The Olympics Games, Tokyo 2020, recently ended with unforgettable highlights, twists and turns in its wake. Key among the highlights was that it held at all, having nearly been cancelled due to the onset of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic in the year 2020, hence it was shifted to this year 2021, still designated officially as Olympics Tokyo 2020.
For Nigerians, however, the Olympics was depressing as not only did our athletes not perform well, contingents and officials were embroiled in several controversies.
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The only high points for Nigeria were through Blessing Oborududu, who won silver in wrestling and Ese Brume, who secured a bronze medal in women’s long jump. But for these women, Nigeria will not have featured on the medals table and for that we commend them. We also urge the federal government to ensure that they are honoured and all that is due to them is given them.
Aside from this, every other thing about Nigeria as it concerned the games was unpalatable. There were reports on diversion and confiscation by unscrupulous Nigerian officials, of phone gifts that telecommunications giant, Samsung – one of the sponsors of the games – made available to all athletes. The phones were reportedly released to the affected athletes after they protested. Another case was the scandalous instance where out of 18 athletes that were disqualified for doping violations 10 were Nigerians. The sordid dimension of Nigeria’s show of shame in Tokyo was accentuated by trending videos of Nigerian athletes protesting their disqualification on the streets of Tokyo, just as another video emerged of weight lifter Chukwuebuka Enekwechi actually manually washing his jersey in preparation for the next contest! Added to the foregoing was the issue of athletes being underpaid their allowances by the officials and the bungled sponsorship deal with sportswear maker, Puma.
In another dimension was the situation where the country failed to enjoy any representation in some of its traditional areas of sporting strength such as in football and boxing. Considering that the country earned one of its two Olympic gold medals in football in 1996, and the other coming through athletics by Chioma Ajunwa, with a bronze coming earlier from boxer Nojeem Maiyegun, the non-representation of the country in football and boxing, coupled with the disqualification of the 10 athletes, cast a big slur on Nigeria’s participation at the games. In fact, the circumstances of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics took the country’s misfortunes to a new disappointing level.
Little wonder that there has been a gale of rightful indignation from several quarters across the length and breadth of the country over what many see as perhaps the worst outing by Nigeria at any Olympics tournament. Now, the games are over and preparations will soon begin for the next one. However, for any progress to be made there should be a review of the games and all those who contributed whether through their actions or inactions to Nigeria’s dismal performance must be held to account.
Already, from the events, it is obvious that poor planning on the part of the Ministry of Sports contributed to the performance, which therefore justifies the strident calls for the Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Sunday Dare, to resign his appointment or be sacked. Just as well, the entire membership of the Nigerian Olympic Committee (NOC) should also resign or be sacked as their performance with respect to the Olympics outing has betrayed them as unable to take the country’s sports to a higher level. Any other person, group or party found culpable should be sanctioned as well.
With hindsight from past appearances of the country in international sports, lack of early preparation and consistency in sports administration have been the bane of the country’s sporting fortunes. The country is therefore now faced with the challenge of reinventing its sports management regime, to ensure that the experience of the last Olympics outing does not repeat itself. Meanwhile, the dour outing has also reinforced the role of sports development as both a catalyst and barometer for national development, therefore, it must be taken seriously. The nation’s sports manager needs to do better.
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