The original title of this piece was in French, “Retournant de Paris sans le prix”. The English translation would have been “Returning from Paris without the prize”, referring to Nigeria’s prize-less showing in the concluded Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games. To get a true sense of what the minister of sport development, Mr. John Enoh called “a disaster”, let’s have some perspective. Nigeria sent 88 athletes and 84 officials to the games. Nine billion naira of tax payers’s money was taken and spent to get something substantial from them. In the end, we got nothing. Peter told the beggar in the Bible story, “Silver or gold, I do not have.” In our case, not even a bronze medal did we bring back to show for our going to Paris, France. As the French would say, “on n’avait jamais gagne` le prix, en y arrivant”.
Nothing illustrates the completeness of this as the minister’s moaning word: “disaster”. Indeed, a disaster it was and much more. “As a country, we deserve more,” he said in a formal “apology” he posted on his X handle. Then he pleaded, “Let’s turn this disastrous outcome of the 2024 Olympics to a huge positive for Nigerian sports”. Yes, but, firstly, we must come to grips with what had happened and why. As the minister himself acknowledged, Nigeria didn’t begin on time preparations for the games. Again as he noted, all the countries that smiled away after games got kicking a year or longer before the games kicked off in July.
But we, what did we do? We were too preoccupied with domestic elections to bother about the Olympics. By the time we remembered and got going, we had fallen behind the rest of the world in our preparations. Mr Enoh himself was put in office only in August last year. Unfortunately, ours is a country where nothing gets done if there is no leader. The structures are there alright but somebody always must be there to give the order. It shouldn’t be so. Even when eventually, a minister emerged, bureaucratic inertia reared its head. Managerial ineptitude was a big headache. Take the case of athlete Ofili. She qualified to run in two races but was registered for just one and it happened not to be her stronger field. This unpardonable slip wasn’t discovered until the last minutes. When the minister asked who was responsible, nobody raised their hands. Not even the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) seemed to know what had happened. With a low spirit, should anybody have been surprised that Ofili, a star performer that she had been, didn’t do well in her race? Not just her, all the other athletes that failed.
No, the minister erred when he said our result was unexpected. The truth is Nigeria has not made it to the medal podium at any Olympics since 2012. Indeed, our glorious years had been 1996, when we beat the rest of the world to the gold in football – football powerhouses like Argentina and Brazil succumbed at our feet – and won silver and bronze in some other sports. That was 39 years ago and it has been a quick descent down the ladder ever since. Not that our athletes didn’t try. In truth, many of them did reach the finals in their individual sports. It was the final kick that failed. For instance, the female basketball team, D’Tigress, did reach the quarterfinals, beating giants like Australia and immediate past champions Canada along the way. The first and only African nation to have ever done so. But our over all defeat was so complete that it eclipsed that shining star.
Sport minister Enoh believes the problem is with the nation’s sport federations and promises a drastic overhaul, beginning with the upcoming elections. He told journalists in Paris before the games’ closing ceremony, “As we go back home, we must do everything to prevent the future occurrence of this Paris disaster and if this will entail the review of how people are elected to lead our federations, it will done… Elections into the federations are coming and it will be the perfect platform to get those who have something to offer to lead the various sports… I also understand that in some of the federations, their constitutions will need to be reviewed for better inclusion.” Well, minister, better luck this time because we know that several ministers before you said and did the same thing but nothing ever changed.
Why? Because as long as the government is always, always the hand that makes the cookies, they will always crumble. The same attitude that anything government’s is for the taking breeds corruption and corruption is a deadly disease, we all know that. Ask me, for instance, why would 84 officials go to Paris ‘take care’ of 88 athletes? This is waste. No businessman will allow that. Sport in places where it is succeeding is run as business. This is the way to go for us. Let successful business people run our sports. When this happens, the difference will be there for all to see and smile.
