The Labour Party’s candidate in the 2023 presidential election, Peter Obi, has lamented over team Nigeria’s dismal performance at the recently concluded 2024 Paris Olympics.
Obi, in a statement on X on Sunday, criticised the medal-less finish of Nigeria’s contingents at the competition despite the huge sums of money spent on the team.
Despite high ambitions and tremendous preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympics, the squad faced formidable challenges that resulted in another medal-less performance.
Nigerian athletes had shown promise in the lead-up to the Games, with strong performances in a variety of qualifying events.
Historically, Nigeria has failed to transfer continental successes into Olympic medals, and this year was no exception.
As the Games concluded, the Nigerian sports community’s hopes for a miracle vanished into thin air.
This simply implies another barren trip extending the country’s quest for Olympic triumph.
Obi, who stated his displeasure with Nigeria’s inability to cart home a single medal at the 2024 Olympics, blamed the team’s woes on the “rascality and recklessness that have continued to characterise leadership in our nation in nearly every department.”
“Now that the Paris Olympics 2024 have officially ended and our dear Team Nigeria, despite the huge financial investment made into the project, is returning without a single medal, let me unreservedly register my displeasure with the performance of our team and their handlers.
“The rascality and recklessness that have continued to characterise leadership in our nation in nearly every department. The general impression that has come to stick is the one that portrays our country as a joke, even on the international stage,” Obi said.
Obi lamented that countries with less spendings on their Olympic teams compared to Nigeria, won medals.
He said, “How can one explain that a country like Jamaica spent less than 5% of what we spent on our contingents for the Paris Olympics 2024 and won as many as 6 medals? Yet with our huge financial investments and large contingent, we could not win even a single medal?
“At least nine African countries won gold, but the giant with over 200 people came home without even a bronze! We invested about N12 billion in this year’s Olympics, which is almost twice the amount budgeted for the entire Ministry of Science and Technology for this year.
“This is over N136 million (about $85,000) spent on each of the 88 Nigerian contingents to the Olympics, and no single medal was won while Jamaica, a nation that spent far less than we did, a total of about $2300 on each contingent, won 6 medals: 1 gold, 3 silver, and 2 bronze at the Olympics.”
He also blamed corruption and “favouritism” in the sports sector as another culprit that led to Nigeria’s dismal performance in the competition.
“We must now interrogate the relationship between this huge investment and our dismal outcome. Sad stories like this are our lot only because we have refused to embrace competence and capacity over routine and favouritism in Nigeria,” Obi mentions.
The former governor of Anambra State condemned, in totality, the erroneous exclusion of some athletes from the competition as a result of the ineptitude of Nigerian officials.
He also condemned the unavailability of adequate sporting equipments provided to athletes, which forces them to borrow from their opponents.
He noted that such bad leadership encourages Nigerian athletes to switch nationalities to compete for other countries.
Obi said, “Let us consider the case of Favour Ofili, a Nigerian professional sprinter who trained for years for the 2024 Olympics, only for her name to be recklessly and wrongly removed from the list of athletes for the 100m race at the Olympics by Nigerian sporting authorities.
“What explanation can anyone give about Annette Echikunwoke, a former Nigerian hammer thrower who was frustrated by the same rascality of some Nigerian leaders, making her switch her allegiance to the United States, where she eventually won a medal in the just completed Olympics?
“These same professional athletes were denied the opportunity to represent our nation in Tokyo 2020 for similar reasons of administrative recklessness.
“I have it on good authority that some injured athletes, not physically fit to represent the country and not competing in the ongoing Olympics, were there in Paris receiving estacodes from our national resources.
“Some of the sports officials and others who have no reason to be at the Olympics were there too, living large and feeding fat on the estacodes while our nation was crashing out on every sporting event.
“One of our athletes, Ese Ukpeseraye, had to borrow a bicycle to compete at her sporting event. How can one sensibly explain such recklessness and infamy?
“What a country! What a shame! When do we stop these rascalities that always rob our nation of golden opportunities to make a positive change?”
Obi urged “the government to investigate these gross misconducts and make sure that those responsible do not have the opportunity to do so again.”
“We must build a nation of discipline and commitment to duty, where competence and capacity reign. That is the New Nigeria we preach, and it is possible,” Obi stated.
