BY DANLADI BAKO PhD, OON

Without any modicum of doubt, Nigeria’s outing at the 2024 Paris Olympics which ended on Sunday was a disaster waiting to happen.

The Minister of Sports John Owan Enoh has duly apologized to us for this untenable and unacceptable performance.

While tendering the ministry’s apology Senator Enoh  enumerated the challenges he met on ground on assumption of office a year to the Paris games , while so many other serious countries had already met qualifying times for the track and field events , embarked on training tours of their basketball , volleyball, swimming teams.

He listed the lack of adequate preparation for training camps by the Federations among other issues. So where was the optimism about “doing well”  coming from ?

 It’s not the Minister’s duty to do magic one year to an event smaller countries had been drilling and training their  athletes for ten years before now.

While we boast of 200 million citizens we watched St Lucia, a country of 180,000 people win the female 400 metres gold , small Botswana of the southern part of Africa won the male 200 metres gold and the male 4×400 metres relay silver.

Akane Simbine led South Africa to win the male 4×100 metres relay silver. Kenya’s beautiful young Faith Kipyegon won her third successive Olympic games 1500 metres gold from Brazil , Tokyo and now Paris while my dear Nigeria’s gold medal haul still stands at two.

Clearly something has gone wrong. Once upon  a time , Chidi Imoh ,(200metres) , Innocent Egbunike (400metres) , Davidson Ezinwa all got to the finals at major international games be it Olympics or Commonwealth games.

What happened after the reign of  boxing greats Dick Tiger , Nojeem Maiyegun and Peter Konyegwachi ?  Let’s not forget Modupe Oshikoya and Falilat Ogunkoya in the 400meters or our 4×100 female relay quarter of Onyali , Iheagwam and co .

It would seem not too long ago that the National Youth Games twice held in Ilorin , the African Athletics finals in Asaba took place , giving hope to podium places in future .

Alas , the transition from that youth level to professional training and camping seems to be the problem. A second major challenge has been the low number of competition and circuit tours.

In the past Chief Moshood Abiola sponsored an annual Athletics meet regularly, Wahab Folawiyo sponsored the U-20 Athletics meeting annually too.

Same thing for Mobil oil who bankrolled annual competitions over so many years  and we all looked forward to selection trials that featured Nigerian student athletes from the world standard Azusa Pacific University and Santa Monica Track Club come and face serious duels with the Nigerian based stars for a place on the flight to the Olympics.

Lack of accountability of the funds given ,  saw the gradual withdrawal of the sponsorship amongst other factors of inept and incompetent people at the helm of affairs at the various Federations with the exception of Wrestling.

Even the Nigerian Olympic Committee has seen its archaic leadership overstay its usefulness and has run out of ideas just like Swimming, Boxing , Judo , Volleyball and Tennis.

For the government to “renew the hope”  of Nigerians in sports and immediately begin to prepare for the next Olympic games , it must head-hunt dedicated and passionate administrators with sports background who have integrity and private sector funds can be entrusted into their hands , then infuse them into the Federations, there are too many jobbers occupying top positions in the Federations who feed on the system.

The Nigeria Olympic Committee must be revamped through new elections into the executive , and performance-driven persons put in charge.

Government must be definite and intentional in funding scholarships to designated Universities of sports in the United States , China and Cuba for student youth games products.

Finally , nothing works in sports like hiring good high performance coaches from anywhere in the world and setting up a swimming high performance camp in the Niger Delta , sprints high performance camp in South East , long distance high performance camp in Jos and Gembu Mambilla plateau , boxing and athletics high performance camp in Lagos as was done by Colonel Samuel Ogbemudia when he set up Afuze Edo State .

Fortunately, I have no doubt in the very deep interest and support that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu can and is ready to give to the revamping of sports in the country.

He showed that much when he provided a grant of N12billion to the Football Federation during the Nations Cup in Cote D’ivoire earlier this year as well as providing for the Paris Olympics before the start of the tournaments.

My dear friend Senator John Owan Enoh , you have your work cut out and the work starts now.

BY KUNLE SOLAJA.

Nigeria’s current most celebrated striker, Victor Osimhen this Saturday hit the headlines for a wrong reason. He had a live video post on his social media handles and poured invectives on Finidi George, the erstwhile Super Eagles’ coach.

No matter the course he was attempting to crusade, he got it all wrong. He did not present himself as the model footballer for aspiring stars to look up.

No matter what Finidi George must have spoken against him, going to the social media to vent his anger and using foul languages are the least expected of a player of his standing and an African Footballer of the Year award holder.

Had it been his club coach, he would not have reacted the same way he has done now. If he does, he is aware of the consequences. Stars have been known to lose corporate endorsments owing to out of field attitudes and utterances.

A star player must be model who distinguishes himself in action and in character.

Coaches in the past have spoken one or two bad things about their players. But such players employed decent ways to express their displeasure.

Take for instance, when Mourinho’s views about the ages of African players escaped into the public domain and he particularly pointed at Samuel Eto’s who was then in Chelsea.

 Mourinho then was secretly recorded questioning age of Samuel Eto’o: ‘He is 32 years old, maybe 35, who knows?

Mourinho was preparing to speak to Canal Plus when he was filmed speaking to a Swiss businessman during a recent sponsor’s event, with the recording being made public on Monday.

As weighty as that could be, Eto’o reacted by saying: “And you may have noticed that the old man was better than the youngsters. Some believe I am going to retire in the United States or in the Middle East, but I have regained the joy of the Champions League and I am going to carry on playing in the Champions League.

He showed he had no hard feelings to Jose Mourinho over the Chelsea’s boss’s jibes about his age with a goal celebration mocking his ‘old-man’ status.

The Cameroon striker looked like a teenager as he raced on to to put Chelsea ahead against Spurs in the 56th minute of their 4-0 win And his goal celebration — walking like a hunched old man to lean on a corner flag, feeling his back — brought a smile to his team-mates and Mourinho.

He has made his point known. Osimhen would not have openly insulted any of his coaches in Europe.

What is wrong is wrong, no mater the status of the player. Osimhen needs to grow up and should be asked to offer apologies . It is Finidi George today as a national coach.

That position has been disrespected and desecrated by the player’s outburst. Tomorrow, the NFF president or even the sports minister could be the next target. Other players too, might take a cue from what Osimhen has done. Enough of this nonsense.