By Yemi Olus

Today, I will be deviating a bit from my usual analysis and focus on our para-athletes who made the country proud at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix held in Tunis from June 28th to 30th. The team comprised only four athletes, yet they were able to return home with 10 medals – six Gold and four Silver medals.

Athletes

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The four athletes that represented the country in Tunis are Flora Ugwunwa, Lauritta aOnye, Unyime Uwak and Ifeanyi Madubuike.

Ugwunwa won Gold in the women’s F54 Javelin and took a Silver medal in the Discus event. Onye won three medals. First, a Gold medal in the women’s F40 Javelin, which isn’t even her main event. What makes her feat pretty impressive is the fact that this was her first time ever of competing in the Javelin, yet she was able to dominate the event. She won Silver in the Shot put (her main event), and then another Silver in the Discus throw.

Uwak won two medals – Gold in the women’s F46 200m, and then Silver in the 100m. Madubuike was Nigeria’s standout performer at the competition, winning three Gold medals in the men’s T46/47 100m, 200m and 400m. His performance was truly special for an athlete who was representing Nigeria for the first time in his career.

Nigeria could only go with a lean team due to lack of funds, as the Nigeria Para-Athletics Federation virtually funded the trip to Tunis without any contribution from the Ministry of Sports. Some might attribute this to the absence of a Minister, since President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to name his cabinet. However, the situation wasn’t very different even when there was a Minister on seat.

Ugwunwa is the current World Record (WR) holder in the women’s F54 Javelin, a feat she accomplished at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games when she threw a distance of 20.25m to strike Gold. That mark is yet to be erased. However, it is heartbreaking to say that the Tunis meet was Ugwunwa’s first outing since winning Gold in Rio three years ago. She hadn’t been to any other competition until last week.

In the same vein, Lauritta Onye set a WR in Rio in her category, and her vivacious celebration went viral after winning Gold in the Shot put. Unlike Ugwunwa though, Onye’s WR was erased the following year (2017) at the IPC World Championships, where she was missing, as Nigeria didn’t send a team to the competition. Last week’s Tunis meet was also Onye’s first international outing in three years. How does a country even allow such a thing happen?

Why should our WR holders beg to be exposed to international competitions? Shouldn’t the Ministry of Sports consider it a priority to take these athletes to as many competitions as possible?

I know that the major focus for the Ministry is the African Games coming up in Morocco in August, but they should please remember that there are other events after the African Games, in this case, the World Athletics Championships for both the able-bodied and physically challenged athletes.

I do not think that Nigeria has been fair to its special athletes. Despite the challenges – physical and otherwise that they are faced with, they still rise to the occasion each time the country needs their services. They go out there and conquer even though the country only remembers them after every four years. They receive all the accolades after hauling medals at the Paralympics, and government officials fall over themselves to make promises, only for everyone to go silent once the euphoria settles.

After the Rio 2016 Paralympics, the immediate past Senate President, Bukola Saraki, said at the time, “We are happy they are back. They did very well; we need to encourage them and engage them; that should be our focus for now. We shall engage them and see what we can do and definitely, there must be something for them. They have done well and they deserve that; we are proud of them”.

Similarly, members of the then House of Representatives had also pledged to reward the whole contingent with N18million for their efforts in Rio after a former board member of the then Nigeria Football Association (NFA), and immediate past Deputy Chairman House Committee on Sports, Ayo Omidiran, proposed a N50,000 donation from each of the 360 members of the house, which was agreed on. Also, the lawmakers had agreed to host members of the team at a special plenary session. To the best of my knowledge, none of these pledges have been fulfilled three years down the line.

Another Para-Athletics Grand Prix is billed to hold in Paris in August. I’m hoping that the country would be able to fund more athletes’ participation in that meet to secure as many spots as possible for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. There’s also the World Championships taking place in Dubai in November. I am appealing to the Ministry to ensure that Nigeria is well represented at that tournament. We can do better for our para-athletes!