August 08, (THEWILL) – Summarising Nigeria’s participation in the XXXII Olympiad and multi-sports events hosted in Japan’s capital city of Tokyo under twin categories of “International Embarrassment” and “National Caricature” might seem harsh on the very patriotic and committed athletes that made up Team Nigeria’s contingent to the Games and gave their all to make the country proud.
Therefore, the distinction must be made from the outset that the categorisation of Nigeria’s participation in the Summer Games, which this piece intends to X-ray from the standpoint of the cases that typified the very clear absence of coordinating expertise and organising quality from the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), does not reflect on their dedication to excellence in their events.
Many of the athletes that represented Nigeria, some helping the country make a debut appearance in some events such as female Canoeing and the men’s individual all-around and apparatus Gymnastics events, may not have all won medals apart from Wrestler Blessing Oborududu’s silver and Long jumper, Ese Brume’s bronze, but they all had to suffer the abysmal level of disorganisation coming from the body meant to coordinate their affairs.
In fact, it will not be a stretch to argue that a better organised athletics adminstration in the country could have constituted a more competitive Team Nigeria and have made the most of the talents and gifts that abound in Nigeria to present a stronger showing at the Tokyo Games and better the country’s chances at podium finishes than only just a silver and a bronze.
Yet, what THEWILL chronicled in the many months leading up to the postponed Games in Tokyo led to the very factual prescient conclusion that a poor showing in Tokyo awaited the country. Obviously, there was no way THEWILL could have seen the exact myriad of embarrassments Nigeria witnessed the way they played out but because the leadership of the Federation tasked with the country’s Athletics governance was embroiled in an internecine factional crises, the proper task of athletics management was abandoned.
Even before the disqualification of 10 Nigerian athletes by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for failing to meet the minimum test requirements necessary to make them eligible to compete at the Tokyo Olympics blew open the very absence of proper regulatory framework at the AFN, several instances provided evidence that there was some disaster looming if things came to a head in Tokyo.
In report after report, THEWILL followed a concatenation of adminstrative failures that included 24 of the country’s athletes missing the chance to qualify through the 2021 World Athletics Relays, the international biennial track and field sporting event in Chorzow, Poland because of late visa applications. Poor organisation also denied a few athletes the chance to qualify at a backup tournament at the United States Relay Tour hosted in Texas.
Visa hiccups again stultified the chances of promising top sprinter, Seye Ogunlewe, and the revelation at Edo 2020 National Sports Festival, Akintola Alaba, from reaching Tokyo as they could not participate in the qualifiers, as ready as they were to do so. This was worsened when the late qualifying event, the African Senior Athletics Championships scheduled from June 22 to 26 at the Mohamed-Boudiaf Olympic Complex in Algiers, Algeria was called off due to COVID-19 concerns. Lagos stepped in to pick up hosting rights but it never held.
As though the conspiratorial denial of some prepared athletes to represent their country through incompetence was not grave enough, the factional crisis in the AFN blindsided the Federation from making certain that they reported on compliance with member federations obligations as mandated of a Category B country following the guidelines of World Athletics’ Integrity Unit, the dreaded AIU.
The consequence of such a serious oversight of non-compliance motivated the AIU Board to move Nigeria into Category A level that required more stringent testing of their athletes for any World Athletics events such as the Olympics. The AFN did not comply with these tests when it sent the names of 23 athletes to World Athletics as part of the Team Nigeria contingent for the Olympics in Tokyo.
That absence of proper organisation that seriously followed guidelines was a direct consequence of the warfare in the leadership cadre at the AFN which did not allow them the time to be responsible to their roles. With Nigeria not meeting the major requirement of Rule 15 that “an athlete from a ‘Category A’ country must undergo at least three no-notice Out-of-Competition tests (urine and blood) conducted not longer than three weeks interval apart in the 10 months before a major event”, Glory Patrick, Yinka Ajayi, Tima Godbless, Chidi Okezie, Knowledge Omovoh, Ruth Usoro, Favor Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma, Chioma Onyekwere and Annette Echikunwoke were withdrawn from competing.
The embarrassment of the very public way their ineligibility was revealed, which forced the AFN to uncharacteristically issue a swift public acceptance of responsibility, was only worsened by the public protest of the disqualified athletes on the streets of Japan. There are no words adequate enough to justifiably capture how disgraceful it was to see countrymen and women with placards, protesting the ineptitude of their sports adminstrators when they ought to be competing with their peers on the track and field for honours.
Each of these on its own was enough grounds to effect an overhaul of the entire AFN structure from the ground up and emphatically bring an end to that nuisance of divisional leadership bedevilling athletics adminstration in the country. But, there was more disgrace to come, birthed from that very same factional crises that had plagued the Federation and defied even the intervention of World Athletics and the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA).
On June 13, when the AFN received a consignment of kits from the German multinational Corporation, Puma International, for its Olympics-bound athletes and officials ahead of the games, it seemed that was the end of the search for kits for the athletes concerned as the consignment comprised of tracksuits, vests, shoes, backpacks, wheel bags, face masks, and other items, worth millions of Naira.
Yet, because it was a deal brokered under factional AFN President, Ibrahim Gusau, in a 2019 partnership signed in Doha between the AFN and the company, the leadership of the section of the AFN under Chief Tonobok Okowa, which has the backing of the Federal Ministry of Sports and Youth Development and the Honourable Sports Minister himself, Sunday Dare, distanced themselves from the kits, claiming they were being investigated for fraudulent enrichment of the officials involved. They rushed to get other kits for Team Nigeria for the Games.
Then, when the video of Nigeria’s shot put finalist Chukwuebuka Enekwechi laundering his only jersey provided for him went viral the shameful product of the lack of leadership in the country’s athletics as a whole had come full circle to the perpetual and mortifying disgrace of the country. More than enough kits were available but the puerile and selfish squabbles of the Dramatis Personnae conspired to rub the name of the country in the mud.
The athletes have sordid tales to tell of how contemptibly abysmal the organisation from AFN was. D’Tigers, for instance, had difficulty obtaining proper credentials for themselves because of poor organisation which affected their flight too. Their trip to Japan wound up being a 30-hour ordeal instead of the planned 10-hour flight and it cut into their schedule of training, rest and preparations, a negative that did not affect the preparations of their opponents.
D’Tigers coach, Mike Brown also had some misgivings about the poor organisation and shortcomings of the NOC as four members of his staff, with whom he handled his coaching commitments and who made the trip to Japan, were never allowed into the Olympic village because of credential and paperwork issues. The American coach was reticent about his opinions on the shoddy handling of the organising and did not say much more than: “I don’t know why it is this way.”
There are no answers than the swift reaction to the jersey embarrassment of the Enekwechi video. The sportswear company, Puma, cautious not to be drawn into the mess that has become athletics governance in Nigeria, promptly terminated its contract with the AFN with immediate effect. Some claimed it had the option to sue but took the least cumbersome option.
It is but the culmination of a litany of disgraceful, shameful and outrightly embarrassing outcomes from a Federation that could not, even for the sake of country, get out of its own way to administer its responsibility properly and simply let 60 athletes suffer the consequences. No matter how good they were, the poor organisation was always going to impinge on their performance.
No wonder Nigeria continues to lose gifted talents to other countries, who give them all that need and see them take the world.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
