What’s the fuss about Nigeria’s Paris Olympics failure?

Frankly, I do not understand why Nigerians should be agitated by the very abysmal outing of the country’s contingent to the just concluded 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.  After all, if you fail to plan before embarking on any venture, then you have planned to fail. There is nothing complicated about that. So, I honestly do not understand all the fuss about the Nigerian 80-man contingent not returning home with even one bronze (the least) medal.

Sports administrators and writers, as well as enthusiasts have adduced all kinds of reasons for Nigeria’s failure at the Olympics after spending a whooping N12 billion on the country’s large contingent at the global sports fiesta. Top among the reasons given for the failure of Nigeria in the games are reckless spending, incompetence and negligence.

In what appeared to be admittance of failure, the Honourable Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Enoh, tendered a public apology to Nigerians for the disappointing outing at the Paris Olympics. The Minister blamed the development on preparation failures.

In spite of the apology, many Nigerians, including opposition party leaders, criticised the government for the dismal outing, with all the billions spent, while nine other African countries achieved podium finishes. Some stakeholders went further to demand for a forensic probe into team Nigeria’s poor performance at this year’s Olympics, which replicated the nation’s outings in 1952, 1956, 1960, 1968, 1980, 1988 and 2012.

Although I am not against the call for probe, judging by the Nigerian experience, it is extremely unlikely that anything meaningful will come out of it. In the second week of June this year, a report by the Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Public Integrity, revealed that only three out of the 614 public probes related to corruption in Nigeria, have been concluded since 1999. So, what is the guarantee that the probe of Team Nigeria’s “disastrous” trip to Paris would be different? I say this with due respect to Senator Eno who described the outing of our team as a disaster.

For me, I think that rather than embark on the said probe, we should focus on the lessons in order to avert Nigeria suffering such a national embarrassment at a global stage in future. Like I said in the introductory paragraph of this write-up, if one fails to plan before embarking on any venture, the person has planned to fail. Nigeria failed at the Paris Olympics because the country failed to plan for it. This is the reason why I am not frustrated like other Nigerians about our failure. It is not about disloyalty to the nation or absence of patriotism in me.

However, it is important to point out at this juncture that the planning deficiency in the country is not peculiar to sports. It exists even in the critical sectors of our national life, such as power and infrastructure development. I remember that at the twilight of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Dr. Zainab Ahmed listed the intervention of the Federal Government of Nigeria Sovereign SUKUK Fund in the nation’s road infrastructure between 2017 and 2022. According to Dr. Ahmed, in 2017, the SUKUK of N100 billion was spent on Nigeria’s road infrastructure, N200 billion in 2018, N362.56 billion in 2020, N612.56 billion in 2021, and N742.56 billion in 2022, respectively. This happened during the era of His Excellency Babatunde Fashola SAN as the Minister of Works.

Regardless of this humongous spending on road infrastructure, there are still several deplorable federal roads scattered across the six geo-political zones in the country. Although this development could easily be attributed to corruption, poor planning is also part of the problem. A month after assuming office in September last year, the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi said that no existing road could last seven years. Umahi said the verdict was based on findings gathered during his road inspection tour, crisscrossing the entire nation.

But, in South Africa, more than 60 per cent of the roads have a life span of 25 years. In many of the European countries, with adequate maintenance, some roads last 30 years. That roads in South Africa and European countries last more than Nigerian roads, is not necessarily because they spend more than Nigeria.   

Back to the Olympics.
I can bet that the total expenditure of the nine African countries that made it into the medals table is not half of the amount spent by Nigeria. That we invested N12 billion on our contingent was not a guarantee of a medal haul. Medals are not sold or bought at the Olympic Games but won by athletes. Every country must plan for the preparation of its athletes.

I heard experts in sports say that it takes twelve years to plan for an Olympics. Fire brigade approach is common in Nigeria. We don’t plan on time. We wait until the last minute to do things that ought to have been done earlier, including the ones that will not cost a dime. That is why Nigerian athletes get to international events, only to realise that they were not registered for the event.

By the time things are sorted out, the athlete becomes downcast. The athlete’s participation equally becomes predictable. In some instances, Nigerian athletes borrow the needed sports equipment from their colleagues from other countries to participate in events. Such instances were seen in Paris. In most cases, the administrators will assure that they are going to investigate what happened. At the end of the day, nothing is heard about the investigation and nobody gets punished. We move on.

Nigeria cannot make progress by always crying over spilt milt. The country must work to succeed. For us to succeed, we must prioritise planning in everything we do. Part of the planning is putting square pegs in square holes. In areas that are very technical, such as sports, the people with the know-how should be appointed into critical offices in those areas.

The Ministry of Sports, for instance, should not be a dumping ground for party members who lost election or political cronies. Sports is big business. Besides being a money spinning business, it can create employment for the teeming youth population of the country who constitute over 60 per cent of the population of the country. If they are gainfully employed through sports, the crime rate and by extension, insecurity in the country, will reduce to the barest minimum.

In conclusion, if Nigeria must succeed as a nation, planning should be institutionalised in all facets of our national life, not just in principle, but in practical terms. If we wish to succeed in Sports in particular, we should engage in long term sports development planning. Now that the Paris Olympics is over, we should look at the lessons, rather than dissipate energy on blame game.

There can never be a short cut to progress. For us to make it to the medals table at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics and subsequent ones, or surpass our two gold medals best performance at Atlanta 2006 Games, the planning should start today.
Dr. Nzomiwu wrote from Awka, Anambra State. He can be reached via: [email protected]