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Sports as a source of scandal and strength
By Levi Obijiofor
Ten days before
the start of the Beijing Olympic Games, The Guardian newspaper wrote
prophetically one of the most incisive analyses of Nigeria's chances
for medals at the games. In that particular analysis, the paper
identified lack of preparation as one of the problems that have
consistently undermined Nigeria's performances in international
sporting events. Over a number of years and decades, we have been
sentenced to irritating and disgraceful performances by our sportsmen
and women. Indeed, poor performances mixed with scandals have earned
the nation the status of a sporting caricature in international
sporting competitions.
In an editorial of Tuesday, July 29, 2008, The
Guardian wrote: "After sixteen months of the Yar'Adua administration,
there is little or nothing on ground to indicate that the government
considers sports an important element of the national development
process. Instead of an improvement in our sports sector, it has been
one tale of woe after another. The preparations for the Beijing
Olympics have been particularly shoddy and irresponsible. The so-called
Nigerian team to this year's Olympics is ill-prepared. For example, the
country's Olympic soccer team, ironically called Dream Team IV, only
began serious training two weeks ago. Our relay teams, once the
nation's pride, could not qualify for the Games, owing to bad planning.
The athletes could not get visas for the pre-Olympics trials because
their applications were submitted late. At a time when other countries
are already fully prepared for the Olympics, Nigerian officials are
still struggling to compile a list of athletes. The lack of funding has
also been a major challenge."
No one who has followed the terrible tale of
woes of Nigeria's preparations for the Beijing Games would disagree
with The Guardian editorial comment. In any sports, early preparation
is an indicator of how each individual sports person or team would
perform. Many sportsmen and women, excluding those who prefer to cheat
through the ingestion of a mix of prohibited drugs and performance
enhancing substances, know that lack of adequate preparation for the
Olympic Games is synonymous with failure. The tragedy of the Nigerian
experience in the most recent and past Olympic Games is that we don't
seem to learn from past experiences.
The more our sports representatives fail at the
Olympic Games, the less worried and less concerned our sports
administrators appear to be. Shouldn't the nation be concerned about
how low the nation's sports record has fallen and the prospects that we
might hit the lowest level in future Olympic Games? It is a tragedy
that ought to have been avoided long before now.
While other countries and their sports
representatives commit more funds and equipment to preparations for
future games, Nigerian sports administrations and representatives dwell
on prayers to help them overcome their sluggish preparations. The
quality of an Olympic athlete has never been determined from the number
of times that athlete prays for support from God. It is true that
prayers ennoble the mind. Prayers often serve as an energizer. Indeed,
prayers are good for lifting the spirit of athletes who have prepared
thoroughly for international competitions, but prayers alone don't work
miracles in the sports competitions.
The God to whom our sportsmen and women pray to
help them win medals during the Olympic Games is the same God to whom
foreign teams pray for success. It is unwise for Nigerian sports
administrators and representatives to commit their energy to prayers
alone in expectation of super performances at Olympic events. It is
na�ve for anyone to expect that God would show greater favour to our
sports representatives than sportsmen and women from other countries.
The God of sports is not the God of Nigerians alone.
One of the remarkable features of the Beijing
Olympic Games was China's demonstration of the virtues of early
preparation in sports. In previous Olympic Games, China had never
featured as one of the top three leading nations in terms of medal
count. But look at how China eclipsed its own record, including other
super sporting nations that had dominated the medals' table in previous
Olympic Games. China's superlative performance in the Beijing Games is
a measure of how early preparations can yield incredible dividends for
a nation. But have our sports administrators learned any lessons from
China's performances at the Beijing Games or from our poor performances
in previous games? Not at all!
The troubling thing about Nigeria's poor
performance in Olympic Games is that we never seem to suffer any shame.
The more we fail to win gold and silver medals, the more we walk about
as if no one should take responsibility for our failures. And that is
why the Presidency and sports administrators have shown incredible
lethargy about sports administration and development in the country.
For many years, Nigeria has taken the emphatic
and unenviable sad position of a country riddled with incompetent
sports administrators and ill-trained and bumbling sportsmen and women.
We live in a country where sports administrators jostle for positions
of personal interests ahead of the interests of sportsmen and women for
whom they were appointed to look after. In the dog-eat-dog atmosphere
that pervades the National Sports Commission, our sports
representatives have continued to under-perform in every Olympic Games.
Are sports administrators appointed to look after their own welfare and
personal interests? It is a question that exposes the hypocrisy at the
Presidency and the National Sports Commission.
So far, no one in the Presidency seems concerned
or scandalized that a country so blessed with talents, so blessed with
natural resources would continue to suffer the indignity of being held
hostage by hopeless sports administrators and delegates - the real fat
cats that feed off the allowances of our sports representatives. These
bungling officials have contributed in no small way to drag Nigeria's
name into the international sporting hall of shame through involvement
in all forms of scandals. Apart from a few dazzling performances by
Nigeria's sportsmen and women (and they are very few indeed), Nigeria's
contribution to international sports - not to forget the Olympic Games
-- has been dominated by scandals and corruption -- sex scandals,
estacode scandals and the scandals associated with deliberate
withholding of allowances meant for athletes and other sports
representatives.
As The Guardian queried a few days before the
start of the Beijing Olympic Games: "Must Nigerians take seriously
their President's 'promise' of at least eight gold medals, a vow he
made ill-advisedly in China before the host country's president? Are we
ready to contest for places on the victory podium against the world's
best nurtured, best prepared, and best motivated athletes who are
products of years of well-organised development programmes and
international exposure to world class competition?"
The unmistakable answers to these questions have
already been revealed through the nation's shoddy performance at the
Beijing Games. The performance of Nigerian athletes in Beijing and
previous Olympic Games has been below par and indeed disgraceful.
Perhaps we have no right to expect victories. The federal government
has not shown consistent and commendable support for our sports
representatives. Most of our athletes are self-made sportsmen and
women. Without government and institutional financial and moral
support, many of these athletes cannot be expected to be at their best.
When Australia's Cathy Freeman won gold medal in
the 400 metres race during the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, she won it
not only for herself and her parents and family but also for other
Australians and indeed other Aborigines. Cathy's victory was
significant in more ways than one. She was the first Aboriginal Olympic
gold medalist but, above all, her gold medal was also Australia's 100th
gold medal in the history of the Olympic Games. This is the context
within which we must understand why Australians still celebrate Cathy's
success more than eight years after her victory.
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua might be inundated
by numerous problems that continue to dog his administration but
effective and efficient sports development and administration must not
be overlooked. Success in sports helps to polish a nation's image.
Cathy Freeman's victory lifted not only the
image of Australia but also the image of Cathy's fellow Aborigines. A
day after Cathy Freeman won the 400 metres race, Australia's only truly
non-financial national newspaper - The Australian - screamed on its
front page: "Catherine the Great". The Sydney Morning Herald, another
Australian newspaper with international reputation, carried the
front-page headline in bold typeface: "Pride of the land". Brisbane's
only daily newspaper, The Courier-Mail, proclaimed rather triumphantly:
"The Olympian" but it quickly added a rider: "She did it". When and
where shall we find Nigerian sportsmen and women of Olympic proportions
to lift our image in the international arena?
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Levi Obijiofor 
Posted by Robot| 29.08.2008 07:27