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Nigeria’s N1.6 billion Olympic performance
Uzor Odigbo
Correspondent
It would seem as if it never happened.
That Nigeria spent N1.6 b and more for the Athens Olympic games outing in the
year under review and nothing was achieved speaks volumes of how sports fared
in 2004.
Literally, funds earmarked for preparation in some of
the sporting events, went into individual pockets, leaving the game and
sportsmen and women to suffer.
From Basketball to Athletics, judo to swimming. and
football to tennis, etc, none gave Nigeria anything to cheer about in the
outgoing year. The truth about the matter is that though the country spent about
N1.6 billion to prepare sportsmen and women for international sports
activities, no young athletes or weight-lifter, judoka, basketballer,
footballer etc came to lime-light or were discovered in the receding year.
Infrastructure that would have encouraged effective
development of sports in the country have all gone bad. A visit to the National
Stadium Surulere, would give you an insight into what had become of the tartan
tracks laid a few years back for sports excellence in Lagos. Yet, a department
in the sports ministry is saddled with the onerous task of checkmating broken
down facilities.
It is sad to note that since the present Nigeria
Olympic Committee (NOC) took office four years ago, nothing of importance have
been achieved. The NOC president and the sports ministry’s facility
director Habu Gumel has been reluctant in completing works the ministry started
at the games village at Bode Thomas, Lagos. Strikingly too, Gumel’s
stewardship in the ministry and NOC had remained unfruitful leading to the recent
outcry by sportsmen and women for a change.
The NOC that hitherto was a guide to the sports ministry in areas that border on
facility, athletes and programme development, had now toed the line of elements
which do not believe that something of great significant should come. This had
made it difficult for sports generally, and athletes in particular to benefit
overtime.
2004 would go down in history as the only year
Nigeria expended huge funds on a particular international sports outing without
reaping corresponding dividend. It is also a year in which the country was
humiliated in foreign lands by her sportsmen and women for poor remuneration.
This is also a year N1.6 billion fetched the country
(that went to the Olympic with 147 athletes) two bronze medals whereas tiny Ethiopia, Kenya, Israel,
et al, went home with five gold medals respectively.
The outgoing year also witnessed the setting up of
probe panel headed by former sports minister Emeka Omeruah to unravel why
Nigeria did so abysmally at the Olympics. When President Olusegun Obasanjo set
up the probe panel, it was obvious that he was vexed by huge amount of money
that went into the drain. The panel’s report is being awaited.
The World soccer ruling body, FIFA during the year,
threatened to ban Nigeria if the government should go ahead to appoint
administrators to continue to run football in the country. Indeed, FIFA gave
December 31.
But, instead of just adhering to FIFA instructions;
the Nigerian government sent men whose knowledge in sports had expired, to FIFA
headquarters to seek for reprieve on the deadline issue. All this happened in
the last 366 days.
Sports also recorded a few unfortunate incidents. The
out-going year took to the great beyond some of those we referred to during
their lifetime as good men.
Two former sports ministers died this year, Mr.
Steven Akiga and Shola Rhodes.
Patrick Opkomo, a distinguished sports administrator also departed the
scene in a manner that called caused anguish. A beloved referee, Edozie Enemuo
was killed in an auto crash that left a generation of Nigeria’s young and
dynamic referees without tears. Also this year, an athlete, Olympian and
breadwinner to a young wife and only son Sunday Emmanuel died in a car crash
without a word for his wife and son.
Again, many Nigerian sports men and women ditched
their in search of the Golden
Fleece’
Importantly, in 2004, a director in the sports
ministry was given $500 US dollars as estacode in Athens Olympics and in
annoyance, he sent it back to the sender.
The sports ministry and the NOC jointly ferried about 780 officials to
Athens with half of the number not officially listed for the trip.
It was also in the year under review that Nigeria
sent her athletes on training tour three months to the start of the Olympics in
Athens. A sports ministry official was so gra that he went out his way to
assure Mr. President of winning 10 gold medals for Nigeria at the Olympics but
it failed to materialise, the official said, “ it was only a wish”
The out-going year would reckon with dignity the
efforts of the Special Sports athletes at the Paralympics, despite the aborted
training tour, in delivering five gold medals to Nigeria, a feat able-body
athletes could not achieve.
Currently, the sports ministry had started purging
itself of dead woods and corrupt officials, Nigerians are watching the extent
sports minister retired Col. Musa Muhammed would go in putting to rest the job
he had thrown -up in the ministry.
The year 2004 could be described in sports circles as a year
most people outside sports benefited from where they did not sow, leaving
sports and its practitioners to lie prostrate in want.
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