Like in other endeavours, failure to plan in sports equates to planning to fail. Nigeria’s woeful outings at the Paris Olympic Games, and the 2024 World U-20 Athletics Championships, in Lima, Peru, succinctly capture the ugly state of affairs in the sports sector. GOWON AKPODONOR writes that poor planning, grueling travel plans, and late release of funds for major meets are key in denying the country podium finishes.
Calendars for major international competitions are released years before such championships. This development is to enable teams and countries prepare for such competitions and make hitch-free and tidy logistics to and fro competition venues.
In planning for competitions overseas, teams are expected to familiarise themselves with the peculiar immigration processes of the host nation, the frequency and availability of flights to such venues, and to have a fair knowledge of a sustainable budget to participate successfully in such competitions.
Over the years, Nigeria has left many across the world wondering how it intends to leverage its young population to ensure podium finishes in international sports meets when all it does is keep on failing basic preparatory and planning tests, including carrying out timely logistics/travel for national teams.
For instance, findings by The Guardian revealed that the trip to the 2024 World U-20 Athletics Championships in Lima, Peru, was one of the most hectic for athletes who have been representing the country.
According to one of the athletes, who pleaded anonymity, the Nigerian flag bearers received their travel information on the eve of their departure, a development, which forced them to make frantic, last-minute efforts to reach Abuja on time from various parts of the country.
“We started our journey at 9.00 p.m. on Friday, August 23 in Abuja, and arrived in Istanbul, Turkey at 05.25 a.m. on Saturday, August 24. Then, at 09.40 a.m. on Saturday, we left Istanbul for Bogota, Colombia. It was a 13-hour, 25-minute flight. We got to Botoga by 3.05 p.m. on Saturday, and at 4.35 p.m., we left Bogota for Panama City.
“We arrived at 6.10 p.m. That same day (Saturday), we left Panama City at 9.35 p.m. for Lima, Peru. We arrived at 01.10 a.m. on Sunday, August 25. By the time we picked up our luggage and left the airport for our hotel, athletes from other countries that were jetlagged had shaken that off, were well rested, and were already in good shape waiting for competition to begin, while we were still transiting from one airport to the other. I believe if we had started such a long journey earlier on, arrived in Peru in time, and rested well ahead of our competition, the results could have been better. We already looked defeated even before the events began almost immediately,” the athlete said.
The Guardian learnt that after the competition ended on August 31st, the Nigerian team was forced to move out of the World Athletics hotel and found cheaper accommodation in Lima for three days before embarking on the return journey.
“At the end of the competition, we started our journey back home on Tuesday, September 3 from Lima at 1.30 p.m., and got to Panama City at 5.15 p.m. From there, we started another journey, which lasted for 12 hours and 50 minutes. We arrived in Istanbul at 4.40 p.m. the following day (Wednesday). In Istanbul, we slept on a bare floor till 2.10 p.m. the following day (Thursday, September 5) for our flight to Lagos. Nothing like allowance was given to us,” the athlete alleged.
Barely three weeks ago, the country’s men’s junior basketball national team, the J’Tigers, also went through hell to obtain visas at the South African Embassy to attend the AfroBasket U-18 Championship, which took place in Pretoria.
The South African Consulate in Abuja initially denied their visa applications, and it took the intervention of the organisers of the competition, and the federal government before the visas were issued to the team on the eve of the championship.
Consequently, the team arrived at the competition venue on the day of their opening game and had less than four hours to shake off jetlag and get ready for their game against Egypt. They lost that game but secured a crucial 70-65 win against Angola in their second game. The team thereafter earned a hard-won 71-61 victory over Uganda.
That notwithstanding, the boy’s team got knocked out in the quarterfinals by Mali, while their better-rested girls counterparts qualified for the U-18 World Championships.
What present-day athletes are contending with is at variant with the lot of yesteryears athletes.
A former national basketball team star, who pleaded anonymity, while speaking on the recent hurdles that Nigerian athletes face in the process of representing the country said that there were too many stories where sports officials use athletes as springboards for their elevation, “dumping them like rags at some point; never protecting them; never giving them a fair hearing, and the benefit of the doubt whenever they get into trouble in Nigeria’s climate of poor systems, poor infrastructure, poor institutions and poor practices”.
“In sports, some officials start to compete with the athletes for space in the limelight, and in the climb up the ladder of fame and fortune. Officials who are appointed to service and supervise athletes become gods who must be feared, obeyed, and revered. That is why, generally, athletes and administrators hardly ever enjoy a good and transparent relationship,” he said.
According to a retired weightlifter, Emmanuel Oshomah, who competed around the world representing Nigeria at the Los Angeles ‘84 Olympics in California, USA; the World Weightlifting Championships in Sweden, in 1985 and the 1987 All African Games in Nairobi, Kenya, one of the things athletes enjoyed most in the past was the prompt attention given their travel arrangements by officials of the Sports Ministry.
“The history of Nigerian sports has been very interesting until we started appointing ‘spectators’ as managers,” Oshomah, who is now the proprietor of a weightlifting Academy, known as Oshobugie in Auchi, Edo State, told The Guardian.
“In the days when we had the likes of Dr Awoture Eleyae, Dr Isaac Akioye, at the National Sports Commission, with Pa Raheem Adejumo and Abraham Odia at the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), athletes were very proud to wear the country’s colour at international sporting events. And we were highly respected then,” he said, adding that everything athletes needed to compete well and win medals at international events, including their travel plans were worked out dutifully even without athletes knowing the officials in charge.
“In our preparation for the Seventh African Games in Nairobi, Kenya in 1987, we had Wing Commander Olukpitan (late) as our Camp Commandant, and we spent six months in camp, including a training tour of Europe. The late Osaigbovo Ogbemudia was our Chef de Mission, while Bayo Lawal was the Sports Minister then. We won a lot of medals at the Games.
“Even as we spent six months in Camp towards the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics, which some people considered to be too short a time for preparation and perfection before an Olympics, we also did very well. Then, we had Brigadier Sho-Silver as Chairman of the Military Task Force, while Mahmood Maharaja (both late) served as the Secretary.
“At that time, all medical doctors in the National Sports Commission studied sports medicine. One important aspect of our trips then was that the Protocol department of the sports ministry usually briefed us on trips before the takeoff date.
“Then, we had one Ibusa man called Mr Chris. He was excellent in travelling arrangements. I still remember what happened when we were preparing for a championship in Western Samoa. The arrangement then was that a 1985-passenger Air Force jet would fly us to Western Samoa for the championship, and it would take four days for us to get to the competition venue. But it was changed and we got there well ahead of time. Those were the days when we had responsible and committed sports administrators at the helm of affairs.”
He said that subjecting athletes to grueling trips with many stopovers and long, tiring airport transfers has major effects on affected athletes during competitions because the athletes suffer from jet lag. This coupled with a poor recovery time impacts athletes’ performance negatively.
“That is why, sometimes, those of us who passed through the system when the going was good are not quick to blame athletes these days when they fail to perform well at international competitions. We look at various factors, especially the team’s travel plans before we crucify athletes anytime they fail,” Oshomah said.
To the Proprietor of Cable Sports Academy, Edwin Onovwotafe, Nigerian athletes’ trip to the 2024 World U20 Athletics Championship in Peru exposed the lack of organisation and planning by officials of the Federal Ministry of Sports in particular, and the nation’s sports administrators in general.
“Even before Team Nigeria began their training tour in Germany for the Paris Olympics, we knew that the athletes and officials to the U-20 Athletics Championships in Peru would be required to get their visas in Ghana. We also knew that the trip to Peru would require the athletes to go through some countries.
“How the athletes ended up having such problematic flight arrangements is what I can’t understand. Does it mean that the sports ministry no longer has a department that is responsible for athletes’ travel plans?” he queried.
Onovwotafe added: “The Sports Minister, John Enoh cannot oversee everything, but I expect him to wield the big stick whenever those saddled with critical national assignments fail to handle their jobs diligently. The Federal Government spent a lot of money, and so, we (Nigerians) expect good results from the athletes whenever they represent us at international championships.
“In 2021, this same U-20 Athletics team finished third overall at the World Championships in Nairobi, Kenya. After that, we failed to win a single medal in Cali, Colombia, and now in Lima, Peru due to poor planning and poor travel plans. It has to stop,” Onovwotafe, a product of the National Institute for Sports, (NIS) in Lagos, said.
A former Commonwealth and African table tennis champion, Atanda Musa, blames the intrusion of politicians into sports for the shoddy way the country’s contingents to major international competitions are treated.
He said: “When we had the military in charge of sports, the sector worked smoothly because they were dedicated to excellence in sports. They made sure that athletes were treated properly and did everything possible to ensure that athletes were always in good condition.
“But politicians have spoilt everything. We need people who know what it takes to compete in international competitions. They planned for everything and did not leave anything to chance.
“So, every federation must have a logistics department that takes care of things like flights, accommodation, and communication with host countries/embassies to ensure smooth movement of our athletes to competitions,” Musa emphasised.
