Nigeria Olympics Performance 2024
I was so disappointed by how Nigeria performed at the 2024 Paris Olympics. We have more than 200 million people, we should have shown the world what the "Giant of Africa" could do, but we came back without a single medal. How wouldn't dismay be the reaction after all this, when a country like Jamaica, with less than one-tenth our population and budget, took home six medals, one of which was a gold.
We spent ₦12 billion on this Olympics. That's nearly double of what we put in the Ministry of Science and Technology for one year. Yet we have nothing to show for it. How can we spend so much money and not win even one medal? It feels like we're a joke on the international stage.
It's not just about the money, though. The other is the mismanagement of our athletes. We had seen poor cases like Favour Ofili, my dear sister, who had prepared herself for that 100 meters race only for them to drop her in the list at the 11th hour. We saw Annette Echikunwoke change allegiance to represent the United States because of how badly she was being managed by our very own officials. I recall with sadness someone like Ese Ukpeseraye, who had to borrow a bicycle from Germans to compete. This kind of mismanagement is unacceptable.
This calls for investigation into the problem with our Olympic group. This should not repeat itself again in the forthcoming Olympics. Our athletes deserve better and so do we as a country. We need to stop favoritism and incompetence, which are some of the things that are holding us back.
It's time to make a difference. We need to zero in on hiring the right human resources who know their job and can aid our athletes to come out on top. Let's provide the support that our athletes need in order to shine on that world stage.
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