EVERY international competition cycle, Nigeria’s name is mired in one embarrassing episode or the other. There have been times Nigerian athletes were forced to wash and wear the same jerseys during competitions, totally precluding the natural practice of gifting them to other athletes or even spectators. Indeed, the legendary footballer, the late Rashidi Yekini, or ‘Gangling Yekini’ as he was fondly called, once reportedly got his colleagues to cut up their tracksuits and use them as shorts during a match against Burkina Faso in 1991 because the official jerseys were yet to arrive, and the Super Eagles risked facing their opponents in disparate sports wear. If, without reading the distressing story of Nigeria’s track and field athlete, Favour Ofili regarding the 100 meters race in the ongoing Olympics in Paris, France, you already felt that Nigeria and Nigerians were going to feature in yet another disgraceful episode, you were, sadly, right. Ofili recently wrote a social media post detailing her disappointment at being disqualified from the women’s 100 meters at the Paris Olympics because the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) failed to register her for the event.
She wrote: “It is with great regret that I have just been told I will not be competing in the 100 meters at this Olympic Games. I qualified, but those at the AFN and NOC failed to enter me. I have worked for four years to earn this opportunity.” In response, the AFN said it could not explain how the name of the women’s 100 meters national champion got missing from the women’s 100 meters event of the Paris Olympics Games, insisting that she was registered for the 100m, 200m, and the women’s 4×100 meters relay. Technical Director of the AFN, Samuel Onikeku, said the body was as shocked as the athlete over the development. Hear him: “We registered Ofili for the 100 meters, 200 meters and the 4×100 meters relay. We don’t know how her name got missing in the 100m. This is our stand as a federation.”
On his own part, the Minister of Sports Development, John Enoh, promised thorough sanctions for culprits whenever the origins of the registration error were discovered. Expressing anguish over the development, Enoh reiterated his commitment to resolving the issue and ensuring accountability within sports administration. According to him, on being briefed about the development, he had reached out to the AFN. He said: “The Technical Director, Samuel Onikeku, stated categorically that Favour Ofili was registered for the 100 meters, 200m, and the 4×100 meters relay. The Secretary General of the AFN also insisted that the final list forwarded by her to NOC (the only body the International Olympic Committee receives the final list of athletes from) had Ofili listed for the 100 meters as well. I am in touch with the President of the NOC on this and await his explanation.” Enoh added: “It is highly inexcusable, and there will be thorough sanctions after investigations into where and from whom this gross negligence originated. All parties must take their duties very seriously. The current way of operating the Federal Ministry of Sports Development does not allow for incompetence at any level.” Sadly, despite the minister’s efforts to ensure that Ofili took part in the event, she missed it. Any hopes of a late remedy were extinguished on Friday, August 2, and the distraught athlete wrote on X after missing the heats: “Sadly, nothing has been done. I’m yet to see or hear anyone being punished for what the NOC and AFN did to me. Athletes shouldn’t be getting punished for things out of their control.”
Remarkably, though, Ofili has not allowed the setback to dampen her resolve to win medals for Nigeria at the global fiesta. On Monday, she became the first Nigerian to qualify for the final of the women’s 200 meters at the Olympics in 28 years. The 21-year-old dipped 22.05 seconds to finish second in heat 1 of the women’s 200 meters semi-final. Nigeria has not participated in the event’s final at the games since Mary Onyali achieved the feat in Atlanta ’96. At the time, Onyali had finished the final with a bronze medal after coming behind France’s Marie-Jose Perec and Jamaica’s Merlene Ottey.
To be sure, Ofili’s Paris 2024 100 meters story casts Nigeria in extremely bad light. If anything, it suggests that as far as preparing for sporting events is concerned, Nigeria may never get it right. This, is to say the least, unfortunate. What is so special or even difficult in registering an athlete for a global sporting event? The rules are clearly defined and those saddled with the responsibility know the duty thrust upon them; it is, in fact, part of what they are drawing salaries for. Against this backdrop, it is disheartening that Nigeria’s image had to be dragged through the mud once again simply because someone decided to shirk their duty. Just how can the AFN and the NOC be claiming innocence when Ofili was denied participation at the 100 metres event? Is it that no one is willing to take responsibility for the lapse? How does the NOC, in particular, want to be perceived in the face of dirty stories such as the present one? How can athletes able and willing to fly the colours of their “sovereign motherland” be denied the opportunity, and on the global stage to boot? What does that say about Nigeria as a country? How will the up and coming athletes who have a passion to fly Nigeria’s colours feel when they see and hear things like this?
If Nigeria is to regain some dignity in the world of sports, Minister Enoh must keep his word. He must unravel the root of this embarrassing development and take steps to avert a recurrence. Even if Ofili had eventually participated in the 100 meters race, that would still not have reversed the damage already done to Nigeria’s image. In which other country do athletes have to engage in public disputes with their sports authorities over participation in the Olympic games? Nigerians have been justly outraged by this development and the least the authorities owe them is information on what actually transpired, and how they hope to forestall a recurrence.
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