| A Magical Olympics: Nigeria's Shame |
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| Written by Reuben Abati | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sunday, 17 August 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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A Magical Olympics: Nigeria's Shame By Reuben Abati THE saying that no one can make omelette without breaking an egg is common place but it is the most apt description of Nigeria's performance at the on-going Olympics in China. The performance of Team Nigeria has been most dismal, with the coaches and the officials lamenting our lack of good fortune. The U-23 football team, coached by Samson Siasia was our best hope in Beijing (it still is), but after the hypertension -inducing match against the United States, even Siasia was angry. We won the match but Nigerians felt as if they had been defeated. On August 12, after a two goals advantage against the United States, the Nigerian team suddenly began to run around the field like a pack of school children. They lost their will to fight and the Americans seized the intitiative. Even the Nigerian Supporters Club, known for the boisterousness of its members panicked, so much that the club's trumpeter had to put down his trumpet. "Even in victory, we could not celebrate", said Ibiyemi James, the trumpeter. "We were on the edge of our seats, we could not beat the drums again or blow the trumpets." An angry Siasia told his players after the encounter that they were swollen-headed. He singled out Akwa United goalkeeper, Ambrose Vanzekin and blamed him for giving out balls like "a Father Christmas". Vanzekin apologised. Some of the boys, particularly Osaze Odemwingie, took exception and threatened to abandon the assignment. He and the others had to be pacified. But Siasia's anger seems to have paid off with the sterling performance that the Eaglets also known as Dream Team IV put up yesterday in the quarter-final match against Cote D'�voire. The Nigerian team was brilliant, co-ordinated, entertaining and impressive. We saw flashes of the essential quality of Nigerian football, good pace, hardwork, team spirit and the will to win. Vanzekin had stopped giving out Christmas gifts to the opponents and Odemwingie had gotten over his beef, showing up as the playmaker in the Nigerian team. Nigeria won the match 2-0 ( a first half goal by Odemwingie and a penalty converted by Obinna Nsofor in the 91st minute); to end up as one of the last four teams in this year's Olympics football. The trumpet sounded again, and the Nigerian Supporters Club found cause to beat their drums. Their favourite tune was the song: "He is a miracle-working God..." It is indeed a miracle that since the Olympics began, Nigeria now has something to look forward to, but the success of the Eaglets is in spite of the Nigerian authorities, it is in spite of Nigeria's absolute lack of preparedness for the Olympics. The miracle in the performance of the Eaglets has been wrought almost single-handedly by Samson Siasia, who has defied all the obstacles deliberately put on his path by the disorganised Nigerian sports establishment to create a team that as we can see, has found the capacity to learn and grow. We are meeting Belgium in the semi-final. Belgium can be beaten, and the Eaglets can make it to the finals. Whatever they come home with, however, they deserve praise and recognition, for saving Nigeria the all-round humiliation of what is clearly a misadventure in China. And Samsom Siasia deserves a national honour in the category of a GCON. What he and his team did for Nigeria yesterday and may still do is to lift a country's broken spirit. Until the Eaglets found their way into the football semi-finals and re-established Nigeria in the eyes of the world as a country of capable athletes, the mood in the Nigerian camp was sullen. It is bad news all round in all the other events in which we are particpating. In boxing, for example, where our men had made some good showing in the past, Nigeria's performance was disgraceful. Nigeria won boxing medals in Tokyo 1964, Munich 1972 and Barcelona 1992. But in Beijing 2008, all our boxers have crashed out. Against Armenia's Hrachik Javakhanyan, Rasheed Lawal could not score a single point in the 60kg match.. His other colleagues in other categories also failed woefully. Onoriode Ohwarieme lost 11-1 to a Lithuanian in the 91kg class. The case of Olanrewaju Durotola is perhaps most illustrative of the Nigerian disgrace. In a four-round match against Cuba's Osmmai Duarte, Durodola scored an absolute zero in the heavyweight class. The Cuban showed great technical competence and mental capacity; he avoided every punch that the Nigerian threw into the air or in his direction, and responded with deadly punches that met their target. In the light heavyweight category, David Izodo, a Nigerian boxer was pummelled so heavily by his Ghanaian opponent, he would need medical attention to ensure that his bones are still intact. A frustrated Obisia Nwakpa, the Nigerian boxing coach had to lament in frustration that "Nigeria is ten years behind in boxing". But he is not the only coach who is moaning. Innocent Egbunike the athletics coach is also unhappy. We thought Africa's fastest man, 100 m maestro Olusoji Fasuba would help remove the tears in the Nigerian camp but he and his team mate, Obinna Metu also crashed out. In weightlifting Uloko Benedict finished fifth, Felix Ekpo failed in the 77kg category, swimming hopeful Ngozi Monu and golden girl, Damola Osayomi couldn't compete among the best in the world. The Falcons scored one goal in three matches and won zero point. In the post-match conference after Brazil's women football team drubbed the Falcons 3-1, Jossy Lad their coach said nobody should blame him, instead he wanted everyone to realise that "in Nigeria football is not developed". National table tennis coach, Babatunde Obisanya also says he is dissapointed. "This is not the kind of results I had expected..", he said. The coaches are right and wrong. What is it that Siasia, facing the same odds has done, which they have failed to do? Why would a Falcons team trained by Ntiero Effiom and built into the strongest female football team in Africa suddenly become a collection of non-starters under Jossy Lad, the new Falcons coach. The reasons for the poor outing of Team Nigeria are multi-faceted, but part of it is the long-standing practice of appointing wrong persons as coaches or the coaches themselves lacking the required exposure and experience to be able to provide critical leadership. The bigger problem no doubt is the mismanagement of the sports sector and its conversion into a gravvy train by unpatriotic elements. Up till a few days ago, the Nigerian team in China did not even have officially branded kits. It was only when the players threatened to stage a protest, that the officials quickly released the kits. These are kits that had been donated free of charge to the Nigerian team by Mozino, a Japanese company, but one big man in the Nigeria Olympics Committee had directed that the kits should not be distributed. Who is that big man? He should be identified, investigated and shamed. Yesterday's bright moment notwithstanding, what we have in China is an ill-prepared, psychologically defeated team of athletes, surrounded by government officials and visiting big men and party officials who are more interested in estacodes. And the reporters have not been mincing words at all in their reports: "Nigeria crumble in table tennis"; "Another Nigerian boxer pummelled", "Obisia laments poor run in Olympic boxing", "Dream team caused panic in stadium". Meanwhile, the Nigerian Government is waiting and expecting Team Nigeria to bring home eight gold medals. The ready excuse that Nigerians offer in a situation such as this is the specious reasoning that the Olympics is not about winning, but participation. Going to the Olympics as a spectator (like many Nigerian officials - so many of them in China) or to lose matches and then proceed remorselessly on a shopping spree (as the Falcons have done) is not what the Olympic spirit is all about. It is about the grandeur of human ability, the thrill of competition and excellence and a celebration of the humanity that we all share as members of the same community. An Olympic gold is worth its value, both for the athlete and his or her country. When at that special moment, your country's anthem is played and you stand among champions to collect an Olympic medal, it is special history that is made. Serious-minded countries prepare for the Olympics as if their very existence depends on it. The United States is at the moment topping the medals table with 54 medals (16 Gold): it did not achieve this by accident. China is second with 47 medals (27 Gold), and it is giving the world a participant-friendly and well-organised Olympics. This is a product of years of preparation and national discipline. When the Chinese won the gold medal in gymnastics, the excitement among the Chinese who had witnessed the impressive performance of the young ladies beating the United States to second place and defending champions Romania to third place was so electrifying, indeed unforgettable. It reminded me of the night the Nigerian football team won the Gold medal in football at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. The entire country stayed awake to watch that match and when victory came, we danced in the streets till morning. It is a similar excitement that the winning athletes at this year's Olympics are bringing to their countrymen and women. Michael Phelps, the American "golden boy"is now the most decorated Olympic sportsman in history with a total haul of 12 gold medals. He has broken world records and with seven gold medals, he is just one gold medal away from wrapping up this year's Olympics as the athlete with the largest gold medal haul at a single Olympics. One man can make all the difference for a country. Phelps' achievements is not his alone, it is America's. Togo is already on this year's medals table with a bronze in kayak won by a France-based athlete, Benjamin Boukpeti. What is in kayaking? All those boys in the Niger Delta causing problems in the creeks, would have been better off representing Nigeria at the Olympics in kayak, rowing, and even swimming. So far, Egypt, Ethiopia, Togo, Algeria and Zimbabwe are the African countries on this year's medal table, to be joined certainly by Kenya and Mozambique soon. Nigeria, we now know, won't come home with the eight gold medals that President Umaru Yar'�dua wants. No miracle can make that happen, but we would probably return with a silver or a bronze or even a gold in football, or perhaps nothing but only with the thrill of being a strong football-playing nation. There is also that other gold that we won by default from the Sydney 2000 Olympics; the gold we got because two Americans in the Sydney 4x400 race confessed to the guilt of substance abuse. But there are lessons that we should be able to walk away with from this year's Olympics. It is not miracles that make countries excel. It is hardwork and planning. The Nigerian camp is perhaps the most disorganised camp at this year's Olympics. We went into the Games with sad athletes, poorly prepared teams, frustrated officials, cynical authority figures and at every step, there is either a scandal waiting to break loose, or a quarrel over tickets and allowances to be resolved, or a protest to be nipped in the bud. And yet this is a country of talented individuals. Many of our girls in the universities who have taken to part-time prostitution can learn and excel in many of the games at the Olympics. I have seen persons in Lagos who look very much like they wouldn't do badly in hockey, the hurdles or even weight-lifting. What is missing is the environment to release the potentials of our people to enable them excel on the big stage in whatever area of human endeavour. Nigeria is a compressionist society where people have little space for self-expression. Everyone is looking for a white-collar job, chasing limited dreams, perhaps if the sports sector were developed, many of the young men and women on the unemployment queue will find fulfilment doing other things. It is not enough to dream of gold or to seek miracles. Character is important (cf. Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian). America is not just excelling in the Olympics because it has capable men and women: America's foreign relations process is driven by the determination to be No 1 in the world, and that has been a national gospel since the turn of the 20th century. Do we have a national ideology that defines us?
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Posted by Robot| 17.08.2008 10:15