Minister of Sports Development Senator John Owan Enoh has disclosed that the N12billion budgeted for the Paris Olympics was too meager to win any medal at the quadrennial games.
Blueprint Sport reports that Team Nigeria did not win a single medal despite the N12billion released by the federal government.
Prior to the team’s departure for Paris, the minster had boasted that Nigeria will surpass its Atlanta 96 feats by winning more medals, but it turned out to be a mirage.
Team Nigeria featured 88 athletes who participated in 12 events, while Jamaica spent a paltry $2,300 on each athlete and won one gold, three silver, two bronze medals.
Smaller nations like Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, and Kenya performed better than ‘almighty’ Nigeria.
While countries like St. Lucia and Uzbekistan with populations below some states in Nigeria winning medal at the game.
Enoh, while speaking penultimate Thursday during the reception organised for Team Nigeria wrestlers to the Paris games, told bewildered audience that “What is N12bn? Too small to win any medal!”
He buttressed his point by pointing at the USA Basketball team.
“Let me just give you one example, the US Basketball team, the Dream Team, they came to the Olympics Village, they take a look at it and decided that it’s not good enough for them. They went and got a befitting hotel for themselves. The hotel cost $7milliom dollars. That’s equivalent of N12billion we are talking about.
“Training of athletes, giving athletes grants are expensive. European camping and flight tickets are expensive. People should also look at the exchange rate. I don’t understand all this noise about N12billion. Actually, N9bn is for Paris Olympics while N2bn is for Paralympics. Other ministers have gone to Olympics without winning any medal and heaven did not fall,” the minister was quoted as saying.
Enoh, who delayed the reception programme by over one hour, sounded combative, aggressive and tongue-lashed those complaining about Team Nigeria’s poor performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics games and the toxicity in the sports eco-system.
“There are too much vested interests and animosity. I have a lot of enemies in the eco-system. I can say categorically that life is cruel to me. I have been subjected to all forms of negative conversation after the games.
“Life is a theatre of absurd but I want Nigerian to focus on the next Olympics” the embattled minister said.
…Render account, Federation chairmen tell Enoh
But the presidents of some of the Federations that were represented in Paris, and others whose federations and associations ‘were sidelined’, expressed their angst at the ‘reckless and damaging’ statement by the minister.
The presidents, who spoke anonymously, expressed their reservations over the handling of Nigeria’s participation by the supervising ministry.
A president of one the federations told our reporter : “How on earth will a Ministry and the Minister be giving selected athletes a token grant in the heat of a major competition like the Olympic? Is that a training grant or shopping grant?”
This medium also gathered that some of the coaches did not benefit from the ‘shopping grant.’
Querying further, the source said: “How do you give grant to a team sport like basketball and football whose members are professionals, and how did the ministry arrive at the amount they gave out?
“Let him tell us who got what, and how much? That’s the only way he can come out clean. He should be man enough to purge himself of this mess.”
Describing the two-week camping in Germany and Spain as a waste of taxpayers’ money, the source said, a number of athletes did not show up in the camp.
According to the source, the athletes variously went from their foreign locations straight to France, with some others coming in on departure day to move in to the Games Village.
Similarly, another sports federation president said since he took over the stewardship of his own body over seven years ago, the supervising ministry had turned a blind eye to their plight.
…Olatoye collaborates
Speaking along the same line, Sade Olatoye, an athlete who participated at the event as a hammer thrower, said: “Everything we did to prepare for this Olympics were all done with our own money, including medicals. Nigerians, you know I have been training for four years; I was not given any form of assistance. The government did not help us.”