By Akintayo Balogun
When I was choosing a suitable topic for this write-up, I initially wrote “the highs and lows of the 2024 Paris Olympics but I had to remove the “highs” from the topic as again Nigeria achieved the 2012 London Olympic Games feat of participating in the games without boasting of a single medal. We literally did not qualify for any of the finals save for one or two. This is the same competition we came back with 10 medals just 3 years ago. History has it that this is the 8th time Nigeria is attending the Olympics and returning empty-handed.
The memories of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the success Nigeria recorded at the tournament made the Olympics very dear to our hearts. That year, Nigeria won its first-ever Olympic gold medal through Chioma Ajunwa in the long jump games. Nigeria went further to win gold in football in the Kanu Nwankwo led under 23 Dream Team. That group of players turned out to be the most historic, successful, and memorable football team ever in the history of Nigeria. That team would have won more tournaments as a group during their heydays; save for the political barricades that stopped Nigeria’s participation in African FIFA tournaments between 1996 and 1999. Since 1996, Nigeria has been hopeful to achieve that kind of feat and to put Nigeria on the Olympic map, unfortunately, we are yet to come close.
Nigeria had some very embarrassing moments in this Olympics that calls for serious investigations, return to the drawing board, cautions and even auditing of the participation of Nigeria in the games. Nigeria budgeted and used a whooping sum of 12 Billion Naira (N12,000, 000, 000.00) for the games. You wonder why so much money has to go into it and painfully nothing much came out of it. Has our currency become so useless that so much money has to go into the games or is the usual bogus budget for what costs far less? It is reported that Nigeria went to Paris with 88 athletes, allegedly 84 officials, yet nothing to show for it. We had an athlete who was to participate in a cycling competition and had no bicycle to compete with. She had to borrow a bike from her German counterpart. The information was unfortunately well publicized on social media. Again another athlete cried out that her name was not registered for a particular event. These and many more were the embarrassing situations that greeted the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Another hurtful part of the games was seeing athletes of Nigerian descent winning medals for the countries they represented at the tournament. An author said Nigerians won medals but Nigeria did not. Among them was the case of Annette Echikunwoke, who was set to represent Nigeria at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics but was ruled ineligible after the Athletics Federation of Nigeria failed to register her for the required test. She switched allegiance to the United States and won a silver medal in the hammer throw, the first American woman to win a medal in the sport. Onitsha born Ebelechukwu Agbapuonwu, now known and identified as Salwa Eid Naser, represented Bahrain and won silver in the 400m women’s event at the Olympics. Germany-born Yemisi Ogunleye is understandable as she was born and bred in Germany. She won gold for Germany in shotput. Melvin Imoudu won an Olympic medal for Germany in the 100m breaststroke. Samuel Omorodion played for Spain as a striker. He was part of the Spanish team that won the gold medal in the men’s football tournament. He sure would not regret his decision to play for Spain. These are the few who mounted the medal podium, not to mention the several others who represented other countries and did not make it to the podium.
Absence of grass root development of athletes
One of the things I noticed about many of the countries that participated in the games, particularly China, USA, Japan, etc, from the wording of the commentators, you will realize that these athletes have won several medals in other competitions, they have been groomed over the years. They started young. This is one major area where Nigeria is lost. We practically have zero grassroots development mechanism to grow our athletes from as young as primary schools. Looking back at the entire performance of Nigeria, both at the qualifying stage and at the tournament proper, the problem did not start in Paris. Nigeria did not participate in some of the games that it had been popular for. The Nigeria Dream Team did not qualify for the football tournament which is the game in which Nigeria has enjoyed fair success. Over the years, Nigeria has won gold, silver, and bronze in football at different Olympic tournaments. However and unfortunately, we painfully could not qualify for the game. When you look at the team of Bonfree Jo that won the gold in the 1996 Atlanta Games, they were mostly home-grown boys trained by Coach Clement Westerof. The Dream Team that won silver in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games that narrowly lost to a Lionel Messi-led team under-23 team had been groomed by Coach Samson Siasia from their under 20 days. That same team had been the runner-up at the Under 20 World Cup in 2006. That part of growing and grooming is unfortunately now missing in the football community. There is zero continuity in footballing, it’s now a new coach, a new set of boys, a new administration, a new system, and of course new politicians who are not vast in sports. These have not helped our football. The female football team unfortunately could not go beyond the group stage. This has been the case in as many Olympics that Nigeria has participated in.
Participating in other games
Nigeria has over the years been limited in participation at the Olympics. Out of the 32 different games in several categories running into nearly 100 categories done in the 2024 Olympics, Nigeria’s participation was grossly limited. What stopped Nigeria from participating in other sports like weight lifting, shooting, horse riding (Equestrian), a popular game in northern Nigeria, and any other games that we see on the streets of Nigeria? We had reports of boys in the Niger Delta zone during the days of the agitations who were reported to be faster in water than on land. The reports had it that once they jump into the water while running away from the Nigerian soldiers, it is nearly impossible to have them arrested. We also have people who do excellent acrobats in the traffic for small alms. These are persons that Nigeria can professionalize and can represent Nigeria at the games. If Nigeria could budget as much as 12 Billion for the games, then Nigeria could have participated in at least 30 different games and the different series that took place in the Olympics.
Conclusion
The 2024 Paris Olympic Games turned out to be a disaster as rightly stated by the Minister of Sport and a waste of funds and as a matter of fact, the worst in the history of Nigeria. In fact, there cannot be a performance worse than going to the Olympics and coming back empty-handed. Nigeria needs to go back to its drawing table. We are obviously the giant of Africa in size and population and nothing more. It is time to look beyond track events, football, boxing, and table tennis. It is time to widen our scope and develop our potential beyond these regular sports. Nigerians are usually very good at their endeavors. The testimonies are evident. It is only opportunities that Nigerians need. Let our leaders take corruption out of sport and stop using it as another avenue to siphon funds. Some athletes with African heritage opted to represent Western countries because their home countries demanded bribes to get them on the list. This has bedeviled African sport and not just Nigeria. Imagine the current French national team representing a country in Africa. Africa would probably have its first World Cup by now.
We can only hope we get it right in Nigeria and Africa at large. Our potential in sports far outweighs other countries if we can only do the right thing with the plenty of resources we have at our disposal.
Akintayo Balogun Esq., LL.B (Hons), BL, LL.M, is a legal practitioner in private practice and based in Abuja, FCT. A prolific writer, public affairs analyst and commentator on national issues. akinson6@gmail.com.
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