Probe N9bn Olympics funding, stakeholders tell Tinubu

Concerns are mounting over the N9 billion allocated for Team Nigeria’s participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics, with sports administrators calling for a thorough investigation into how these funds were being managed. The calls came amid growing fears of financial mismanagement and lack of transparency in the disbursement of the budget earmarked for the country’s […]

Concerns are mounting over the N9 billion allocated for Team Nigeria’s participation in the 2024 Paris Olympics, with sports administrators calling for a thorough investigation into how these funds were being managed.

The calls came amid growing fears of financial mismanagement and lack of transparency in the disbursement of the budget earmarked for the country’s Olympic preparations.

Last month, the sports minister, Sen John Enoh announced that N12 billion had been approved by the federal government for the Games.

“We have a budget of over N12 billion, which has been approved by the federal government. The budget is divided into two parts: N9 billion for the Olympics while over N3 billion has been earmarked for the Paralympics.

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“There are various provisions for athletes and their welfare in the budget and before the team leaves for Paris, I am going to have the opportunity of visiting them,” he said then.

It will also be recalled that the House of Representatives pledged to donate N100 million to Team Nigeria with the donation drawn from the salaries of the lawmakers.

The N9 billion budget was initially welcomed as a significant boost for Nigeria’s Olympic athletes, who have often struggled with inadequate funding and poor preparation in the past. However, the failure of the team to win medals has called for a probe into the funding.

It will be recalled that Team Nigeria concluded the 2024 Paris Olympics without winning any medal, continuing a pattern of highs and lows in its Olympic history that began in Helsinki 1952.

Despite high hopes following strong qualifying performances, the team of 88 athletes competing in 12 sports couldn’t replicate their continental success on the global stage.

There were several notable performances, including Favour Ofili’s historic appearance in the 200m final, Samuel Ogazi reaching the 400m final, and three Nigerian athletes making it to the long jump final. Chukwuebuka Enekwechi also finished sixth in the shot put final.

However, there were also significant disappointments. The Super Falcons exited early from the football tournament, boxer Cynthia Ogunsemilore was expelled due to a doping allegation, and the men’s 4x400m relay team was disqualified.

Medal hopefuls like Tobi Amusan, Blessing Oborududu, and Odunayo Adekuoroye fell short of expectations. Despite some bright spots, such as D’Tigress reaching the quarterfinals in women’s basketball, the overall outcome was a medal-less campaign for Nigeria.

In a chat with a former sports minister, Barr Solomon Dalung, he said there is a lack of synergy among the sports ministry, the National Olympic Committee (NOC) and the various sporting federations. He further said there was a lack of preparation on the parts of the ministry and federations while calling for a probe into how the funds were spent.

“First of all, I must congratulate the athletes for making efforts to represent the nation well in Paris. I give them kudos. It is a shame we went for the Olympics with hopes but were later dashed.

“I will say there is a lack of synergy among the sports ministry, NOC and the federations. I gathered reliably that there was bickering among them prior to the Games,” he said.

He however opined that the sports federations should be held responsible while not supporting the calls for the sports minister to resign. He also called for a proper investigation to be done to unravel how Favour Ofili’s name was omitted from the 100m list.

“There have been calls for the minister to resign but I won’t subscribe to that. But if he feels morally, he needs to resign, then he can. The sports federations should be held responsible for this failure. During my time, I was able to democratise the federations but that has changed.

“We need a sports law to be enacted. The decree being operated is old and has outlived its usefulness. The law should cater for the welfare of the athletes.

“It is sad that Ofili was omitted from the 100m list. There is only one thing I know may be responsible for that. In Nigerian sports, it is a crime to speak up and I believe Ofili must have spoken out against some things that could be going wrong. A thorough investigation should be conducted to find out exactly what happened.

“In the case of the cyclist, it is untenable that the minister would say they needed to order a bicycle that could take weeks. I am quite sure such bicycles can be bought from a store in Paris. That alone could have caused psychological pain to the athletes. They were given N9bn and they say they couldn’t get the bike. That’s a huge sum of money compared to what I received.

“I believe the government should call for a probe into how the money was spent. Paris and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) took care of accommodation, feeding and general welfare of the athletes. The athletes as I learnt complained of disparity in welfare and since none won a medal, where did the remaining money go?”

Speaking further, he however blamed the minister for not seeking help from experienced hands to assist him.

“The minister failed because he didn’t seek help from experienced hands like the former DG of the defunct National Sports Commission. He acknowledged he had little or no knowledge about sports before his appointment. He went with newbies who had no knowledge,” he said.

In the same vein, Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) First Vice President, Tafida Gadzama in a chat with Daily Trust believes that Enoh lacks the capacity to lead a ministry that could address Nigeria’s unemployment issues and contribute to the country’s GDP.

Gadzama, a Sydney Olympics gold medalist, pointed to Nigeria’s disappointing performance at the Paris Olympics as evidence of Enoh’s shortcomings, which Enoh himself acknowledged after the Games.

‘Our disappointing outing at the Paris Olympics is just a confirmation of the lack of capacity of the minister, which he confirmed himself via his statement after the Games,’ said Gadzama.

‘What has Enoh done since he became sports minister,’ Gadzama further said and recalled how Enoh promised to set up an independent panel of enquiry to look into the AFN Audit Committee report and the federation generally following the indictment of some principal officers of the AFN.

‘Over five months after the promise was made, Enoh has not said anything, just like he is doing with the non-registration of Favour Ofili for the 100m event at the Olympics.’

Gadzama wants the president to either take him to another ministry or relieve him of his post while demanding a probe.

‘Maybe he should be taken to the Ministry of Agriculture since he has told us all he is a farmer. What I can say is that he is not the one who can move the sports sector forward. We can’t spend such funds and not get value for our money. It will be the right call to probe the funds and let those in charge explain how the money was spent.

A former chairman of Gombe State Football Association (FA), Ahmed Shuaibu Gara-Gombe also asked for forensic investigations into the funding while demanding the government hands off funding of the sports sector.

“In terms of probe, I think Mr President should even probe the N1.6bn released for the Africa Cup of Nations. My opinion is that there should be a forensics investigation on how that money was spent because there could be padding. One of the notorious industries that can retire fraudulent expenditures is the sports industry. They have been doing it for a long time.

“For the government to release N9bn in one month without a single medal is unexplainable. We have to prove it. So many things were wrong. When he was appointed, he refused to listen to anybody. He surrounded himself with sycophants who didn’t tell him the truth about Nigerian sports and I gave him a document on how to study the Olympics, which he ignored. I even gave him instances on how his predecessors planned for the Olympics. I even gave him a 43-man list of people who could help him, which he ignored but he took inexperienced people. The president needs to declare an emergency on sports.

“We have to go back to the basics and prepare an action plan because we are not ready. And one is the gradual disengagement of government funding sports. They are only to provide infrastructure and incentives as well as send scapegoats to jail. The sports industry is the most corrupt in Nigeria. We need to go back to the grassroots sports and build capacity,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Enoh, has described Team Nigeria’s performances at the Paris Games as a disaster and vowed to prevent future occurrences.

“As we go back home, we must do everything to prevent future occurrence of the Paris disaster and if this will entail the review of how people are elected to lead our sporting federations, it will be done,” Enoh stated.

Emphasising the importance of upcoming federation elections, Senator Enoh added, “I know that elections into the federations are coming and it will be the perfect platform to get only those who have something to offer to lead the various sports.”

The minister in a press statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Diana-Mary Nsan, called for reform aimed at enhancing the leadership and effectiveness of Nigeria’s sports federations that will pave the way for improved performance on global events.