Are you not thoroughly ashamed of Nigeria at the #RioOlympics? 5 takeaways on what this says about us

by Tolu Omoyeni

The 2016 Olympics have come and gone but our problems as a country will always be here as long as we are run by the same incompetent bunch of people. All the issues that trailed Nigeria’s presence at the Olympics are the contributory factors to our subpar and very unsatisfactory performance at the event. From advising athletes to fund themselves to the games to the tacky tracksuits athletes were forced to wear at the opening ceremony and to the expulsion of 2 players from Rio due to lack of funds for their upkeep, Nigeria has a way of reminding the rest of the world that we’re still a paralysed nation.

Here’s 5 takeaways on what all of these say about us:

  1. Our government bodies are headed by feeble-minded men: For the purpose of this conversation, let’s stick with the Sports Ministry and the Nigerian Football Federation. Our sports minister, Solomon Dalung is the biggest joke to ever come out of the government in recent times. A failed payment transfer by the Sports ministry held the Dream Team back in Atlanta where they camped ahead of Rio 2016. After long hours of backs and forth and international reportage of our disgraceful ways, the boys finally flew in to Rio six hours before their first game. We didn’t expect them to win that match with Japan but the boys pulled through rather nicely. Meanwhile, Solomon Dalung experienced no difficulties flying to and staying on at Rio throughout the event. His presence was not without controversies. Now that you’re back, we need to talk about the allegations made about family members of some useless officials having a shopping spree in Brazil with Nigeria’s money.
  2. Those who do not believe Nigeria is worth dying for have a good reason: Throughout the event, a good number of Nigerian-born athletes were spotted at the games representing other countries. Nigeria is not, by any chance, worth dying for and these smart individuals have pledged their allegiance to other countries where their skills will be greatly appreciated and handsomely rewarded. You’d do the same if you had the chance. Oluwakemi Adekoya ran for Nigerian in 2011 but has since shifted camp to Bahrain and she’s doing really well. Femi Ogunode runs for Qatar, he was sidelined by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria after he qualified for the 2007 All-Africa Games. There’s many more of them and we should be collectively ashamed that these athletes are not encouraged to represent their birth country. It’s not funny.
  3. The tragedy of our country is that somehow we survive: Legendary musician, Fela Kuti called it “suffering and smiling”. Foreigners say of Nigerians “they have a thick skin”. We survive through the absurdities and the madness that we are made to face as a nation. We make international headlines for all the bad reasons but somehow we’re still lit. Maybe if we stopped smiling through the pain and started taking the ginormous issues that face us seriously, things will change. After all the drama of Rio2016, we have complained and groaned but how long before we forget how poorly we’ve performed and we move on to the next one? Or better still, how long before our government pulls another stunt and gives us a new narrative that will help us forget our Rio woes? We need help.
  4. Now that we’ve failed at sports, can we conclude that we’ve failed at everything?: Maybe we brought back a bronze medal but the truth is, we failed overall. There was a time when dejected Nigerians would keep hope alive through sports but now, even that is gone. When we could boast of nothing else, we had our sports to lean on. Now even our sports has failed. The Sports Ministry is still headed by the half-baked, dim-witted Dalung. Hate him or hate him, he will be there for the next 3 years blaming the past administration of President Goodluck Jonathan for his own incompetence. We are in a hot mess.
  5. This will happen again because we are all talk, never acting: Dalung said to newsmen “preparations have started for the 2020 Olympics”. But we know there’s no truth in this. We have zero preparation game, it’s not just in us to prepare for world events like this. Or maybe we do prepare but only one year before the event. There’s a reason why there’s a 4-year gap between every Olympics, it’s to afford athletes ample time to get ready. Our government makes no provisions for athletes to train but expect a miracle when it’s time to play. We are not the type to learn from our mistakes and we foresee a repeat of this shameful outing at the Olympics in 2020.

One comment

  1. It is a collateral damage by the federal government under Buhari

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