[FEATURES] Paris 2024: Beyond Allowances, Raising Performance Bar

Posted by African Examiner Articles/Opinion, Featured, Latest Headlines, Sports News Sunday, August 18th, 2024

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – It was clear, even before the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris ended for Team Nigeria, the knives would be out very quickly for whichever head available for cutting off.

The reported12 billion naira approved for the Games by the Federal Government looked humongous, while the country was facing some form of discontent.

Ordinarily, the knives would have been out to cut both the government and Team Nigeria officials to pieces, because that has been the tradition for some time now.

Of course, the Atlanta Games of 1996 was the last one that made several Nigerians happy.

It was not because of the number of medals won, but the sports the gold medals came from, namely football and athletics.

Since then, that feat has not been matched not to talk of being surpassed.

The London Games of 2012 was, since then, the worst of it all with no medal won, leading to a stakeholders summit held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa.

That was how serious it really touched Nigerians and the then Federal Government, with the then President Goodluck Jonathan sitting in throughout to listen to all the submissions.

So, this time around, returning with no medals and after spending such a whooping amount as nine billion Naira was considered a mortal sin.

But was it a disaster that could have been perceived and prevented.

Definitely.

Over the years, our performances and results at international competitions have not always been satisfactory and commensurate with the abundance of talents and the energy put in.

Our best so far was at the Atlanta Games, and this was even achieved without putting in our total resources and best efforts.

Remember that Chioma Ajunwa who won the women’s long jump gold medal was left to fight for herself, while the Dream Team won the football gold medal against all expectations.

Before then, and even after then, the usual battle cry was always that preparations for the next Games “must” and “will” start immediately.

But how wrong and deceitful were and have always been because we never kept our words.

David Abiona, a Nigerian sports enthusiast who found his way to France to support the Nigerian women in football and basketball, recalled with nostalgia what had gone on before now.

“I can recall vividly in 1992 after the Barcelona Games how the late Alex Akinyele as the Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC) then drummed it into our ears that preparations for the next Olympics would always begin four years earlier.

“He went on to set up a committee to ensure this then. While it turned out that the 1996 Games bore good fruits thereafter, either as a result of what Akinyele did or not, it has since then never been as expected,” he said.

It is very clear that so many things went wrong with Team Nigeria’s outing at Paris 2024, in spite of several favourable conditions which should have produced good results.

In terms of preparations, it was all wrong that the athletes had no time to prepare as many of them were still battling for qualification with several weeks to the Games.

Even at that, preparations should not always be left till after qualifications, because athletes need preparations all the time.

Timely release of approved funds, as it was, did not achieve all the intended purposes because funds which come in July for a competition starting in July would always be misapplied.

For once, and after a very long time, athletes and officials had all their entitlements and other allowances paid to them both before and during the Games.

There was no case of what had used to be the norm —- athletes and officials having to dissipate energy at competition venues on arguments over their entitlements.

Sports Development Minister, John Enoh, was emphatic about this and gave a hint of what was done during a session to unveil the team to Paris.

“We did all that was necessary in this regard, to ensure the ills of the past were averted, by paying the athletes and their officials all that was due to them,” he had also said during a post-Games review’’, he said.

An official of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), who asked for anonymity because of not having official clearance to speak with the media, confirmed this also.

“Every athlete and official got all their money even before the Games started. It was paid directly into our accounts. I am sure this was done to avoid stories,” the official told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the Athletes Village in Paris during the Games.

So, if there were no cases of unpaid allowances which had even led Nigerian athletes into boycotting games at international events, what then went wrong?

Isah Ahmadu, a sports journalist, blamed it all on administrative incompetence and athletes who failed to live up to their billings.

“One wonders when we will get things right, if at this stage we continue to have such issues as failing to register an athlete for an event she qualified for, having an athlete compete with a borrowed bicycle and getting a lot of things wrong with athletes’ involvement in the opening and closing ceremonies’ march-past.

“It makes one wonder whether the officials were actually there as they should be for the athletes, or they were just there in France to do some shopping and sight-seeing.

“Moreover, a number of the officials both at the Federal Ministry of Sports Development and the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) just need to give way for others.

“This is because, if they have been attending the Games for not more than one or two occasions and they are still making what we call in football schoolboy errors.

“Then they should just be drafted into other forms of businesses,” he said.

Segun Sotomi, an ex-footballer, said Nigerian athletes have themselves to blame for whatever has befallen them with regards to Paris 2024.

“I think it is for the average Nigerian athlete to look at himself or herself and assess whether he or she is where he or she should be in their respective sport.

“I believe a lot in the Nigerian athlete and the never-say-die spirit which used to characterise our performances, if you remember the ‘Miracle of Damman’ and the 1996 Dream Team in Atlanta.

“But nowadays, our athletes easily give up, and they allow things happening around them, brought about by officials who have the ‘soldier-go-soldier-come, barrack-go-remain’ attitude, to affect them.

“If they realise that their events are their lives, their food and their all, they will strive to be like the others across the world that are ‘cashing out’ from sports and smiling to the banks.

“You can imagine what would have happened if Tobi Amusan, Favour Ofili, Ese Brume, Blessing Oborududu and the rest, or even the Super Falcons, have just strived more and brought out their best’’, told NAN.

He said it was evident that the athletes had what it takes to compete with the best in the world, but only needed to look beyond performing for Nigeria to performing for themselves and their families.

Enoh has said heads must roll regarding the Ofili saga just as he promised that there would be a thorough cleansing of the system.

The NOC has repeated the rhetoric that preparations must start now for the 2028 Games of Los Angeles.

But, what political will does Enoh have to ensure he lives up to his words, and which money will NOC use to immediately start preparation?

When the National Sports Federations elections hold in the next few months, there is no question about it that it will still be the same old story.

Politicians, expired and jobless individuals, who keep running round the sports circle calling themselves sports administrators, and even ministry officials’ friends and relatives, are already lining themselves up for top positions.

Also, the budgeting system, which makes the release of funds to the Ministry an annual event, with the ministry unable to raise additional funds makes it difficult to prepare athletes over four years.

The NOC which relies on the Ministry for so many of its activities cannot do better.

It is clear that for the situation to get better for Team Nigeria at future outings a better system of funding the sports federations is required.

Relying on the Federal Government at all times for the federations’ funding which is always meagre and comes late and should be out of the equation.

Sports federations need to be funded on categorisation based on their level performance over a period of time.

This is as contained in the National Sports Policy which stipulates that sports such as football, athletics and basketball are placed in Category A on the basis of their popularity and the results they achieve.

While sports such as hockey and squash racket will go down the ladder in Category B or Category C.

All of them are, however, assessed over a period of time in terms of performance and progress achieved.

The implication is that a Category A sport may drop down the ladder if it fails to bring in the required medals or honours. This is how it is done in the UK and Australia.

The National Sports Lottery Fund must be made more accessible to sports federations.

The opportunities inherent in the National Sports Industry Act and the Tax Rebate opportunity must be utilised, even if by further strengthening the necessary regulations.

Nigeria is well endowed and has the capacity that it should be an aberration to return from any Olympic Games with no medal when many less gifted countries are winning medals.

By Olawale Alabi, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)