Dalung
Anyone who wants to know how the Nigerian team is travelling at the ongoing Rio Olympic Games must take a look at the medal table. As at the time of writing, more than 70 countries have received medals of different colour. Nigeria is not one of them. In comparative terms, we have not improved our dismal record at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Essentially, we have been idle in the past four years. Nigeria has been deteriorating in sport.
Following Nigeria’s exceptionally awful performance at the London Olympic Games, everyone thought we had learnt a sad lesson and would immediately put into action a systematic and sustained training regimen to prepare our sportsmen and women to turn things around, well ahead of the start of the Rio Olympic Games. The harvest of failures at the Rio Games shows we learnt nothing and did nothing. Will we ever learn? What would it take to stir the sleeping giant of Africa to redeem its long lost image in international sport?
Look at the tale of disasters at the Rio Games. Blessing Okagbare, once the poster girl of Nigerian sport, who carried the nation’s hopes into the Games, faded out during the 100m semi-final race. With a time of 11.09 seconds in her semi-final, it was obvious she had not run fast enough to be in the top eight to compete in the finals of the women’s 100m competition. Yet, on the day she arrived at the Nigerian camp in Rio, the atmosphere was practically electric, as if a saviour had entered the camp. Everyone’s face lit up. Unfortunately, that redeemer was not able to save herself, her competition and Nigeria’s eagerness to win a medal.
The only team that looks like salvaging something good enough to redeem Nigeria’s tattered image at the Rio Games is, ironically, the soccer squad that is tagged “Dream Team VI”. There is a hint of irony in that name. A team that was constructed on fantasy because it had little preparation before the start of the Games seems to be the only hope we have to win a medal in Rio. Many Nigerians are hanging on a thread, hoping the “Dream Team VI” would overwhelm their German opponents when they meet today in the semi-final.
Before our dreams can turn into reality, the Dream Team would have to overcome the German soccer team. By the time you conclude reading this article today, the epic battle between “Dream Team VI” and Germany would have been fought, won, and lost. Ever since Nigeria won the first Olympic soccer gold medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, our soccer team has not come anywhere near playing in an Olympic soccer final. That makes it 20 years this year since the nation rejoiced in one moment of national unity. That is what soccer can do to unify a fractured country.
Mind you “Dream Team VI” did not get to the semi-final stage without sports ministry officials causing them pain through provocations, failed promises, unpaid allowances and benefits, and lots of adversities placed on their path. The Nigerian Bulletin – an online publication – reported last Friday that “Dream Team VI” team captain Mikel Obi shelled out over $4,000 from his personal wallet to rescue the players, who were held hostage by their hotel in Sao Paulo because the team could not pay their hotel bills. The bills, you will be shocked to learn, were accumulated by leeches who paraded themselves as sports officials. This is how Nigerian officials abuse their privileges and undermine the efforts of sportsmen and women.
It is ridiculous that while sportsmen and women are in Rio to compete in the Olympic Games, Nigeria sent too many officials who have no business being in Rio. They seem to be preoccupied by the food and drinks they consume and the estacode allowances they will earn.
Every Olympic Games is a tale of sadness and anger. Nigerian sportsmen and women are not supported. They are not encouraged. They are not inspired. They are not rewarded. Government officials show up only when there is food to consume or estacode allowances to collect.
Many of sportsmen and women participate in international competitions at their own expenses and troubles. They lack basic training facilities, equipment and expertise; they are deprived of funds; they are exposed to harsh elements that are designed to make them fail. Their accommodation is usually second-rate. The food they eat is no better than what you get at a roadside mobile canteen.
On the rare occasion when a Nigerian athlete wins a medal in an international competition, we are dazed, we are taken by surprise, we express shock at the result because we didn’t expect any medals. Surely, you do not boil an empty pot and expect to produce a pot of soup filled with a variety of meat and vegetables.
Following the failure of Nigerian representatives to win a medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games, the then senate president, David Mark, attributed that to lack of funding. Former Minister of Sports, Taoheed Adedoja, criticised how senior officials were appointed to manage sports in the country. He said mismanagement in sports must be attributed to the haphazard manner of appointment of people without professional training and skills to manage sports. In his view: “Anybody interested in sports administration should get a basic skill training that would qualify him to take charge. We should not leave sports administration in the hands of quacks.”
The Minister of Sports during the 2012 Olympic Games, Bolaji Abdullahi, echoed the views of David Mark about how lack of funds impacts on the performance of sportsmen and women. He said the failure of Nigeria at international sports must be ascribed to ego and lack of funds. His words: “… There is a lot of ego and lack of funding. We are going for Olympics in July, up till now, there is no funding, but we have to be going around borrowing money.” That was in 2012.
There is history behind Nigeria’s poor record in international sports. In the 2012 London Olympics, our athletes came out empty-handed. At the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games, our sports representatives came out without medals but did very well to sully their names and their country’s international image through scandals. At the end of every Olympic Games, countries that are serious in sports take stock to assess where they did well and where they need to invest more energy, training, money, equipment, and human resources. Nigeria does not believe in X-raying its performance in sports to understand what the problems might be and to identify ways to overcome the challenges.
As the London Olympics drew to a close in 2012, Bolaji Abdullahi bemoaned Nigeria’s appalling performance in an article he published in The Guardian of Sunday, 12 August 2012. He wrote: “… as the competition drew to a close, Team Nigeria is still not on the medals table. I must say this is as disappointing for my team and myself as it is for all Nigerians everywhere. But even as painful as this disappointment is, we must have the courage to see it for what it is… Rather than see this as a failure, we must see it as an opportunity to rebuild. When other countries have found themselves in this kind of situation in the past, they have used the galvanizing power of disappointment to get down to work.”
Unfortunately, Nigerian sports officials did not get down to work four years ago to prepare for the Rio Olympic Games that is now coming to a close.
Toward the start of the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, The Guardian wrote a prophetic editorial on Nigeria’s chances of winning medals at the games. The paper wrote on Tuesday, 29 July 2008: “The preparations for the Beijing Olympics have been particularly shoddy and irresponsible. The so-called Nigerian team to this year’s Olympics is ill-prepared… Are we ready to contest for places on the victory podium against the world’s best nurtured, best prepared, and best motivated athletes who are products of years of well-organised development programmes and international exposure to world class competition?”
Early preparation is a precursor to excellent performance in Olympic Games. Countries like Nigeria that don’t prepare early get humiliated at the Olympic Games. If we didn’t prepare for Rio, do we have any right to expect to win any medals?
The Olympic Games signifies more than sporting talents. It is about honour at the highest level of sports in the world. It is about international power, profile, and status. It is about preparation and training. Every country that invests massively in sports preparation and development does so in expectation of the dividends that will accrue to it.
Former Sports Minister Bolaji Abdullahi was spot on when he said during the last week of the 2012 London Olympic Games: “We have relied so much on luck and prayers to win some medals at previous international competitions. I don’t think this is proper… Medals are won by those who work hard, not those who prayed the most.”
We are a nation of believers. We believe in miracles. We believe that with prayers we will conquer our enemies and all our problems will disappear inexplicably. We live on hope, hope that tomorrow will be better and greater than today, hope that our worries will disappear tomorrow, hope that tomorrow will heal all our wounds. The Olympic Games is not about hopes, beliefs, and prayers. It is about personal commitment, personal achievement, and triumph of hard work over cutting corners.
Nigeria’s claim to continental leadership is a charade. We were once respected in international sports as a nation of high achievers. That is now an illusion. Without Olympic glory, we are an empty barrel.