By Tony Eluemunor

When a country is failing, falling and is tethering on the edge of the precipice, everything crashes. The result of this all-embracing spoliation and ruination is seen all around, yes, in every facet of the life of that country.

This all-encompassing rot in everything Nigeriana is actively on display right now in Tokyo, Japan, at the Olympics, and for the whole world to see. Yet, instead of owning up to the failure so that the country could begin to repair the damage, we are already being told to applaud the disaster. Soon, journalists would begin to write nonsense, justifying why Nigeria performed woefully.

Nigeria’s D’Tigers’ Chimezie Metu of the Sacramento Kings told the Boston Globe newspaper: “It’s extremely difficult to go out there and try to focus on the basketball game when you’re dealing with so much stuff off the court. For a lot of athletes that are here that represent Nigeria, our country, we’re ready to risk it all and put it on the line, but our government and the Olympic Committee of Nigeria, they make it extremely difficult to go out there and just focus on performing in our sport.

“I’m not just talking about basketball. I’m talking about track athletes. I’m pretty sure everybody has heard about the 10 track athletes that were disqualified and it had nothing to do with what they did. It was a lack of attention to detail and lack of empathy for the hard work that’s put in by us athletes by the Nigerian Olympic Committee as well as the government.”

“For 60-something athletes to fly halfway across the world and get disrespected and humiliated by our country, that’s something that I’m pretty sure none of us will stand for. I commend coach Mike Brown; he’s put a lot on the line for us.”

Even as the mess was already on world-wide exhibition, Sports Minister Dare had begun to make excuses for Nigeria’s poor performance. On Monday August 2, there he was on page 47 of the Vanguard, explaining, “Why Nigeria is yet to win medals”—the story’s title. He explained that Nigeria came with a young team with many athletes making their Olympic debut. He said that most medal winners do so often at their second or third attempts.  He expressed his optimism that the athletes would only improve with time and become world leaders later. 

May I remind Mr. Dare of what he said on  July 20,in the Guardian newspaper: Team Nigeria in Tokyo Olympics to win medals, not for jamboree—Sports Minister.  According to the story:“Sunday Dare, Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports Development, says members of the country’s Olympic team are not in the Tokyo Games to make up the numbers.

ALSO READ: TOKYO 2020: The end has come

Speaking at a brief ceremony organised by Ethiopian Airlines to send forth the minister at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, in Abuja, on Tuesday, Dare said: “We are grateful to the Federal Government, corporate Nigeria and all those who supported team Nigeria by adopting our athletes. I want Nigerians to wish team Nigeria the very best as we compete with the very best in the world at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.”

“The fact that we have a team of 58 athletes that qualified to participate, some of whom are the very best in their events, shows that this country is going to Tokyo not just to show up but to compete clean and win medals.

Like the All Progressives Congress (APC) during whose leadership Nigeria has regressed like never before, to the extent that she is now on the bottom of the ladder of any worthwhile indices and at the top of every despicable and reprehensible table, Dare may have learnt never to accept blames for personal failures. Yet the paragraph above shows that Dare promised Nigerians that our athletes were going to Japan to grab medals, not experience. 

So, what went wrong? Take D’Tigress basketball team was supposed to use a 10-hour trip to Tokyo, but it became a 34-hour trip via Germany, which meant it took the team about 34 hours to get to Japan, arriving with barely 48 hours to their first game.

Then, the National Olympic Committee had only three out of 10-man staff accredited. After that late arrival, the coach had to go making hotel arrangements right through the night, costing them valuable practice time ahead of their opening game. Mike Brown the Men’s Basketball coach cried: “It’s above my head. These people have been working hard for over a month, helping the team. They were in Vegas and part of the historic wins over the USA and Argentina, But it was different here.

“During the games you see myself, and one of my assistants, Alex. But my other assistants and my masseuse, they are at the hotel and they haven’t been able to attend practice or attend games. It’s tough. First practice, the players couldn’t practice because I couldn’t get a cab from the hotel. Other teams have nine guys on the bench. and you wish it was like that for you and you just try to figure it out.”

Chimezie Metu, a Basketballer said: It is extremely difficult to go out there and try to focus on a basketball game when you are dealing with so much stuff off the court. For a lot of athletes here representing Nigeria, we love our country and we are ready to risk it all and put it on the line, but our government and the Nigeria Olympic Committee make it extremely difficult for us to go out there and focus on just performing our sport.”

Please, before anybody begins to make excuses for our Tokyo 2020 shameful failures, he has to tell Nigerians how many other countries had their athletes protesting in Tokyo. And, how many Nigerian athletes shunned the country to compete for others like Qatar—where they never lived? And why did they shun Nigeria? 

Vanguard News Nigeria