Call for minister’s sack rages as Paris Olympics end without Nigeria on medal table

“What will the Sports Minister John Owen Enoh tell President Bola Tinubu now that Nigeria failed to win a single medal at the Paris Olympics?” That was the big question by the chairman of Gombe State Athletics Association, Shuiabu Gara-Gombe, on Friday, shortly after World Record holder, Tobi Amusan, failed to qualify for the final of the 100m hurdles event at the Paris Olympics.

Amusan, who was Nigeria’s last hope for a medal in Paris, will not be running in the Olympic 100m hurdles final after she finished third in her semifinal heat and her 2.55sec run was not fast enough to secure one of the two fastest losers’ slot.

To make it a terrible Friday for Nigeria, the men’s 4x400m relay team of Ifeanyi Ojeli, Nathaniel Ezekiel, Dubem Amene and Chidi Okezie, was disqualified for running out of their lanes after raising Nigerians hope of making history as the nation’s first team to run in the final of the event since Athens 2004 Olympics.

Gara-Gombe, a former chairman of Gombe United FC, described Team Nigeria’s outing at the Paris Olympics as the worst.

“Yes, Nigeria’s participation in this Paris 2024 is the worst Olympic competing with London 2012 in the medal finish,” he said in his message to The Guardian. “And I blame the Sports Minister for this worst outing because he never planned well for the Olympics.

“When he was supposed to plan for the Paris Olympics, the minister was busy following NFA up and down looking for football coach and getting himself involve in technical matters and at the same time hosting all sorts of jokers and mediocres in the name of partnership and collaboration. He was busy travelling from one country to another doing nothing,” he said.

According to Gara-Gome, another problem that led to Nigeria’s failure at the Paris Olympics was the minister’s refusal to genuinely bring together unity among members of the some sporting federations, including the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), which he said is the focal federation of any Olympics.

“When the Minister was appointed, he had more than one year to do something better for the Olympics but he failed. He got all he asked for, and to me, he has failed the Presidency and all Nigerians,” Gara-Gombe stated.

Former Green Eagles winger, now a Sports Scientist, Adegoke Adelabu, said: “The question is whether we have any progressive plan to build on our past successes? I have said it times without number, that there will always be athletes that will represent Nigeria in international competitions, but do we have any progressive plan to perform better in subsequent competitions.

“We are really facing performance draught, and I think we need to rediscover our performance edge.” Some other stakeholders also expressed their anger over Nigeria’s failure to get a single medal in Paris .

“Paris 2024 has been a classic case of the chickens coming home to roost as decades of incompetence, mismanagement, corruption, lackadaisical attitude and me, me, me culture, have all conspired to embarrass Nigeria,” one sports journalist pointed out.

“As happened at the 2012 London Olympics, we are faced at a scenario whereby Nigeria will leave France with no medal whatsoever. When I look at how well small African nations are doing at the Games, it gives me pleasure as the likes of Cape Verde, Botswana, Uganda, etc are chasing down the likes of South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt. As a people, we have to decide if we want to turn our sporting fortunes around or not.

“Nigeria is one of the few countries in the world where her athletes will return from the Olympic Games with no medals and the sports minister will stay in his job. I do not see any public outcry for change, so our rulers and administrators are under no pressure to alter things.”

Another stakeholder asked: “How come the sports minister paid some of the athletes training grants in the middle of the Paris Olympics? Training grants are meant to prepare the athletes well for a major sporting event, help them take care of some basic needs, including engaging good nutritionist, paying their managers and staying away from competing in all manner of competitions to avoid burn out before the Olympics. Paying the athletes training grants in the middle of the Paris Olympics was like a farmer applying fertilizers on his crops at the point of harvest season. The minister should go.”