Every four years the whole world assembles in the biggest celebration of sports, the Olympics. The Olympics offer pure, undiluted enchantment that holds the entire world spellbound.
No nation goes to the Olympics just to make up numbers. So it seems in principle but in reality, the reverse is the case. Any nation that flunks in adequately preparing for the biggest sporting event has sufficiently orchestrated to fail deliberately.
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Nigeria has been going to the Olympics for years but we are yet to attain our potential. As a nation endowed with seas of talents in every hamlet, we ought to have done much better.
During the recent Olympics performance, we finished 74th on the medals table with a solitary silver and a single bronze. That is two medals for a country of over 200 million citizens that sent 55 athletes where 10 were expelled even before it commenced. It is woeful, abysmal, and beyond the pale. Nigeria deserves much better.
Some may make excuses that for Nigeria’s dismal performance is because of our huge population, while some may use that as the reason we have done better. But here are some facts for us to use and judge fairly. On the gold medals table, Nigeria’s name is missing because we didn’t win gold, which is understandable. But on the entire medals table, where I have seen some making excuses because of our huge population or otherwise for winning or not winning medals; we did even worse on the per capita table of medals won.
San Marino, a country with a tiny population of 33,931 citizens, far less than my local government of Gassol, averaged a medal per 11,310 of her citizens because of the three medals won. Bermuda, a British overseas territory, is second with 1 medal won; this means a medal for every 63,918 of her population. It must be noted that Bermuda isn’t even an independent nation, though it has its Olympics delegation. New Zealand is with 20 medals and a population of 4,82 233 average a medal per 241,111 of her citizens. This completes the top five.
However, you look at it, Nigeria ought to have done better and must do better. There is no room for excuses. We must decisively work towards a greater future for our dear country. To argue otherwise would be suicidal or rather a fatal blow to the aspirations of an ebullient, cerebral, and talented nation that should be aiming for the pinnacle half of the overall table. Once we are successful in doing that, Nigeria’s claim of being the giant of Africa will be valid, especially in sports.
Going forward, Nigeria needs to deliberately plan to succeed. The fire brigade approach in Nigeria’s preparations for Olympics must be discarded forthwith. It has not yielded any positive result. It will never ever do. Nigeria’s desire to perform well at the Olympics should go with meticulous plans on ground.
We must commence from the basics. Nigeria’s policy of education has to create room for sports right from Primary school. Physical and Health Education must not only be on paper. Today, it exists in most schools even in urban areas on paper. There is no corresponding example in reality. If we cannot get it right here, then there is little chance of getting it right at bigger stages. Government at all levels must provide ample funds for the execution of a lot of projects.
In the recent concluded Olympics, Nigeria competed in 10 sports namely: Athletics, Badminton, Canoing, Swimming, Basketball, Gymnastics, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Wrestling, and Rowing. There are sports that Nigerians are quite good at. There are sports that we admire as Nigerians. There are sports that we have prospects, but have been completely ignored. We must identify all these and put them where they belong.
Once this is done, the next thing is to provide funds for building sports complexes, stadia, or any sports ground based on our sporting priorities which must be rooted in sporting preeminence. With that completed, we should hire coaches, or trainers and be certain they are sufficiently catered for, given all the assistance for advanced training in tackling tough and highest level of sports; all these must be adequately funded for effective execution of these plans.
Funds are scarce these days with the COVID-19 pandemic, terrorism, kidnapping, inter-tribal crises, dwindling oil revenue, and other factors in Nigeria. This shouldn’t be the reason to not seek ways to sponsor such a laudable plan, though. We could do so by using all options, plans, or partnerships to get the desired result. Spirited efforts must be made by all Nigerian sports enthusiasts, policymakers, and corporations to deliver the intended result.
Alternatively, in order to save cost, we could use the existing sports infrastructure to conduct inter-house sports competition, inter-local government sports contest, inter-state sports competition, youth sporting events, National Sports festival and other sporting events that will produce promising athletes that will become wonderful Olympians. The bottom line is that government must encourage more participation in sports under a conducive atmosphere. All these are doable, with a state-backed programme to salvage our dear country and set it on course for its glorious days, which its manifested potential has shown with the right policies, the political will to do it, and implementation; it is achievable.
Abdulrazak Iliyasu Sansani lives in Jalingo, Taraba State.
