I have followed with keen interest the hullabaloo and lampooning of our sports authorities particularly the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), as the entire social media went booze with lambast against them, over the non-registration of a Nigerian athlete, Favour Ofili in the 100m race she qualified for at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympics.
The whole nation vented their anger in full glare and no one spared lashing the perpetrators of this ignoble show of shame with the stick. What a grievous calamity.
Ofili had taken to her X page formerly known as Twitter to break this very sad development with the twit: “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 with the AFN and NOC failed to enter me. I have worked for 4 years to earn this opportunity. For what?
“Please remember, in the last Olympic Games I was not able to compete because AFN, NADC and NOC failed to release funds for athletes to be tested, which made 14 Nigerian athletes that qualified to not compete. Now THIS……
“If those responsible are NOT held accountable for taking this opportunity from me, neither organization can EVER be trusted in the future!
Next one is the 200meters,
I HOPE I’M ENTERED”, she feared.
But in all of this, one question keep popping and re -echoining on my mind: Is this sheer negligence or incompetence? But when you consider that this isn’t happening for the first time and that controversy has become a recurrence with Nigeria’s participation at major competitions, you would understand the issue better to be able to situate it and the magnitude of the problem at hand.
How on earth will an association not register her own athlete? Whose duty was it? Why was it not done? Why is it always Nigeria? Questions, more questions as claims and counter claims continue between the AFN and NOC. Each playing the blame game and trying to exonerate itself from the unpardonable error. What a pity.
That Ofili was not registered for her 100m race which she qualified for is not strange to me, but what I find most disturbing is that no one will be punished for this. We will move on like every other one that has happened in the past. Who did this to us as a nation? What kind of people are we? Do they understand how traumatized and downcast the athlete would be now? Do they know the amount of hard work she has put in preparing for this? The dreams dashed and eight years of her career wasted because of this.
The Sports minister, John Enoh has said they would probe to get to the bottom of this, but you can place your bet that this would be swept under the carpet as usual except Enoh proves me otherwise.
At the last Olympics held in Japan known as Tokyo 2020 but was postponed to 2021 due to the widespread dreaded corona virus pandemic that broke out worldwide, Nigerian athletes made history in a negative way, as they staged a protest in what was an international embarrassment. How many persons have been indicated and punished for that till date?
Recall that Nigeria became an object of scorn and ridicule at Tokyo following shortage of kits and allegations of officials cornering gifts meant for the athletes. Again, Athletes’ allowances were delayed which ended in a shambolic outcome with the country winning just two medals, a silver and bronze despite huge spendings at the quadrennial games.
Both the AFN and the NOC claimed they registered Ofili and did not know how the omission occurred. This is the more reason a probe is inevitable and it should be comprehensive to unearth the culprits since the AFN/NOC registered the athlete for the 100m, 200m and the 4x100m races.
During the opening ceremony, there were lots of skirmishes and clear cases of administrative ineptitude from authorities added with the Ofili debacle which must not be condoned. Nigeria and it’s sports men/women have suffered for too long in the hands of these undertakers of our sports, that this must not be allowed to continue.
The country is being represented in Paris by 84 athletes but our chances for medals and bettering our best outing at Atlanta ’96 where we won six medals which includes two gold medals remains bleak.
Nigeria boasts of 27 medals since its maiden appearance at Helsinki ’52. This is poor by all standards considering the enormous talents available in the country.
The Ofili saga has shown that there is plenty incompetence, mediocrity, corruption and administrative malady in our sports which needs to be addressed urgently if Nigeria wish to realize it’s potential in sports.