Paris Olympics disaster caused by Enoh’s missteps

The just concluded Paris Olympics will remain indelible in the memories of countries and athletes who used the platform provided by the world’s largest games to showcase their sporting prowess. At the Games, which were held from July 26 to August 11, new Olympic champions emerged even from the least expected quarters.

For instance, 23 year old Julien Alfred won the women’s 100 meters to claim St Lucia’s first Olympics Medal. The young lady from the tiny Caribbean-Island also won a silver medal in the 200 meters event. 17 year old Kaylia Nemour also became the first athlete to win a medal in gymnastics for her country, Algeria and Africa.

In the same vein, Letsile Tebogo of Botswana won Africa’s first ever 200 meters gold. These were some of the most outstanding performers at the Paris Olympics.

Sadly, the self-acclaimed ‘giant of Africa’ Nigeria is at the moment mourning the abysmal performance of her athletes. Represented by 84 athletes, Team Nigeria has failed to win a single medal at the games. The disgraceful outing in Paris makes it the eighth time that Nigeria is witnessing such misfortune at the games.

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However, the recent failure didn’t come to many as a surprise because the country had prepared sufficiently to fail woefully in Paris. While other countries took years to prepare for the games, in our usual fire-brigade approach, our sports administrators went to sleep thinking that it was the African Games. Unfortunately, it takes a lot more than what they know to win an Olympic medal.

Maybe it was misconception about the trend in the Olympics that made the Minister of Sports, Senator John Enoh, to boastfully announce that Team Nigeria in Paris would surpass the Atlanta ’96 record of two gold, one silver and three bronze medals. Indeed, that performance has remained Nigeria’s best-ever at the games. The country’s first and only individual gold medalist, Chioma Ajunwa, emerged from there. It must be said that the feat achieved in Atlanta wasn’t accidental. The then sports administrators laboured to produce these outstanding athletes.

It is difficult to say what prompted Enoh to announce to the whole world that Team Nigeria was going to win more than two gold, one silver, and three bronze medals in Paris. Maybe he was fixated by the N12 billion that the Federal Government had released to him or those ever-present catastrophic sports federation presidents fed him with wrong information about their athletes.

So, based on what he was told by his lieutenants, Minister Enoh was full of confidence. He never knew that even if the sports ministry is given the whole money in the world to prosecute the games, we may not win a single medal because we have a highly defective sports structure.

Of course, in Nigeria, figures can be easily manipulated to rig elections, but in sports, such malpractices are rarely seen. Therefore, medals at sporting competitions are won through long-term planning, hard work, and dedication but not by prayers only.  

Therefore, it usually sounds funny to me whenever a Nigerian or African athlete says “by the special grace of God, we are going to win.” Yes, luck plays a role in human activities, but due diligence, commitment, and strategic planning are the sure routes to success.

I have no iota of doubt in my mind that Enoh was misled due to his limited knowledge of how Team Nigeria achieved the historic feats in 1996. Apart from the fact that the likes of Ajunwa, Mary Onyali, and Falilat Ogunkoya were among the best athletes in the world, the men’s football team paraded some of the most talented players in the world.

 The 1996 Olympics squad made up of Kanu Nwankwo, Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, Daniel Amokachi, Victor Ikpeba ‘Prince of Monaco’, Celestine Babayaro, Taribo West, Sunday Oliseh, Uche Okechukwu, Emmanuel Amuneke, Garba Lawal, Mobi Oparaku, Tijani Babangida, among others had the capacity to win the World Cup.

Unfortunately, Enoh didn’t know that we are now living in past glory. Nigeria can no longer boast of more than three world-class athletes. When Tobi Amusan faltered in Paris, we knew it was the end of the road for Team Nigeria.

Well, there is no need to continue to cry over spilt milk. We must find a way to avoid a repeat of this sporting disaster. The way forward is to ensure that in the future, only those who are knowledgeable in sports are assigned to preside over the sector.

There is the urgent need to bring back the National Sports Commission (NSC). Most of the successes we have recorded in sports were under the Commission. The Federal Ministry of Sports, as presently constituted, can not deliver the expected results because it lacks technocrats.  

Then, preparations for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics should commence immediately. Those athletes who went beyond the first round in their respective events in Paris should be monitored and funded adequately to train and represent the country at the next Olympics. It was really shocking that Team Nigeria athletes were given their training grants for the 2024 Olympics right there in Paris. That was beautiful nonsense.

In addition, the tenures of most of the federation presidents ended with the Paris Olympics. So, the mistakes of the past must be corrected. Only credible, knowledgeable, passionate, and patriotic administrators should be elected into the boards of the sports federations. There should be no room for selfish, greedy, and autocratic presidents.

Without a doubt, if square pegs are put into square holes in the next sports federations’ election, we would have placed Team Nigeria on the right path to future accomplishments in sports.

However, if after these lamentations over the failure in Paris, we go back to slumber, we would wake up to an even more disastrous performance at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics Games.