is reality on steroids. Hence, the Olympic games with its breath and variety give us the greatest game on the face of the earth, which comes every four years. Humanity watches itself in a daze. This implies that both athletes and countries have ample time to prepare for victory in the various sports.

Nigeria has not always had a zero medal Olympics. Historically, the country has won 27 Olympic medals consisting of three gold medals, two of which came in the 1996 Los Angeles Olympics with policewoman Chioma Ajunwa leaping for gold in long jump and the Super Eagles defeating football superpowers, Brazil and Argentina, to clinch the historic football Olympic gold. With the poor performance of the Nigerian contingent to Paris’24, Nigerian sports cascaded to its nadir.

Japan’20 was a sign that Nigeria’s sports was slowly and surely going downhill despite billions always allocated to the sports ministry. The Athletics Integrity Unit announced that Nigeria had failed to meet the minimum drug testing requirement as per, “Rule 15”, which requires at least three no-notice outside of competition blood and urine drug tests no less than three weeks apart for 10 of their athletes. This resulted in their disqualification. Annette Nneka Echikunwoke, a Nigerian-American hammer-thrower who was a victim decided to go back and compete for America and won silver for America, setting a record as the first female American to win a medal in the sport at the Olympics.

The story of Annette and female track cyclist, Ese Ukpeseraye, who had to borrow a bicycle from the German contingent because the Nigerian Cycling Federation had none for her tells the terrible story of sports organization in Nigeria. These and other acts of sloppiness by the sports ministry and the different sports federations had always cost Nigeria very dearly. One of the most heartbreaking testimonies came from a basketball player, who lamented that they individually sponsored their training while their mates in the United States got about $6,000 each, while those in Canada got about $4,000 monthly for training for the Olympics.

Shockingly, Nigerian sports minister, John Enoh, was excitedly announcing to the world during the Paris’24 that they had paid both the local and foreign-based athletes their training grants and allowances. This, according to the minister was, “a testament to the ministry’s concerns for the welfare of the country’s athletes”. On his ‘X’ handle, he had tweeted to the world that, “this will be the first time ever’ that home-based athletes representing the country would receive training grants”.

This statement, during the games, was the summation of the rot that the sports ministry had been over the years. There is no respect for athletes, whether they are home or foreign-based. How does a minister assume that paying training grants to athletes during an Olympic is an achievement worth tweeting about? The greatest scandal is the fact that there are allegations that between N9- N12billion was earmarked for the games, yet, not a single medal was won. The ineptitude of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) led to the second omission of Favour Ofilli’s name for the 100 metres race she had spent four years preparing for. The first was in Tokyo’20.

Nigeria keeps stumbling on the global sports stage because of systemic dysfunction. What punishment was meted to the AFN personnel that messed up at the Tokyo’20 Olympics? This same ineptitude runs through most of the sporting federations in the country, including football. There is always some negligence and incompetence that go unpunished. There is no grassroots sports and infrastructural development. The Tigress basketball team that set a record at the games is predominantly made up of Nigerian-Americans with a Rena Wakama coach that has shown exceptional grit and courage.

There are no quick fixes in merit-based sports; the work must go on for success to be achieved. Nigeria has the talents and resources but is systemically dysfunctional. We were left to cheer, like voyeurs, athletes of Nigerian origin gliding high for other countries. The loss of many young sportsmen and women to other countries is the loudest evidence that something is wrong with a system that wastes its talents. There must be a total overhaul of institutions, both socio-culturally and politically, for the value to be gotten from sports. It is a soft power source that elevates individuals and countries. We expect a total investigation into this shambolic outing in Paris’24 and culprits punished accordingly. Other countries are already getting ready for. (The Nation Editorial)

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