It is over a week the Paris 2024 Olympics ended and Nigerians are still mourning the unsuccessful outing.

None of the 88 delegates who represented Team Nigeria came back with a medal.

Nigeria’s Rafiatu Lawal competes in the women’s -59kg weightlifting event during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the South Paris Arena. (Photo by MIGUEL MEDINA/AFP via Getty Images)

Fingers have been pointed to the ministry of sport for lack of early preparations – and provision of necessary sport equipment.

A case of this can be tracked to the cycling event where our representative, Ese Ukpeseraye had to borrow a bike from the German team in other to participate in the competition.

Ministry of Sport Response

Nigeria’s Sports Minister, Senator John Owan Enoh, had earlier responded to the cycling incident.

He said in quote:

“Team Nigeria was fully prepared for this road race until two weeks ago after the Cycling team with the rest of Team Nigeria had already left for the Olympics, that a communication from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) was received reallocating additional slots to the Cyclist Federation of Nigeria (Kerin and individual sprint).”

Nigerian cyclist, Ese Ukpeseraye

“This reallocation to Nigeria was due to the disqualification of a country, leaving Nigeria as the next eligible to make the list of qualified countries to compete. Unfortunately, this additional slot required the use of a different competition equipment in terms of biking.”

“For this track race reallocated to Team Nigeria, a very special equipment (approved specifically for the Olympic track game) is used. It’ll take months to have it delivered after ordering and making payment. To therefore get Ese to compete, the Federation through Ese’s Club in Europe and working with a German owned Company, got a ‘Track Bike’ for our cycler Ese.”

Senator Enoh in a recent interview addressed the overall performance of Nigeria in the Olympics.

He stated that he cannot be blamed for the country’s disappointing performance in Paris, explaining that his role was more supervisory and did not involve direct control over the actions of the various sports federations and the National Olympic Committee (NOC).

The minister pointed out that Nigeria appeared to have been more focused on qualifying for the Olympics than preparing to compete effectively.

He noted that, unlike other nations that had their athletes qualified over a year ago, Nigeria was still attempting to qualify athletes a month before the Games.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel Ojeli, Ezekiel Nathaniel, Dubem Amen and Chidi Okezie of Team Nigeria react after competing in the Men’s 4 x 400m Relay of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade de France. (Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images)

He said that the responsibility for registering athletes lay with the sports federations and the NOC, not the ministry, and  clarified that the minister’s role at the Olympics is mostly administrative, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognizes the president of the NOC as the primary point of contact.

“We’re more properly prepared for the competition itself than the preparation for the Olympics. All we did as Team Nigeria was to try as much as we did in the different sporting whatever to qualify for the Olympics because the qualification is not automatic. So we spent more effort qualifying and trying to get our athletes to qualify for the Olympics.”

“Whereas, for example, some other countries had qualified their athletes more than a year ago who were still qualifying even a month to the Olympics. So that’s what we spent our time doing. As sports minister, you won’t hold me responsible for what happened as regrettable as it was because it is not the responsibility of the Minister of Sports Development to register athletes.”

“It’s between the federation in that particular sport and NOC. In fact, at the Olympics, the sports minister almost has no recognition whatsoever. The person IOC, the International Olympic Committee recognizes, is the president of a country’s NOC.”

“Even to get privileges in terms of rights, in terms of entrances to venues and all that, it is the president of NOC that has to make that happen for you or not. As the administrator and minister, I mainly questioned it. I questioned it.”

“I questioned AFN. I questioned NOC. And I said whatever they needed to do to make sure her name was restored for that race, it should be done.”

Plans For The Next Olympics

Minister of Sports Development, John Owan Enoh had a tour of the National Stadium Lagos. Photo | BRL

Minister Owan Enoh calls for an investigation into Nigeria’s poor performance and promised to identify where the failures occurred once the Games are over. He stated that after the Olympics, measures would be taken to address the situation and prevent future issues.

“When it wasn’t done regrettably, I still issued another statement and I said, just so we don’t distract our constituents at the Olympics, after the Olympics, we’re going to regulate this and find out where the responsibility laid.”