The minister of sports development, Senator John Owan-Enoh, has admitted that Nigeria’s performance at the just concluded Paris 2024 Olympics in France fell short of his expectation, saying he expected the athletes to win several medals..
He made the declaration while on a Channel programme, Politics Today, monitored in Abuja on Wednesday’s night.
Nigeria sent 88 athletes to compete in Paris, but the contingent faced numerous challenges, including administrative lapses and poor technical decisions, which contributed to their underwhelming results.
Enoh, who assumed office in August 2023, had strongly boasted that Team Nigeria will surpass its best Olympic record, achieved at the Atlanta 1996 Games.
He made the projection at the Ministerial Strategic Technical Meeting with the sports federation aimed at preparing Team Nigeria for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, held at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja.
And despite the huge ₦12bn approved by President Bola Tinubu for the country’s outing at the Olympics and the Paralympics, of which ₦9bn was earmarked for the former while ₦3bn was budgeted for the latter, Nigeria failed to win a single medal.
But the Sports Minister Enoh is now exonerating himself of any blame for Nigeria’s woeful outing, saying he was directly involved in the execution of team Nigeria’s participation at the Games.
He said the leaderships of the various 12 Olympic sports federations Nigeria had qualified for at the Paris Games which has the responsibility of picking and selecting athletes had assured him that Nigeria will win medals at the Paris Games based on their projections in different sports.
“I didn’t expect that Nigeria would not win a medal in the Olympics,” Enoh Said. “I have sessions with the presidents of the sports federations because as the minister of sports development, I don’t direct the training of athletes or monitor them. These are the responsibilities of different sports federations.
“Unlike other ministers of ministries that have agencies, they can decide in terms of what they want to achieve in that sector or not. The minister of sports doesn’t have such luxury because you are appointed and you have leaderships for different sports federations elected in their congress. They have immediate and direct responsibility of running the affairs in such a sport.
“The minister of sports in Nigeria has limited capacity to direct the affairs of sports and for example. I had technical sessions with the different Olympic sports that we qualified for, 12 of them and got briefings from them, which is the only way I can get involved by asking questions. Briefly after the briefing, I asked the president of the Athletics Federation Nigeria (AFN) what our medal projections are and the basis for the projections.
“In the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, we won two medals – bronze in long jump (Ese Brume) and silver in wrestling (Blessing Oborodudu) and both athletes were in the Paris Olympics. For instance, four years ago they got bronze and silver and you are making a projection, you will not be wrong to project that they would do better. So, when the federations come and briefing you like that you have to believe them and that was the basis of our projection.
“And again as the minister of sports I don’t have the direct responsibility of executing Nigeria’s participation at the Olympics. It is the federations that pick and select athletes that they feel are good enough to compete in the Olympics. The federations are very strong in defence of the decisions that they have made and I believe you are familiar with the word interference in sports. These federations gagged what they do with their different international bodies jealously that any attempt to suggest contrary to their decision is considered interference. So, basically, what is my responsibility at the international Games? “
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