Former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has decried the poor outing of Team Nigeria at the ongoing 2024 Paris Olympics.
Peter Obi regretted that with 200 million population, Nigeria could not prove her being a giant of Africa in France.
He blamed the trophyless Olympic outing of Nigeria on the country’s Olympic leadership, adding that the poor performance portrayed the country as a joke on the international stage.
In a statement on Sunday, the former presidential candidate said ₦12 billion spent on the Olympic games was not justified.
“Now that the Paris Olympics 2024 has officially ended and our dear Team Nigeria, despite the huge financial investment made into the project, is returning without a single medal, let me unreservedly register my displeasure with the performance of our team and their handlers.
“The rascality and recklessness that has continued to characterize leadership in our nation in nearly every department. The general impression that has come to stick is the one that portrays our country as a joke, even on the international stage.
“How can one explain that a country like Jamaica spent less than 5% of what we spent on our contingents for the Paris Olympics 2024 and won as many as 6 medals? Yet with our huge financial investments and large contingent, we could not win even a single medal.
“At least nine African countries won gold but the giant with over 200m people came home without even a bronze! We invested about ₦12 billion in this year’s Olympics, which is almost twice the amount budgeted for the entire Ministry of Science and Technology for this year.
“This is over N136 million (about $85,000) spent on each of the 88 Nigerian contingents to the Olympics, and no single medal was won while Jamaica, a nation which spent far less than we did, a total of about $2300 on each contingent, won 6 medals; 1 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze at the Olympics,” he said.
The former governor of Anambra State alleged that the Olympic management team took injured athletes to compete for Nigeria.
He added that the cases of Favour Ofili missing 100 meters race, Annette Echikunwoke representing the United States of America instead of Nigeria and Ese Ukpeseraye borrowing a bicycle from Germans to represent the country showed recklessness and rascality of the country’s Olympic management team.
Obi called for an investigation of the country’s Olympic management team to ensure the recklessness and poor performance would not repeat in the 2028 Olympic games.
Peter Obi continued, “We must now interrogate the relationship between this huge investment and our dismal outcome. Sad stories like this are our lot only because we have refused to embrace competence and capacity over routine and favoritism in Nigeria.
“Let us consider the case of Favour Ofili, a Nigerian professional sprinter who trained for years for the 2024 Olympics, only for her name to be recklessly and wrongly removed from the list of athletes for the 100m race at the Olympics by Nigerian sporting authorities.
“What explanation can anyone give about Annette Echikunwoke, a former Nigerian hammer thrower, who was frustrated by the same rascality of some Nigerian leaders, making her switch her allegiance to the United States, where she eventually won a medal in the just-completed Olympics?
“These same professional athletes were denied the opportunity to represent our nation in Tokyo 2020, for similar reasons of administrative recklessness. I have it on good authority that some injured athletes, not physically fit to represent the country and not competing in the ongoing Olympics, were there in Paris receiving estacodes from our national resources.
“Some of the sports officials and others who have no reason to be at the Olympics were there too, living large and feeding fat on the estacodes while our nation was crashing out on every sporting event. One of our athletes, Ese Ukpeseraye, had to borrow a bicycle to compete at her sporting event! How can one sensibly explain such recklessness and infamy?
“What a country! What a shame! When do we stop these rascalities that always rob our nation of golden opportunities to make a positive change? I call on the government to investigate these gross misconducts and make sure that those responsible do not have the opportunity to do so again.”
