Chioma Ajunwa laughed over an event that provoked sadness recently. It was of one of her off-track experiences when she visited one of the offices of the people running sports in Nigeria. Precisely, she was at the Ministry of Sports. She didn’t say whether it is state or federal ministry, but a sports personality such as Chioma Ajunwa needs no introduction to people in sports circles. While at the ministry, she noticed that she was not receiving the kind of attention she deserves as one of Nigeria’s most popular sports figures. This overlook happened to her in a Ministry which is supposed to be home for her. “You don’t know Chioma Ajunwa?!” That question – her question at the development – showed that she was as bewildered as the officials she had met at ‘home’ were confused.
The officials in charge of sports in Nigeria were only left wondering who she was, but Chioma didn’t say whether she was exasperated at that or not. She just found out herself, and in a very dramatic manner, that the legendary Chioma Ajunwa of Nigeria is homeless in Nigeria’s sports community. She promptly discovered that she has no room in Nigeria’s home of sports.
Chioma Ajunwa is the first Nigerian individual Olympic Games gold medallist. She won the gold medal in long jump at Atlanta in 1996. That golden jump was the icing on the cake for her in an illustrious sports career. Before then, she had been in track and field and was a national female football team player. She was a part of The Falcons (before the national female football team was rechristened Super Falcons) during the Women’s World Cup in 1991.
That it took Chioma Ajunwa herself to rudely discover that those running sports in Nigeria didn’t know people like her speak to the kind of people in charge of sports administration in the country. When the kind of people who populate our ministries and agencies do their thing, the results are the kind of things we saw happen to Team Nigeria in Paris. Before Paris, there was Tokyo and there was London and so on, and so forth. At the end of each shameful outing, the people at the receiving end and those who suffer the direct consequences, along with the general public would start their lamentations as we have been doing since the games of the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris.
Paris 2024 was London 2012 once again. This year’s outing was also Tokyo 2020 in one awkward form. It’s been a lot of our usual ‘it should have been this… and it should not have been that…’ Even if we skip the shenanigans that preceded the participation of our team in the men’s football event in our Rio de Janeiro outing in 2016, it is still not a smooth outing. But for our scrapping through to the football bronze medal in that outing, what difference did the Brazil show make in preparation for Tokyo?
By the way, the Rio bronze was such a precious medal which was wrought for us by the efforts of John Mikel Obi. Of course one cannot denigrate the grit of the team which included William Troost-Ekong, but Mikel Obi literally carried that team pre-tournament and saved Nigeria’s face when they were stranded in the United States. The football team was our only medal in that summer Olympics. It was a result which showed that we didn’t learn any lesson from the failure of four years earlier in London.
However, our country does not normally do right what other countries do right. We learn from our mistakes, discard such knowledge and improve on our mistakes by making worse, jaw-dropping new ones. Remember the events that led to the abandonment of Nigeria by Gloria Alozie, who was among the best in the world in the 100 meters hurdles? Do we even remember GloriA Alozie? Do we remember that she won a silver medal for Nigeria in the Olympics? She was our star hurdler the just like Tobiloba Amusan now, and she won many laurels in 100 meters women’s hurdles. She still dumped Nigeria for Spain because of how the country treated her preparatory to Sydney 2000 Olympics. She officially became a Spanish citizen in 2001.
There are many athletes with Nigerian blood whom we cannot do anything about the countries they represent, like the Ohuruogu sisters – Christine; and Philips Olaosebikan Idowu, all of Great Britain. But how would we explain our being in the river while also suffering the sting of soap in our eyes? This is how one can look at the loss of Annette Nneka Echikunwoke to the United States of America. Annette Nneka became the first American woman to win an Olympics medal in hammer throw. She made history for the USA in Paris after leaving Nigeria with our self-inflicted numerous shades of wahala and poor management. Annette qualified to compete for Nigeria in Tokyo and was duly registered. But routine test results that were expected from the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) were not submitted. All the athletes involved, including Tobiloba Amusan, a super medal prospect, were disqualified. Annette couldn’t stand the shenanigans and she packed her bags and return to the USA, which accepted her. She won a record-setting silver medal in Paris.
The anger over how the D’Tigress, our national female basketball team was disqualified from a world championship the ladies qualified for isn’t completely diffused. The D’Tigress indeed was about the only positive we took away from Paris, and the icing on the cake was the naming of Rena Wakama, the coach of the ladies as the best among her peers at the outing. Rena and her team was the only spark of Nigerian pride in Paris. The young athletes who recorded personal best in their respective events are also worthy of commendation. If these athletes do not eventually dump us like other frustrated Nigerian prospects that have not only changed national colours and allegiance but have also taken Arabian names, then there are hopes in the near future. But if the Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC) and AFN continue in their usual strides, then we may continue in our Olympics lamentations.
Of course we shouldn’t expect to get positive results when we don’t work to achieve such results. You cannot sow pepper and reap cassava. Since our return from Paris, why have there not been queries? Why have we kept quiet while other countries are celebrating their wins and plotting their sustained dominance in specific sports? Some of the medalists in Paris had tailored their preparations from Tokyo. The successful athletes are not just taken off the hanger when they are needed, they are nurtured like the yam farmer does his yam’s tendrils. We once had a sports minister who came and made firms adopt talents. That initiative has diffused with the administration that sports minister served in. When the current Minister of Sports spoke on the woeful Olympics performance, one of the revelations he made was that when he resumed as the minister of sports last year, there was nothing to show that there were preparations for the Olympics. That was a pointer to what to expect in Paris.
As usual, all the relevant agencies have gone mute. The people who could not recognise a legend like Ajunwa would still remain the ones manning important sporting positions. The National Assembly will not query the Sports Minister who has proven to be better at writing beautiful excuses than making an impact. The House Committee on Sports doesn’t seem to have a grasp of what its calling in this regard is. They are more interested in passing laws that would prevent Nigerians from complaining about economic hardship and emotional suffering during international sports meets, than to build confidence among the citizenry. The committees on sports in the National Assembly should rise to the occasion. Nigerians demand answers.
When the minister is asked questions, he has people down the line he should also seek answers from. Minister John Owan Enoh has the Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC) to query. If international sports conventions won’t allow him, he can deal with it in some other ways. He should have called the antiquity at the NOC, Habu Gumel, to question. Engineer Habu Gumel has been at the helm of affairs at the NOC, or has been hanging-in in the corridors of power there, for nearly 21 years. Gumel was first elected President of the Nigeria Olympic Committee in 2001 and served two consecutive terms until 2010. He was elected President again in 2014 and has served as President since. What has he made of the leadership of the NOC, compared to Henry Adefope? Has the Nigeria Olympics Committee been in the news for its strides?
Like Chioma Ajunwa and a horde of others have repeatedly cried, let those who know sports be in charge of sports!
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