Labour Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has urged the federal government to investigate what he described as the ‘rascalities of leaders’ that consistently deny Nigeria the chance to seize golden opportunities for positive change.
Obi made these remarks in response to Nigeria’s disappointing performance at the ongoing Paris 2024 Olympics. He criticized the behavior of Nigerian sporting authorities, emphasizing that their gross misconducts need to be addressed. According to him, “Now that the Paris 2024 Olympics has officially concluded and our dear Team Nigeria, despite the significant financial investment, is returning without a single medal, I must express my deep dissatisfaction with the performance of our team and their handlers.
The rampant recklessness that pervades leadership in our country, across almost every sector, has led to a general perception of Nigeria as a joke on the international stage.
How can we justify that a country like Jamaica, which spent less than 5% of what we did on their Olympic team, won six medals? Yet, with our substantial financial investment and large contingent, we couldn’t secure even one medal.
At least nine African countries won gold, but the so-called giant with over 200 million people is coming home empty-handed! We invested around N12 billion in this year’s Olympics—nearly double the amount budgeted for the entire Ministry of Science and Technology this year.
This translates to over N136 million (about $85,000) spent on each of the 88 Nigerian athletes at the Olympics, yet not a single medal was won, while Jamaica, which spent far less, about $2,300 per athlete, took home six medals: 1 Gold, 3 Silver, and 2 Bronze. We must now scrutinize the relationship between this huge investment and our dismal outcome. Stories like this are our reality only because we continue to prioritize routine and favoritism over competence and capacity in Nigeria.
Consider the case of Favour Ofili, a Nigerian sprinter who trained for years for the 2024 Olympics, only to have her name recklessly removed from the 100m race by Nigerian sporting authorities.
How can anyone justify the situation with Annette Echikunwoke, a former Nigerian hammer thrower, who was driven to switch her allegiance to the United States, where she ultimately won a medal at the just-concluded Olympics, due to similar reckless leadership?
These same professional athletes were denied the opportunity to represent Nigeria at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics for similar reasons of administrative negligence. I’ve been informed that some injured athletes, who were not physically fit to compete, were in Paris collecting estacodes from our national resources. Additionally, sports officials and others with no legitimate reason to be at the Olympics were there, living large on estacodes while our nation failed miserably in every sporting event. One of our athletes, Ese Ukpeseraye, had to borrow a bicycle to compete in her event! How can anyone rationalize such recklessness and infamy?
What a country! What a shame! When will we put an end to these reckless actions that continuously rob our nation of opportunities for positive change? I call on the government to investigate these gross misconducts and ensure that those responsible are held accountable and prevented from repeating such actions. We must build a nation of discipline and dedication, where competence and capacity are prioritized. This is the New Nigeria we envision, and it is Possible.”
