Nigeria’s late ace sports commentator, Ernest Okonkwo was the one who made a famous statement that has been etched on marble ever since. He made the statement during one of his commentating jobs for Radio Nigeria at the National stadium in Lagos when the Super Eagles had a match and fans just sat down, waiting for a goal to be scored so they could cheer them.

According to him, “when you cheer after a goal is scored you are reacting to an impulse but when you cheer before a goal is scored, you are motivating an action”. That is exactly the attitude of government officials saddled with the development of sports and its practitioners in the country. Cheering after a goal is scored. They are always waiting to reap where they didn’t sow. Waiting for the proverbial manna to fall from heaven for the athletes under their care.

Why do I say so? Nigeria just ended the 13th African Games in Ghana in their now traditional position, second behind perennial winners Egypt after garnering 47 gold medals ahead of rivals South Africa. As usual, the sports ministry, with the minister, John Owan Enoh are thumping their chests for the feat, taking the glory. But did they do much to prepare these athletes? The answer is no. The reason a former national athlete and coach of repute, Amelia Edet who turned 80 years old recently said the credit should go to the athletes instead.

Concerning the African Games, she said “whatever result we got there was because of the individual effort of those athletes (and) not because of any preparation that we had”. She stressed that “the athletes on their own did it because they want to make a name for themselves and most of them are in schools in the US and they want to keep their track scholarship so they will definitely want to do well.” One of such athletes she was referring to is Javelin thrower, Chinecherem Prosper Nnamdi, a student-athlete of the Baylor University in Texas, United States.

His gold medal at the African Games, to me, is golden because he became the first Nigerian in 29 years to win a Javelin gold and it came with a new national record of 82.80m. Interestingly he broke his own record of 81.22m set in 2022. His compatriot, Anthony Oyakhire won the first gold at the 1st African Games held in Congo Brazzaville in 1965 with a throw of 71.52m. When Nigeria hosted the second edition in Lagos in 1973, the country didn’t win any Javelin medal. The gold went to Jacques Aye Abeti of Cote d’Ivoire who threw 77.22m.

The second Nigerian gold medalist in the sport was Christian Okemefula who threw 77.14m to beat his compatriot, Pius Bazighe to second position at the 1991 Games in Egypt. Four years later in Zimbabwe, Bazighe upped his game to clinch the gold with a throw of 77.56m to become the third Nigerian to do so. For 29 years Nigeria searched for another gold and it took the personal effort of Nnamdi for it to come true. And he did it in style, beating the African record holder and defending champion, Julius Yego from Kenya who threw 81.74m to settle for silver.

Talking of personal effort, to corroborate Edet’s belief, Nnamdi has been preparing himself for the African Games gold with competitions in the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) championships in the US. In 2023, he placed fourth and improved on that with a bronze medal this year. Because he knows what he wants from the sport, he hired a personal coach instead of waiting for the Team Nigeria coach that he may not get to see until about a month to the African Games. We are told that he flew down with his coach from the US who kept close watch during his training sessions.

The result is what everyone, including the sport’s defending champion who thought that the gold was his for grabs saw. No wonder that Nnamdi shot himself into record books in Accra by becoming the first Nigerian Javelin thrower to go above the 82m mark. And he is not resting on his oars as he has set his eyes on qualifying for this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris, France. His career best throw which he got in his first attempt at the African Games is 82.8m, still 2.7m short of the Olympic qualifying standard of 85.5m.

With a couple of competitions before the Games, he could just get another ‘golden’ throw that will catapult him into Paris 2024. This is the same prayer the president of the Wrestling Federation, Dr. Daniel Igali is praying for his only female wrestler yet to qualify, Mercy Genesis. She missed the slot at the Africa/Oceania qualifying tournament in Alexandria, Egypt and Igali hopes that the European qualifying tournament holding in Istanbul, Turkey in May provides her another opportunity to be on the Olympic train.

Octogenarian Edet said that “It’s rather unfortunate where we have found ourselves because, it’s like a lot of people that are coming into the National Sports Federations don’t really have the interest and the wherewithal to manage the sports that they have come in for and we’re now beginning to fall back”. Lamenting further, Edet said, “As a nation, it’s like we don’t take sports seriously to be able to prepare adequately for outings, and with the Olympics coming, I begin to wonder what will happen”. The truth however, is that without proper infrastructure put in place for grassroot sports development, which is what serious countries like Jamaica do, Nigeria will keep relying on athletes like Nnamdi who develop themselves through US Collegiate system to remain potential winners for the country at international competitions. But for how long will that continue?