
Photo illustration by Dami Mojid / THE REPUBLIC. Photo 1: Powerlifter, Onyinyechi Mark. HIROKI NISHIOKA /WPPO. Photo 2: Favour Ofili. LSU / IG.
THE MINISTRY OF SPORTS
Nigeria Losing the Olympics Is Only the Beginning

Photo illustration by Dami Mojid / THE REPUBLIC. Photo 1: Powerlifter, Onyinyechi Mark. HIROKI NISHIOKA /WPPO. Photo 2: Favour Ofili. LSU / IG.
THE MINISTRY OF SPORTS
Nigeria Losing the Olympics Is Only the Beginning
On X (formerly known as Twitter), the Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Senator John Owan Enoh, fought for his life. From the beginning of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, the minister explained, clarified and ‘did damage control’ to set the records straight on why athletes representing Nigeria put up with some of the most embarrassing experiences resulting solely from the government’s neglect and incompetence. First, Senator Enoh explained why athlete, Favour Ofili was not allowed to run in the women’s 100m race due to stories about not being registered even though Ofili was qualified and prepared. The next day, the minister also had to explain the kitting scandal surrounding the athletes. Then he had to clarify when Nigeria women’s basketball team, D’Tigress, were turned away from their boat at the opening ceremony procession. A few days later, the esteemed minister, once again, had to explain why the Ministry of Sports Development had not made provisions for a track bike for the Nigerian cyclist, Ese Ukpeseraye. The national ill-preparedness left Ukpeseraye with no options but to borrow a bike from her German counterparts.
Beyond the scandals, which were so embarrassing that the minister made individual posts about them on X to save face, there were other, more textured deeply hurtful events that one would miss if only relying on the minister’s posts. A good example is the poor treatment of the athletes who left without support. The abandonment and lack of support were more glaring—albeit not less impactful—among athletes who competed in solo contests than it was among the ones who competed in team contests. Unforgivable levels of maladroitness that were just as shocking as they were heartbreaking, displayed by the Ministry of Sports Development in this year’s summer Olympics, left Nigerians and spectators around the world bewildered.
RESULTS FROM FRANCE (LOSSES AND WINS)
Despite having some of the best athletes and teams, Nigeria has no medals to show for its participation in the 2024 Summer Olympics. The Nigerian women’s basketball team made history by becoming the first African basketball team (male or female) to reach the Olympic quarterfinals, but that was as far as they went. The recognition of the team’s head coach, Rena Wakama, as the best coach in the 2024 Summer Olympics games by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), further proves that the talent needed to bring home medals was not lacking. Most of the athletes who represented Nigeria are people breaking records by qualifying to participate in the Olympics after many years of Nigeria failing to qualify in the categories they competed in.
It was not surprising that some Nigerians did, in fact, go home as medallists in the 2024 Summer Olympics game. However, what these Nigerian medallists all had in common was that they represented other countries. Their journey to becoming Olympic medallists becomes even more interesting when you learn that not only have they tried to represent Nigeria at the Olympics in the past, but that many who did, had their attempts—and hopes of winning an Olympic medal—thwarted by the same systemic carelessness that their colleagues who represented Nigeria experienced at the hands of the Ministry of Sports Development. This carelessness is, unfortunately, common across Nigerian institutions.
Nigerian-American hammer thrower, Annette Echikunwoke, who won a silver medal for the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics, was one of the ten Nigerian representatives affected by systemic negligence in the 2020 Olympics in Japan. Killing the dreams of ten prepared athletes who put endless hours of preparation into training and dreaming is how a country like Nigeria truly loses the Olympics. It is, therefore, no surprise that Echikunwoke or any athlete of Nigerian descent would choose to represent another country in an international contest. As the wise youngest sheep in a popular Igbo folk tale told its mother, ‘it would not wait for experience to teach it what not to do but would instead, learn from what had happened to another.’
In continually failing its talented athletes, Nigeria positions itself as a cautionary tale for anyone with the luxury of options—and talent often provides that luxury. Nigeria may have failed to produce medals in the 2024 Summer Olympics Games and has let down its athletes in the past, but what is far worse than losing a few medals today is losing the trust of future talents, ensuring that it may never win any medals tomorrow.
THE NIGERIAN CHARACTER
As an average Nigerian, you quickly learn that many things divide us as a people. You see these dividing factors in a classmate whose name sounds unfamiliar, and its meaning unclear. You notice it when the woman down the street, who speaks the same language your parents do, has an accent so different that you must listen closely to understand her. Growing up in Nigeria, you are constantly surrounded by undeniable evidence of our diversity. Sometimes, this evidence is visible on our faces in the form of tribal marks, and other times it emerges from our speech, shaped by the phonological influences of our different mother tongues.
What sits alongside these differences you notice early as a Nigerian, is our love for sports and its power to unite us. While football is usually the sport of choice, nothing brings Nigerians together like a sporting event where we compete against another country. In those moments, we forget our political, cultural, religious and class differences and cheer for our own. The support for athletes in international competitions is so strong that a foreigner might think ‘adept support during international sporting contests’ is written in the Nigerian constitution. During these events, complaints about bad governance or quarrels with one another are put on hold until the contest is over.
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SPORTS IN NATION-BUILDING
It is not strange that sports occupy an important position in nation-building. Acting as both a distraction and an adhesive, sports have, at times, provided governments worldwide with opportunities to influence, control, and pacify their citizens. It is not popular knowledge today, but sports were a powerful tool used by General Yakubu Gowon’s government to help rebuild Nigeria after the Nigeria-Biafra war (1967–1970). Research on successive governments around the world shows that investing in sports keeps the crime rate down and the general public happy. In short, investment in sports is essential to nation-building. This begs the question: Are Nigerian leaders uninterested in nation-building?
After an investment of ₦12 billion of taxpayers’ money in an economy where around 87 million people live below the poverty line, the minister boldly tells Nigerians—without shame or hesitation—that ‘Nigeria failed to win any medals at the Olympics because Nigeria did not prepare for the Olympics.’ This is a ridiculous excuse for an event with a known schedule stretching decades into the future.
The failure to win medals at the Olympics is neither the athletes’ fault nor due to a lack of time to prepare. It is a result of systemic failure rooted in the misuse of public funds and a lack of accountability. Nigeria had the same number of years as other countries to prepare for the Olympics. Sending athletes to France without proper equipment and having them borrow a bicycle from other competitors highlights the gross mismanagement of the Olympic budget and significantly contribute to Nigeria’s poor performance.
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THE LAST ADHESIVE
For a country like Nigeria, burdened with uncertainties and running low on the patriotic spirit necessary for nation-building, sports represent one of the last remaining sources of national goodwill. If the government hopes to prevent further decline, it must harness the unifying power of sports. The people need a reason to feel a sense of pride in their country if they are to become patriotic enough to contribute to its rebuilding, and sports can easily provide that. To squander the goodwill that sports offer is to waste one of the nation’s last remaining adhesives. The Ministry of Sports Development—and other government ministries—must do better and be seen doing better if this government hopes to save Nigeria from disaster. It is time to move beyond the excuses that have followed past failures and start showing tangible results, demonstrating that the government is making meaningful investments to keep the nation alive and whole. And this government must remember that investments yield returns.
It would have been madness to expect Nigeria’s government to correct the mistakes made in the 2024 Summer Olympics game at the 2024 Paralympics game given how poorly Nigerian institutions treat differently-abled people and their history with Paralympics athletes but it would not have been too much to ask for when one considers the precarious state of this nation. The medals won by Nigerian Paralympians showcase the sheer grit of Nigerian sportspersons, who have it in them to find a way to excel in spite of Nigeria and not because of Nigeria. Ideally, the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics games which were heavily characterized by Nigerians who had the option to represent other countries instead of Nigeria, should serve as a wakeup call to Nigerian institutions and leaders, letting them know that they are not only losing the Olympics but losing Nigerians.
Repeatedly embarrassing Nigerians on the international stage and frustrating their goals is how you lose them. Losing Nigerians in this way—seeing citizens lose interest in supporting the country, watching the spirit of patriotism wither, and stifling the desire to stand up or stand in for Nigeria—is a loss far greater than failing to win at the Olympics. This is how institutions and leaders kill the soul of the nation they are meant to serve, build, and protect. The Nigerian political and institutional system must choose to either save the nation or continue bantering online as it fades away⎈
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