NIGERIA’S TRUE OLYMPIC SPIRIT
It is now so much a familiar pattern. The great games, the 30th Olympiad has ended in London, United Kingdom and Nigeria, a country of One Hundred and Fifty Million people won no medal of whatever hue or shade.
The story of Nigeria’s participation at the London Olympics yet again beamed the search light on a nation that is determined to be poor, a country that is determined to fail, a country that is determined to self destruct, snatch defeat, destruction and death from the jaws of plenty, victory, success and life.
Nigeria won more Gold medals than the United Kingdom at the Atlanta games of 1996, our proudest moment yet at the Olympic Games. At the London games, Great Britain won 29 Gold medals and 65 medals in all. The United States of America maintained her power and dominance by winning the games with an overall medals haul of 104. The People’s Republic of China snapped at their heels until the very end. They eventually finished second with 87 medals in all. Russia did well as usual and many small nations managed to register their names on the medals table – Trinidad and Tobago, Latvia, Guatemala, Moldova, Bahrain, Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Grenada, Mongolia, and Taipei to mention a few, all won medals in London. The Caribbean nation of Jamaica and Cuba won 12 and 14 medals respectively. Jamaica and Cuba are the sensible examples Nigeria ought to copy at the games. The Jamaican’s especially, since identified their strength and now they win the important and show case sprint events in athletics.
To get nearer home, South Africa with whom we like to pretend we are African power houses won 3 Gold medals, 2 Silver medals and 1 Bronze medal; Ethiopia and Kenya, two East African neighbours who also have a sensible approach to the games by prioritising and leveraging on their strength in the long distance races won 3 Gold, 1 Silver, 3 Bronze medals and 2 Gold, 4 Silver and 5 Bronze medals respectively. Tunisia won 3 medals across the medals category; Algeria won 1 Gold medal; Egypt took home 2 Silver medals; Botswana won 1 Silver medal; Morocco won 1 Bronze medal. Even Uganda and Gabon, two unlikely countries, won medals – Gold and Silver respectively.
Nigeria, the most populous black nation on earth was left in the unenviable company of Burundi, Rwanda, Cameroun, Benin, Burkinafaso and the lot. Many out of sorts nations. Really how did One Hundred and Fifty Million people come to this sorry pass? A single American athlete Micheal Phelps, became the greatest Olympian ever by winning his 22nd medal – 18 of them Gold – at the just concluded London games. He won 8 of the 18 Gold medals in one Olympics at Beijing in 2008. Usain Bolt, the fastest man alive wrote himself into Games folklore by becoming the first man ever to successfully defend and retain the 100m and 200m showpiece dash. There is already another Jamaican, Yohan Blake who is poised to step into his shoes. Blake took Silver at both events after Bolt took Gold. To crown the duo’s monumental achievement, the two athletes ran the race of their lives as they were part of the quartet that won the men’s 4 x 100m relay in a new World record time of 36.84 seconds. Allyson Felix of the U.S won Gold in the 200m race. She also took Gold in the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m relay, the first American female athlete to win three Gold medals at an Olympic game since the flamboyant Florence Griffith Joyner at the Seoul ’88 Games.
In the same vein, Mo Farrah (who fled Somalia when he was eight years old) of Great Britain won the 10,000m and 5,000m race in another epoch making chapter at the games. South Africa came one medal short of their best ever Olympics post isolation and whilst at it Chad le Clos beat the great Michael Phelps in the 200m butterfly to take Gold for the rainbow nation and South Africa also produced her first home grown world record holder. Kenyan David Rudisha, set a new world record in the 800m, breaking his own world record and becoming the first man to do the 800m under 1:41.00 seconds. In the men’s marathon, held at a time when the tiniest hopes of any shade of medal for our country was going up in smoke, I wept when the nation of Uganda won Gold, the country’s second Olympic Gold ever and the athlete, Stephen Kiprotich enthused emotionally, “even if I die now, I die a Champion”.
As has become customary, the United States won the Gold medal in the men’s basketball event with a storied, moneyed star studded team that included James Lebron, Kobe Bryant, James Harden, Kevin Durant and one Carmelo Anthony who stood out, shooting three pointers with supreme ease, when they completely annihilated the Nigerian team, breaking and making all sorts of records both world and Olympic with contemptuous ease against Nigeria on their way to the final. No one expected Nigeria to beat the US dream team but the manner of that loss leaves rotten, bitter, sour grapes in the mouth. The Tunisians we defeated in the first match held their own against the US team. The US team was only able to edge the final against Spain by 107 to 100 points. Nigeria in contrast lost 73 to 156 points to the US team. The biggest and most embarrassing margin at the Olympics ever!! May be in the history of international basketball even?
So much at stake and so much records broken and set and history made and remade and what did my Country do in all of this? Nigeria won no medal, broke no record, set no record, made no history, in fact made no mark at all. When the history of the London games is written, Nigeria will merely be an adjunct, a footnote in the annals of London 2012 history. But we do understand that Nigeria registered 55 athletes in 8 sports and the Federal Government released over 2 billion naira to prosecute the games. Knowing my Country, the significant issues are the ones left unspoken. For example, how many officials and hangers on accompanied the athletes to the games, how were the funds utilised, what and how much was spent on what? So far no one is telling. In sharp contrast, North Korea sent a similar contingent – 56 athletes – and they won 6 Gold medals.
Great Britain hosted the splendid games and put up a great show for the world to savour whilst the games lasted at a conservative cost of 15 billion pounds. London played host to some 10, 000 athletes and many others from across the globe and there were enough and adequate facilities for all. In this warped age of global terrorism, security concerns were adequately addressed; transportation, another possible problem area was handled in an exemplary manner and London delivered the games hitch free and passed on the Olympic touch to Rio de Janeiro with minimum fuss. There were no reports of security breaches, no one was molested, injured or harassed and above all, no loss of life was reported.
Can you fathom what would have happened if the games were held here? Your guess is as good as mine!! Whilst the games lasted, an acquaintance of mine sought to know if I think any Nigerian city can host a successful Olympic Games. My answer was studied silence. The kind reserved for a fool and his foolish question. I hope he does not remember asking me the question when he reads this piece!!
Just what have we ever learnt from these monumental misadventures and colossal failures? Really what does it cost to win an Olympic medal? Nigeria should be winning them anyway. To start with, the events we usually enter and qualify for are straight forward and simple enough. I do not believe that you require the same effort and expense to deliver a medal in the sprints for example, as you do, say in synchronized swimming, sailing and equestrian. Nigeria has had the good experiences of the ’96 Games to build on and now instead of moving on, we have regressed so badly it’s an indictment on all One Hundred and Fifty million of us. Do we even as much as realize that excellence in sports is a massive diplomatic relations tool? That Nigeria can be remade in part through the instrumentality of sports? Why are we so blind to see that success at global events helps redeem our sullied image?
Riches and population should mean more medals at any games. Nigeria has both commodities in abundance. Riches should ensure that you have enough money to invest in sports and population should ensure that you had a more reasonable chance of producing more and better athletes in selected and varied areas of priority. The statistics validates this, the United States has won 15% of all medals awarded at the Olympics, the Europeans 60% and the Chinese has since emerged a counter power to the United States at the Games. Former British Olympian, Adrian Morehouse said of China when the US team questioned the Chinese, Ye Shiwen’s feat in the 400m individual medley where she did not only win the Gold medal but also set a new world record and the 200m medley where she also won Gold medal thus: “there are a lot of people in China and actually the base of their pyramid is so wide that if they trained thousands and thousands of their kids they have got more to draw from”. It is a huge contradiction therefore that this has not clearly been the case for Nigeria. How on earth has a nation of One Hundred and Fifty million people won less than 20 medals in the history of the Olympic Games?
Is our case beyond redemption? One is tempted to think so but I believe with the faintest hope that if we put our money where our mouths are, if we start doing the right thing this very moment, we may well reach the Promised Land one day. But even at that, our mouths had to be in the right places for this to happen.
I am always amazed at how we treat every problem as if it is rocket science and you need all the experts in the world to solve it. I do not even think rocket science is that formidable anymore giving that several nations have now acquired space technology!! There are worthy examples to follow, if you ask me. Many nations have been where we are now. At the beginning of this piece, I did mention that Nigeria won more Gold medals than Great Britain at the 1996 games. In London, Great Britain won 29 Gold medals, 17 Silver medals and 19 Bronze medals and took 3rd position. Never before have they done so well at the Olympics. From a lowly 1 Gold medal 16 years ago to an impressive haul of 29 Gold medals at the London games and our dear country, Nigeria with 2 Gold medals that fateful year of our Lord in 1996 won nothing in London.
What did Great Britain do that we can learn from? Immediately after the Atlanta games, Great Britain injected National Lottery Funds directly into elite Olympic sports. In the years leading to Beijing, 2008, Great Britain invested 250 Million Pounds in training programs and the gains were immediate as they won 19 Gold medals in Beijing. Does anyone have the figures we have spent on sports at any time in our history? Where and how do we invest? Have we identified our elite sport – our area of strength? Nigeria has to learn that investment has to be strategic. The money we release most times goes to what does not matter. When you release funds a few months to the games, it simply means you are doing so not to win medals at the games but for the jamboree and mundane aspects of the games. At that stage, the money will go into itinerary, allowances, feeding and sundry secondary issues instead of the primary expenses of training and preparation four long years to the games.
Nations who understand the value of time and the power of preparedness are already at it even when the ovations of the London games are yet to die down. Great Britain, after a hugely successful games has already mapped out strategy on how to do even better at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, Prime Minister David Cameron has promised UK elite sports 127 million pounds per year till 2016; the United States is to open its Olympic camp for the 2016 games in September, 2012. Brazil has already announced it plans to spend $ 700, 000 (Seven Hundred Million Dollars) on high performance athletes over four years as they target a top 10 finish at the Rio games. This whopping amount of money will almost triple the sums spent in the run up to the London games by Brazil.
It is pertinent we highlight the importance of investment in sports and starting early repeatedly. No one knows what Nigeria’s plans are for the Rio games. What does Nigeria plan to achieve at the next games? What events are we focusing on? How much do we plan or are willing to invest? What sort of athletes are we looking at? Are we planning beyond the next games? May be it is rather too late to start preparing for a Gold rush in four years time? What reasonable time frame do we think our plans may bear fruit? Because come to think of it, excellence in sports is a long and life time investment of talent, time, sweat, a punishing training routine and cold hard cash.
In saner climes, an Olympian starts the game at about age five in elementary School, he continues through High School and in his teenage years, he is already winning youth Championships. Then he is ready for the Olympic Games. If he misses out on the medals podium in his first Olympics, the second soon comes around and he can hope to carry on from there. A prime example is the youngest British medalist at the London games. Amazingly, the London games were Tom Daley’s second Olympic Games. He is only 18 years old, won Bronze at the London games and he just only took his ‘A’ levels after the games. Chinese double Gold medalist, Ye Shiwen is only 16 years old. Great Britain’s Lizzie Armistead who won Silver in Cycling started the game at age 4. Now what is the average age of the Nigerian team at the Olympics? Was there a wise mix of young and old medal hopefuls? You can hazard a guess. German Golfer, Caroline Messon is 23 years old and she just competed at the South African Women’s Open. Her father introduced her to the game at age five. Interestingly, the story of Caroline is the story of many American and European sports great. What are Nigerian parents and guardians doing in this regard?
It has become imperative now that we must go back to the basics. Whatever happened to School sports and youth Championships? When I was in Primary and Secondary Schools not too many years ago, the Inter-House Sports and Collegiate games were a major fixture in the Schools Calendar and everyone looked forward to it at the beginning of every session. There were Sports masters and physical education teachers even in my Primary School. I doubt if Secondary Schools have them now much less Primary Schools. There were Schools in my Local Government Area that were known to excel in particular Sports and I remember that the old Bendel and Oyo States at least had games villages where sportspersons were trained and prepared for games, especially the National Sports Festivals and the gains were self evident then as the old Bendel State continuously did well at the games.
I do not know if these games villages still exist, but if they do, you can be sure, like everything else that they will no longer have the ambience, facilities and instructors to produce any sportspersons of note today. School sports and youth championships must be revived, every Local Government Area should designate at least three Secondary Schools as sporting excellence schools and such sports for which the people of the area are best suited must be given priority and learnt in the Schools with the understanding that promising sportsmen and women will be awarded Scholarships for further studies in similar institutions across the globe and with training grants factored into the bargain. The Federal Government must encourage all the State’s and collaborate with them to set up proper games villages.
There must be adequate investment in monetary terms and exposure. Our athletes ought to be funded to attend international meets in the course of their careers. That way, they can be exposed to the best facilities around, develop alongside and rub shoulders with the superstars. In the wake of the humiliation the Nigerian team suffered in the hands of the US men’s basketball team somebody expressed the opinion that our men’s basketball team players were star struck and may have been overawed by the star powers of the US basketball team that consisted of the best, biggest and richest names in the sport. This may not be farfetched considering the hiding the team got at the hands of James Lebron and his gang of ball slingers.
Still on funds, it is important that our Governments (Federal, State and Local) makes adequate provisions in their annual budgets for Sports, release the funds early and make sure it gets to the athletes, eradicate corruption from sports administration, upgrade facilities, update coaches’ knowledge and encourage commitment and discipline on the part of the athletes and their coaches. All these will mean a lot of money, so a possible way to go about it is to identify our elite sports, streamline and determine where our strength lie and invest massively in those sports for the purpose of international sports events and any sports that is successful by winning medals gets more funding and so on. Another way to invest massively and yet reduce cost is to send only medal hopefuls to the games. We know what modern standards are. We know athletes who will not win medals even before the games start. What is the point in sending anyone who cannot do the 100m in 10 seconds to compete with Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and their ilk at the Olympic Games?
It is high time we institutionalized sports in Nigeria. Professionalize sports so sportsmen and women can earn income and thus a living for life in sports. That way, you can retain the best core of your sportsmen in the game and you are able to attract serious minded athletes, instructors, coaches and administrators to sports because there is a life and living to be made. As things stand now, only journeymen, crass opportunists and money grabbers with less than basic knowledge of the game even will be attracted into sports administration and management in Nigeria.
Nigeria must appeal to the better angels in the nature of wealthy Nigerians and the elites. They should be encouraged to introduce their wards and Children to sports early. They can afford to send their Children to elite Sports Schools in Europe and America. For once, Nigeria’s wealthy should be altruistic with their money. The newly minted Oil sheiks should stay their hands, they should not acquire that new private jet just yet; they should expend the money on making great sportsmen of their Children. Nigeria’s rich should understand that the way of Senator Uche Chukwumerije, who funds his sons training and gives the young man sundry support is the way to go if this reproach will be taken away from us soon. One can only imagine how proud the Senator must have felt when his son, Chika Chukwumerije ascended the podium to receive the Bronze medal he won in taekwondo at Beijing 2008, unfortunately the young man could not replicate the feat at the London Games. The Nigerian Government cannot go it alone. Let wealthy and rich Nigerians lend a helping hand. Let it be said for once that Nigeria’s rich and her elite saved her Sports at its lowest ebb.
Nigeria must encourage private sector sponsorship; attractive packages can be put in place for Corporations which will sponsor sports. Tax reliefs and other statutory waivers can be explored and I dare say that it is in the enlightened self interest of the Companies themselves to engage their host communities by way of sports sponsorship. Companies should now know that it is time to do away with the dubious and bogus claims of Corporate Social Responsibility. It is time to begin anew the process of Social Responsibility which edifies, one that is not mere lip service, a palliative disguised as cure.
All said and done, whatever we do, if corruption is not tackled, most things in our country will fail and Sports may not be an exception as we have seen with the usual name calling and finger pointing after successive failures at major games. It does appear now that only a voluntary change of heart will help Nigeria in this wise, a moral regeneration of the mind and soul if you will, akin to what the bible calls pulling down strongholds, for no one can deny that the stranglehold of corruption on Nigerian’s is now such a vice like grip that everything thrown at it has made no difference. Nigeria has made a public spectacle of fighting corruption since 1999, curiously though no one is impressed, treasury looters are on the rampage, they have continued to have a field day and nothing suggests that this state of anomie will abate anytime soon. In one sentence, Nigerian’s and their leaders are still not convinced that corruption does not pay!!
Corruption has become so pervasive in Nigerian life that the apex court, the Supreme Court of Nigeria, had this to say about it in the year 2002; “corruption is not a disease which afflicts public officers alone but society as a whole. If it is therefore to be eradicated effectively, the solution to it must be pervasive to cover every segment of the society” … “corrupt practices and abuse of power can, if not checked, threaten the peace, order and good government of the federation or any part thereof”.
If the prognosis of the usually reticent and conservative apex court on the debilitating effect of corruption on national life was this bad ten years ago, one cannot now fathom how bad it has become in the intervening years in light of the many scams that have been unveiled since then – the Siemens bribery scandal, the looting of many banks, the Governor’s heist, the police pension probe and the Oil subsidy scam takes the cake.
But then really, what is it that they say is the Olympic spirit? Something like, “The joy is not in winning, but in participating”. That is rather solicitous and placating and no serious and competitive nation believes in that but dishearteningly Nigeria and her athletes literally took the Olympic spirit to heart, went to the London Olympic Games of 2012, participated fully, won nothing and returned home to carry on as if nothing is amiss and to revel in her famed state of insouciance. That may well be the idyllic and true Olympic spirit but it amounts to living in a fool’s paradise in real terms.
Stephen O. Obajaja Esq. is a Partner at the Lagos Law Firm of Fountain Court Partners.
STEPHEN O. OBAJAJA
Fountain Court Partners
Block 36B, LSPDC Estate
Ogudu Road
Ojota – Lagos.
08052066172.
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