Nigeria’s Pillar of Sports, Chief Donatus Agu-Ejidike has called on the National Assembly and other relevant government authorities to launch a forensic probe into Team Nigeria’s shambolic performance at the just-concluded Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where the country paraded no fewer than 80 athletes in about a dozen events, recording zero medal.
Ejidike made the call during an interaction with newsmen in his office in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital on Sunday, while lamenting the lack of podium finish for any of the registered athletes in their respective events. This according to him would enable decision makers harvest the necessary information that would guide them on how to avert a repeat in future.
There had been some occasions in the past, when Nigeria participated in the Olympic without a medal. For the team Nigeria, the 2024 Olympic Games where everything that could go wrong, went wrong, was a replication of the 1952 Helsinki, the 1956 Melbourne, the 1960 Rome, the 1968 Mexico, the 1980 Moscow, the 1988 Seoul and the London 2012 where the country participated without winning a medal.
The Anambra-born Sports philanthropist attributed the country’s lack of medal on those past occasions to the fact of the wide gap between us in terms of development then. “But the same cannot be said of the gap, at this age and time, when the world has become a global village, where access to modern training techniques has become liberalised, courtesy of the Internet,” and also the majority of the athletes representing the country is based abroad, he added.
He equally lamented the administrative ineptitude that led to the omission of some athletes who were before the games, medal prospects. “A case in point is Favour Ofili who’d suffered a similar fate in Tokyo 2020, and now the Paris 2024 Olympics. Also cyclist, Ese Ukpeseraye also had to turn to her German colleagues from whom she borrowed a bicycle to race.
Although, the Honourable Minister for Sports Development, Senator John Owan Enoh, had explained saying the slot was allocated to Nigeria, following a “dying minute” disqualification of one of the countries who had already qualified, thereby making it a short-notice invitation.
But with due respect to the Minister, there is nothing wrong if the Nigerian Cycling Federation (NCF) made a standby arrangement, knowing fully well that Nigeria is the best placed loser to benefit from any withdrawal or disqualification”, Ejidike opined.
He maintained that, there is the need for a comprehensive probe to unravel the identity of “who failed to do what”, that denied the young lady the opportunity she had spent years of hardworking, preparing for.
The patron of the Nigerian Football Supporters Club (NFSC) also recalled with regret, the number of athletes of Nigerian descent who, due to the administrative laxity in Nigeria, switched allegiance to represent, and won medals for other countries at the quadrennial event.
One of them, according to him, is Salwa Eid Naser, born in Onitsha Anambra State, originally named Eberechukwu Agbapuonwu, who represented and won a medal for her adopted country – Bahrain, in women’s 400m. Rasheed Adeleke, who represented the Republic of Ireland, was also born of Nigerian parents from Ọ̀yọ́ State. She was also a high performer. Even though she did not have a podium finish at the Olympics she has been an Irish national record holder. Ayomide Folorunsho, another Nigerian by descent, competed for Italy in the women 400m. Not forgetting the Nigerian, Saheed Idowu, who competed in the Table Tennis event, wearing the colours of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The most painful of them all is Annette Echikunwoke who suffered the same fate as Ofili in Tokyo, wanting to represent Nigeria three years ago. She, as a result of the chronic administrative ineptitude that characterises sports administration in Nigeria, switched her international allegiance to the United States of America, and this time around, she won a silver medal in Hammer Throw, while Yemisi Ogunleye, another Nigerian by origin, won gold for Germany in Shot Put, and the list goes on and on.
The Nnewi-born former President of the Karate Federation of Nigeria (KFN) describes the performance of Team Nigeria at the event as “shambolic, and unacceptable, and must be probed, considering the country’s pedigree in the comity of sporting nations globally.
“This is coupled with how much (Twelve billion Naira – ₦12,000,000,000) the Federal Government released for the prosecution of the Games, he added.
Not done, Ejidike quipped: “How was the money spent that it never impacted our medal fortunes through performance?
Who was responsible for the non-registration of Favour Ofili for the women’s 100m event?
How come, nobody raised an alarm, when the list of registered athletes, without her name, came out? He queried.
Why were the D’Tigresses denied entry to the venue of the opening ceremony?”
These, according to him, are some of the salient questions that needs to be answered by the people in charge.
He, however, praised the individual athletes, saying that, Nigerians noticed and appreciate their efforts, which were never complemented by the administrators.
He singled out the national women basketball team, the D’Tigress, for a special commendation for making it to the quarter finals – a feet never achieved by any African country, male or female. The Pillar of Sports also lamented the culture of those running sports in Nigeria, populating the Nigerian contingent with their cronies and relatives – people who have nothing to contribute to the running of the affairs of team Nigeria.
He described it as unfortunate, and calls for an end to such a despicable habit, if Nigeria must avoid this type of abysmal outing at any international meet. Sports federations’ officials while doing their jobs must do away with the mindset that they are doing the athletes a favour.
They need to know that, without the athletes, there would be no need for their office and their presence in Paris.