I seriously was praying and hoping that Nigeria would
come back home with NO medal and that was my sole reason for trying my best to
follow up with happenings at the Olympics....So you can tell how glad I was to
finally heave a sigh of fulfilment when it became obvious that our athletes and
two hundred officials were going to come back home not even with a brass or
aluminium medal. For those who will think I have either gone nuts or that I am
an enemy of progress, I might just shock you further: I am a firm believer of the
law of karma which is the same law the Bible clearly states about man reaping
whatever he has sown. This law to me indicates fairness as it is absolute
stupidity trying to reap where you have not sown.
How on earth were we expecting to match countries who
had been preparing their representatives for as far back as ten years ago? Some
started training theirs as little as when they were only aged 4. How then can
we who started preparing for an event of such magnitude few weeks ago think of
ever winning anything? Were we expecting some form of miracle again? Have the
people at the helms of affair forgotten that Prior preparation prevents poor
performance and that if you fail to plan, then you automatically plan to fail?
The only people I pity in all of these are the athletes
who clearly gave in a best which wasn’t good enough. And I will ask how your
best can ever be good enough when your fellow competitors have been exposed to
the best training facilities, have healthy competitions from time to time, can
access the required diet to keep them fit for the sports they partake in whilst
you as a Nigerian athlete is left to wallow in an inconducive environment, eat
whatever is available regardless of what sports and are not exposed to adequate
competition? How can you be expected to succeed in such an unfair situation?
Now, I can NEVER blame those who decide to take up
Nationalities of other countries. When they weigh the pros and cons, they can
tell that there is no future for them as a Nigerian athlete and as such are
left with no option. If they were my brother or sister, will I advice them to
remain in such a hopeless situation when they are being offered a life line by
a country who not only believes in their abilities but appreciates them and will
give them the right environment to succeed? Little wonder, well over twenty
five Nigerians were at the Olympics representing other countries.
I must say here that for every Nigerian who got to the
finals of their category, sheer determination took them there. The government
has no hand in them getting that far in the competition as funds were released
to them only two weeks to the competition and they who went on jamboree whilst
collecting estacodes expected these helpless Nigerians to perform some kind of
magic when they haven’t provided the right environment for them to succeed.
Now, two hundred officials, fifty six athletes,
2.2billion naira all came to zero medals. Heard China who had the best outing
in the history of their Olympics attendance went with only twelve officials and
the Jamaican ambassador to the United Kingdom granted his interviews from his
office whilst our own Minister of Sports abandoned his primary duties here in
Nigeria and was personally marshalling athletes who practically trained
themselves with their personal funds just to be able to represent the country.
I mean if there were medals for countries who loved doing things down side up,
then Nigeria truly deserved a gold medal.
The best time to start preparing for 2016 is now and I
can bet there isn’t a work plan towards achieving better than London 2012 on
ground yet. How then do we expect to shine better than countries that have
immediately gone back to the drawing table as we speak? The ball is indeed in
our court.
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