By Patrick Omorodion

The London Olympics is two days old and the scramble for medals has started in earnest for Team Nigeria in Basketball, Weightlifting, Table Tennis and Boxing out of the  eight sports which the National Sports Commission (NSC)/Ministry of Sports registered the over 160 athletes carrying the country’s flag.

On July 4 the NSC did the official hand-over ceremony of Team Nigeria to the Nigeria Olympic Committee, NOC whose responsibility it is to take the Nigerian contingent to the Games as, traditionally, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) which owns the Games, deals only with countries through their respective Olympic Committees.

Because of this responsibility which the IOC recognises, each country’s Olympic body usually gets grants from the IOC to support the preparation of their athletes, as the IOC expects them to be independent of government of their countries.

In Nigeria the NOC over the years relies on the government totally for the welfare, preparation and participation of athletes for major events like the Olympic Games and the All Africa Games.

Because of the NOC’s parasitic nature, past government officials always almost wanted to dictate who occupies the office of the NOC president and secretary general, which most times results into rancour and flexing of muscles between the sports ministry and the NOC.

Things have however changed with the elevation of Chief Patrick Ekeji as the Director-General of the NSC. The NSC and the NOC have thus been working harmoniously for the interest of the athletes.

One area which remains not properly settled however, is the issue of proper reward for our deserving athletes at major competitions. The NOC which is supposed to be in the fore front on this issue, takes the back seat after every competition, leaving the government to decide what it should do most times.

No wonder former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo introduced his unpopular presidential handshake which kind of demoralised athletes instead of serving to boost their morale as well as encourage upcoming ones. The outcry from the athletes and Nigerians in general however, caused the Obasanjo regime to reverse the decision.

The present NOC led by Engineer Sani M. Ndanusa may have taken a big step towards correcting the anomaly of improper reward for athletes as it brokered a partnership with Promasidor, makers of the Cowbell milk, which has promised a financial reward for athletes who win medals at the on-going London Olympics.

It promised to give N1.5 million to any athlete who wins a gold medal while silver and bronze medalists are to get N1,000,000 and N500,000 respectively. This is a remarkable feat but the NOC should go one more step, that is by ensuring that it is institutionalised so that any other Board or government that comes must know what is due to the athletes.

As a result, it should ensure that money meant for this exercise is raised from various avenues and not just one organisation which may decide to withdraw anytime it deems fit. The NOC should have a pool of sponsors from which it can raise funds to augment the grants it gets from the government through the NSC as well as the IOC.

This way athletes representing the country would know ab initio the reward they will get when they win laurels for the country and it will serve as a morale booster for them to always want to excel.

The United States’ Olympic Committee (USOC) does same for her athletes with US$25,000, US$15,000 and US$10,000 as rewards to gold, silver and bronze medal winners respectively. It is in black and white and athletes don’t start guessing or waiting endlessly for their government to decide what they will get or when they will get it.

Apart from what the USOC doles out to winners, individual federations also arrange for rewards for their athletes. An example is the wrestling federation, which through external backers, has earmarked US $250,000 for her gold medalists. Silver medalists are also expected get US$50,000, same for bronze medal winners.

Malaysia has never won an Olympic gold medal and an individual, a gold mine owner in Kuala  Lumpur is reported to have taken it upon himself to motivate the country’s athletes at the London Olympics with a promise of a solid gold bar valued at US$600,000 to any athlete who wins gold for the country. What other motivation could be greater than that.

The Ndanusa-led NOC should emulate this gesture by wooing corporate organisations and wealthy individuals to support it in motivating Nigerian athletes to excel because they have the potential to be world beaters if there is a level playing ground.

The recent award of the gold medal to Nigeria’s Sunday Bada-led 4×400 relay quartet at the Sydney 2000 Olympics by the IOC shows that Nigeria has a reservoir of talents but factors such as cheating by other countries and our own administrative ineptitude have contributed in robbing them of glory in the past.