Dream Team VI as metaphor

Nigeria is like Dream Team VI. You can’t write us off. Even when we are at our most ill-prepared (which is all the time), we still manage to confound all pundits. Ask Japan and Sweden. The Nigerian team literally hopped off the plane to play Japan. Even the commentators on Supersports said they didn’t expect […]

Nigeria is like Dream Team VI. You can’t write us off. Even when we are at our most ill-prepared (which is all the time), we still manage to confound all pundits. Ask Japan and Sweden. The Nigerian team literally hopped off the plane to play Japan. Even the commentators on Supersports said they didn’t expect our boys to be at their best considering the trauma they had gone through in the US where they were eventually bailed out of an embarrassing situation by Skipper Mikel Obi. But they prevailed – and in style too. Lesson: Nigeria confounds you with a dash of brilliance just when you thought it was finished. Remember 1966, 1993 and 2015?
After beating Sweden, everyone thought the Dream Team VI would go all the way to get the gold. But they didn’t. In a way that is just like Nigeria. When you expect the country to forge  ahead and make the continent proud you are faced with inexplicable inertia, the type that gripped the Dream Team in their match against Germany. On a good day, we would have roasted that German team, but see how we simply surrendered with so much motion without movement.
But we got the bronze by beating Honduras. Third best. Yes, that is the same way Nigeria underachieves. As a country, we ought to be in the league of the Brazils, the UAEs and the Singapores of this world. But see how we are playing third fiddle to Brazil and second fiddle to the Kenyas of this world.
Nigeria is composed of some of the best specimens of humanity, even if I say so. There are talents everywhere. From Lagos to Sokoto, from Onitsha to Yola, from Ilorin to Obudu, our athletes rot for lack of grooming. There are no programmes to help train and develop the athletes. We used to have the Thermogen Cup, Grier Cup, State Sports Festivals and Local Government Sports Festivals through which track and field talents were regularly discovered. Not anymore.
Government officials over the years became specialised in creaming off allocations to the sports sector with a neat slice of allocations going towards servicing ministerial allowances and perks. The sportsmen and women don’t mean much to those who control the purse strings.
The top countries that won Gold medals in the various events did not have their sports ministers in attendance like a school prefect. In the last five or six Olympics, Nigerian officials have always been impediments to the success of the athletes. More serious countries send their own Mary Onyalis and Falilat Ogunkoyas to lead delegations to inspire the athletes, the belief being that having gone through the grill before, those retired athletes would know how to motivate their successors. Not here. It is a ministerial affair, complete with all the bureaucratic inanities for which we are notorious.
If Christine Ohuruogu, MBE, had opted to compete for Nigeria, she would in all probability have ended up as just another great potential, like Blessing Okagbare. Or, let’s put it another way: If Blessing Okagbare had had the benefit of the kind of training and support Ohuruogu had, she would have been on the medals podium at the Olympics. Competing for Great Britain, 32-year-old Ohuruogu has chalked an impressive record: 2003 – European Junior Championships 400m bronze; 2005 – European U23 Championships 400m silver, (4x400m silver); 2006 – Commonwealth Games 400m gold; 2007 – IAAF World Championships 400m gold, (4x400m bronze). World Athletics Final 400m silver; 2008 – Olympic Games 400m gold (4x400m 5th). World Athletics Final 400m silver; 2012 – Olympic Games 400m silver. IAAF World Indoor Championships 4x400m gold; 2013 – IAAF World Championships 400m gold, 4x400m bronze. European Indoor Championships 4x400m gold. And last week in Rio, Christine won Bronze with the 4X400 relay team of Great Britain.
By contrast, talented Tosin Oke started out competing for Britain but switched allegiance to Nigeria in 2012. The 35-year-old set the current UK junior indoor record. Since competing for Nigeria he has won back-to-back African Championships in Athletics titles and the Commonwealth Games championship and he is the current All-Africa Games Champion. In Rio, he reportedly spent six days travelling between cities in a quest for the refund of his travelling expenses as promised by Nigeria. He eventually got the refund but he had little time to train and underperformed in his event.  Is that the reward for those who pledge their allegiance to Nigeria?
Hear, hear, O ye patriots, the stone the minister rejected has become the cornerstone of Nigeria’s performance at the Rio Olympics. Having washed his hands off the preparations of the team when it was stranded in the US, the Nigerian sports minister, Solomon Dalung, is now showing off the Dream Team VI as the best thing to happen under his watch! I’m so sorry for my country. With better planning and support, Dream Team VI could have brought us the GOLD. But because we are perpetual underachievers, we have to roll out the drums for bronze.
As if our underachievement wasn’t embarrassing enough, there was some talk about the NFF hijacking a donation of $390,000 made by a Japanese plastic surgeon and football enthusiast, Dr. Katsuya Takasu, to assist the Nigerian players. The only time you ever get to hear NFF claiming responsibility is when money is being given or shared.
I’m sick and tired of this ritual of dismal post-mortems every four years. President Buhari has to reverse the trend. First, he needs a sports minister worthy of the name. We voted for change. The current structure in the sports sector is based on ‘Business As Usual’. Buhari has restored our respectability as a nation with his personal commitment to accountability. Sports is a powerful tool for international diplomacy and national cohesion. The president has to visit that sector with a broom. After sweeping away the current non-structure, he should personally supervise the rolling out of our preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Otherwise, in four years’ time, we shall have to sing this dirge again.