In the history of Nigeria’s Olympics Qualifier, I don’t think we have witnessed any Olympics like this year’s Olympics that had many Nigerians representing other countries more than their own country, Nigeria.
Most of these renowned Nigerian athletes either took off for greener pastures or in pursuit of higher education in Europe, Canada and USA and thereafter refused to return due to disorganization that has ruined the system.
It saddens me to see many biracial Nigerian athletes proudly displaying their Nigerian heritage yet their supposed country of heritage couldn’t make provisions to incorporate them into the sporting plan for better representation. Hence many of them opted to represent other countries that would value their contributions in the long run.
My grouse in all of these was, despite the N12billion earmarked for this Olympics, the Minister of Sports and his cohorts couldn’t think outside the box to properly re-integrate these Nigerian althetes in the Disapora on the list of athletes that would represent us out there.
Sadly, many of the privileged athletes selected to represent us didn’t find the experience funny. Stories of how they were mistreated and abandoned at the Olympics without any means of survival during the period of Olympic abound.
Which is an indication of how poorly their performances turned out at the event leading to zero medals.
This also brings me to the question, what did they actually use the N12billion earmarked for this Olympics for?
According to a report, well over 80 sport officials left for Olympics game in Paris from Nigeria alongside 82 athletes on a N12billion budget yet returned home with no single medal! And again, one would be forced to ask, “In spite such huge amount of money??”
I think it’s high time we began to ask these critical questions regarding how the scared resources that are also the Commonwealth of the Federation are being utilized.
Aside from the fact these resources are tax payers money channeled for an important event such as Olympics make more critical for the citizens to demand better accountability on how they are being used.
However, if we are to be honest with ourselves, these resources aren’t being utilized for the common good of the masses in most cases thereby bringing about cases of misappropriation of public funds and other related offences particularly in a case where there is no enough transparency about how they are being utilized for the original purpose to which they were earmarked for.
This brings to memory, similar case that happened during the Olympics in London 2012, despite tons of money earmarked for that event, virtually every Nigerian althetes that went from Nigeria had one horror story to tell.
These stories are usually about how the top Sports officials from Nigeria abandoned these athletes to fend for themselves in a foreign land while they cornered the resources meant for the althetes to themselves.
Many of these althetes at London Olympics who spoke to journalists were visibly bitter at the horrific situation they found themselves while representing their country. Many of them vowed never to venture into such ever again for Nigeria.
This and more are the reasons for sudden brain drain in virtually all sectors. Lack of sense of responsibility and greed towards those whom we should be protecting their interests rather than ripping them off and denying them of their constitutional entitlement.
Nonetheless, hopefully, Ministry of Sport and other relevant authorities can better reposition the sport sector ahead of the next Olympics. However, a critical intervention or complete overhauling will be required before than can happen.