Two goals from Sadiq Umar and another from Aminu Umar helped Nigeria clinch its only medal during the recently concluded Olympic games in Rio. Considering all the drama surrounding Team Nigeria’s journey to the global event, Nigerians have described the country’s sole medal as a bronze-like gold.

It is safe to say the Nigerian sports sector does not carry out a holistic post-Olympic review, because nothing has changed regarding the country’s representation abroad in the last 8 years. Frankly, things appear to have deteriorated. Beyond sanctioning those responsible for everything that went wrong during the last Olympics (if that even happens), there is an urgent need to reform the country’s entire sports sector.

In an attempt to cover up for the recent disgraceful conduct of the sports ministry, the Nigerian Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, blamed the previous administration for leaving behind an establishment without proper organisation and accountability, which he said was responsible for the abysmal performance of Team Nigeria in Rio this month.

According to reports, Dalung stated that one of the challenges he discovered at the start of his tenure was the disappearance of the sum of N3 billion budgeted for the High Performance Centre, designed to keep the athletes at their best for competitions. “I am aware that up to N3 billion was approved for the High Performance Centre long before we came but, it is a mystery how that money was used. I just couldn’t understand how such a thing could happen.”

“The money was not just to equip the centre, it was also meant to cover the salaries of the experts we brought in to work with the athletes but they found a way to spend the money. They wiped everything such that we are now paying the experts from our overheard cost rather than the money actually meant for that. It is as bad as that…So you can see how long ago this problem started.”

“This is why we have to struggle with funding when it should not be.”

Someone really needs to remind Solomon Dalung that he took over the country’s sports sector about a year ago and has had sufficient time to report his findings and prepare accordingly. In April, Dalung set up a Sports Reform Committee, giving them 90-days to send in reports. Ordinarily, Dalung’s findings and solutions should have shown in the country’s sports performance this year, but the reverse seems to be the case.

From the embarrassment caused by the Nigeria Football Federation’s botched process of hiring a manager for the Super Eagles, to the show of shame before, during and after the Olympics, the Nigerian government does not need a soothsayer to know that if things continue this way, the country will never do better. If Nigeria was serious about sports and its athletes, Dalung would have been sacked or redeployed by now. His incompetence and mismanagement of the Sports Ministry has so far been shameful. More disturbing is the fact that he does not appear to have a blueprint on how to resuscitate the dying sector.

Four years ago, the most populous black nation with over 167 million people left the London 2012 Olympics without a medal. It was Nigeria’s worst Olympic result since 1988. And nothing has changed since then. Even football, which happens to be the most favoured division of the sport sector, is nothing to write home about. Since the late Stephen Keshi led the Super Eagles to win the 2013 African Cup of Nations (AFCON), the team has struggled to assert any dominance on both continental and global scenes. The Nigerian team failed to qualify for the 2015 AFCON games, which it won previously. Again, it has failed to qualify for the same competition slated for 2017.

Clearly, there is a need to reform the entire sector; the country’s administrators need to go back to the drawing board and discover where exactly things went wrong and develop methods to restore the sector. Until this is done, the country will continue to find it very difficult to achieve its desired goals in sports.

Elsewhere on Ventures

Triangle arrow