By Patrick Omorodion
It  is no longer news that Nigeria failed to make any serious impact at the 2016 Rio Olympics which ended over a month ago. Nigerians have been x-raying the performance of Team Nigeria and proffering the way forward. Most have however, told the authorities not to waste scarce resources and precious time trying to find out why the country failed again, after the woeful outing four years earlier in London.

Former sports minister Bolaji Abdullahi added his voice in the quest to finding solutions to the decline in sports, a sector that once gave Nigerians course to smile despite the excruciating pains they suffer as a result of declining economic fortunes which has since seen the once pride of Africa now being classified as a lower middle class country.

He picked on two federations, Athletics Federation of Nigeria and the Weightlifting Federation of Nigeria in reviewing the country’s performance at the Rio Games and called for their replacement because, according to him, “The people in charge of those federations (Solomon Ogba for athletics and Chibudom Nwuche for weightlifting) have over stayed. There is nothing they have to offer to Nigerians. For the country to make progress in athletics and weightlifting, the current leadership need to make way”.

His call took many, including me, by surprise because he and Ogba were very good friends. Abdullahi even mentioned Ogba as one of the best federation presidents working for the progress of our sports. Was that not why he ensured the Delta-born administrator returned as AFN president for a second term. They were both strong members of the ruling party, the PDP then. While the revolt was on to truncate Ogba’s re-election, with the minister’s loyalists spear-heading the revolt, Abdullahi ordered for a manhunt for his loyalists who went underground to work against Ogba who was sweating profusely from the heat of the election that was stalemated for a record three times after voting.

Abudjllahi finally got hold of the ‘renegade’ loyalists who were ordered to make sure Ogba returned as AFN president. After the victory, there was backslapping to celebrate the ‘victory’ in the minister’s camp. Then nothing was heard about the slide in athletics,(why athletics alone because the slide is general even in football, the most pampered sport), and nothing was also heard about the High Performance Centre, be it the one in Port Harcourt which the Abdullahi camp now claim is favoured by Ogba because of the grant given for it by the IAAF or the one in Abuja(which is so ordinary anyway) which had direct supervision by Abdullahi himself. A case of rub my back and I rub yours too.

It is funny that after forcing Ogba’s return against the wishes of majority of the AFN Board members whose grouse against Ogba was that he was running a one-man show, Abdullahi could turn around to criticise Ogba. When Ogba fired back , calling for the probe of the N3bn spent on the so-called HPC, because as an insider he knows the whole truth about the fund released by then president Jonathan, Abdullahi’s ‘main-man’ and his Special Assistant on Media, Julius Ogunro, came to his master’s defence and told Ogba to shut up and resign instead because he recommended for the employment of the American coaches he now condemns.

I see this as rather ridiculous. Who should hide his head in shame, the man now being accused of  being a failure and asked to resign or the man who forced him on those who never wanted him back? I know Ogba won’t keep quiet over the latest attack from Abdullahi’s camp, he will further spill the beans. He is said to be on vacation in the United States.

However, not in defence of Ogba per se, Toni Urhobo, himself a former president of the AFN came out strong against Abdullahi, stressing that the former minister’s assessment of the sport was wrong, arguing rather that “it was the policies (of government) and politicians (like Abdullahi) that brought Nigerian sports down to its knees.”

“His assessment was not a true reflection of the situation. This is not an issue of personality, but about results which dates back to 16 years,” Urhobo claimed. More reactions from both camps will still come out, I know.

My concern however, is why Abdullahi who was at the helm when a sports retreat was put together by his boss and then president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, to redress the decline of sports in the country after the 2016 London Olympics fiasco had to pick out only two sports, athletics and weightlifting.

After the presidential retreat and the approval of a huge sum by the government, what did Abdullahi do except embark on the construction of a so-called High Performance Hostel in Abuja. If his camp are now condemning the High Performance Centre in Port Harcourt, which according to them was given priority by Ogba because of the funds for  released for it by athletics world body, the IAAF, it shows the latest attack on Ogba was because he refused to allow the former minister a piece of the cake.

It didn’t matter to Abdullahi and maybe Ogba that the solution was not really in the establishment of such High Performance Centres when when didn’t have A class athletes any more. It didn’t also matter to them that you can’t a build a school  without students and also criminal to higher teachers to operate in empty classrooms.

Both Abdullahi and Ogba should have known that we needed to plan for our future by returning sports to the schools from where our past heroes and heroines like the Onyalis, Egbunikes, Olapades. Ogunkoyas and others came out from. That was what the Jamaicans did and are still doing that they have run us, the Americans and other countries renowned for the sport, out of the athletics ‘market’ so to say.

Again it is not enough to declare a state of emergency by just word of mouth as was recently done by sports minister, Solomon Dalung to get the country back on the right direction towards reclaiming her position in all sports where we were once leaders or challenged for the top spots against the super powers.

It must take a serious attention by President Muhammadu Buhari who will have no alternative but probe the sector to find out the truth about why our sports have continued to nose-dive. That is truly when we could be said to be serious about making sports a big business than the recreation status and the much abused political slogan ‘only unifying factor’ it is condemned to at the moment.