Sports like boxing, weightlifting, chess and athletics used to be Team Nigeria’s strongholds at international events. EBENEZER BAJELA X-rays why they are experiencing dwindling fortunes in this report
Late into the cold night at the Centennial Olympic Stadium in Atlanta on August 2, 1996, there were rapturous celebrations by a small section of the crowd as the Nigerian national anthem reeled out from the giant loudspeakers across the 85,000-capacity stadium.
History was made on this day as a young Nigerian athlete, a junior ranked police offer, Chioma Ajunwa, leapt an amazing 7.12m on her first attempt in the women’s long jump final of the Olympic Games in Atlanta. She didn’t need to do more, the leap was enough to win her a gold medal, her first and country’s first as well.
However, the glimmer that was supposed to last into the morning was short-lived.
A few hours after Ajunwa’s historic feat, the country’s men’s football team defeated Argentina 3-2 in the final of the football event to win another gold medal for Nigeria.
Not many Nigerians back home even knew Ajunwa had won the country’s first-ever gold at the global sports showpiece, and even if some did, it was not worthy of celebration.
But the entire nation went into delirium the midnight of August 3, 1996 when Italian ref Pierlugui Collina blew the final whistle to end proceedings as Nigeria defeated Argentina 3-2 in the final of the football event at the packed Sanford Stadium in Athens, US, which had over 86,000 fans in attendance.
Back home elated Nigerians drank all through the night across the country amid wild celebrations; fireworks lit the night, drivers blarred their vehicles horns and streets were packed with overjoyed youths.
It was all in celebration of the ‘almighty’ football gold, and not Ajunwa’s gold, the first and only individual gold ever won by the country.
The athlete could hardly find a Nigerian official to celebrate with her, they were all preparing and focused on the next day’s event — the men’s football final between Nigeria and Argentina.
Twenty-seven years later, Ajunwa recounts her struggles as an Olympic champion.
“Eventually, when I won the gold, there was no flag for me to take the victory lap,” Ajunwa told The PUNCH. “Nigerians should have seen that when I won the gold, there was no flag for me. Somebody from another country gave me that small flag I used that day.
“It was a season that no man, not even our minister, Jim Nwobodo, expected anything good from me.”
She added, “I felt so humiliated, but I thank God He came for me. Nobody expected anything good, but God is alive. He is very interested in me, and I have been trying my best since then.”
But the footballers were feted as proper heroes.
Abiodun Obafemi, a member of the gold medal-winning with the men’s football team, said the entire airport was in a frenzy on the footballers arrival.
“After the tournament, we got to Nigeria through a chartered flight, Air Bari, it was a Brazil airline and we drove straight to Abuja, where we received by the then president, General Sanni Abacha, at the Eagle Square but before then it was a big deal leaving the airport because we were received by a massive mammoth crowd,” Obafemi told The PUNCH.
“Also, several other African countries were willing to host us, I was aware Senegal’s president was very willing to host us because they were overwhelmed and proud of what we did for Africa.”
While the former defender was quick to reject claims that the football team took the shine off other athletes, a lot would argue that the large crowds at the airport were majorly there because of the Dream Team.
Football the king
Today, the average Nigerian sports lover is at best a football follower, who has a huge knowledge of European and global football but doesn’t take as much interest in other sports.
But this wasn’t always the case.
In the not-too-distant past, sports in Nigeria was akin to religion, with the sports faithful fanatically following their preferred sports and their stars.
From offices, workshops and schools to the markets and vendor stands, there was rarely a place sports, not just football, was never discussed.
This was the order of the day and it was not far-fetched.
Several local stars, with some gaining international recognition, adorned virtually all the sports in the country. The fans hero-worshipped them and these local stars were cult figure heroes of some sort.
In weightlifting, there were the likes of Iron Bassey, who competed at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and Ruth Ogbeifoh, who snatched a bronze at the 1999 World Championships and silver at the 2000 Olympics.
Good times
In 1962, the National Sports Council was set up, while in 1971 the National Sports Commission was established. And they had specific responsibilities aimed at coordinating and integrating efforts to raise the standard of performance in sports in Nigeria.
Every sport thrived in the past because the bodies encouraged the development, organisation and participation of sports in Nigeria.
Boxing, weightlifting, athletics, Taekwondo, scrabble, chess and tennis placed Nigeria on the global sports map.
Over different generations, boxing had consistently produced global and continental stars in the likes Nojeem Maiyegun, the country’s first Olympic medallist at the 1964 edition in Japan; Dele Jonathan, a Commonwealth champion in the 1960s, amateur world champion Davidson Andeh (1977), whose brother, Anthony, was also a Commonwealth champion; Obisia Nwankpa; 1984 Olympic Games silver medallist, Peter Konyegwachie; Jerry Okorodudu, Charles Nwokolo, Hogan Jimoh, Christopher Ossai, Joe Lasisi, David Izonritei, David Dafiagbon, former world champion Samuel Peter and several others.
Interestingly, Nigeria had already produced a world champion before Independence — Hogan Bassey, who clinched the featherweight title in 1957. Richard ‘Dick Tiger’ Ihetu also followed suite as the undisputed middleweight and light-heavyweight champion in 1962 and 1966.
Boxing was not the only martial arts sport that Nigerians hugely followed.
Taekwondo, which was only introduced to Nigeria in 1975, also had its own fair share of local stars and followership. And the highest the country got on the podium was at the Beijing Olympics in Beijing, China, when Chika Chukwumerije, claimed a bronze at the world’s showpiece sports event, to raise hopes of a brighter future in the sport.
Athletics had the likes of Ajayi Agbebaku, Moses Ugbuisien, Innocent Egbunike, Chidi Imoh, the Ezinwa twins—Davidson and Osmond— Mary Onyali, Chioma Ajunwa, Falilat Ogunkoya, Pat Itanyi, Tina Iheagwam. They were feared and highly respected on the field and tracks globally.
Retired weightlifter Ogbeifo won a silver medal in the 75kg class of the women’s weightlifting event at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.
Ogbeifo also snatched bronze at the 1999 World Championships in a glowing career that saw her lining side by side among the best in her class in the world.
She said unlike now, weightlifters were given the best treatment before, during and after competitions, which she said, made lifters of her era give their best.
“Preparations were good during our time, unlike now. We attended different World Championships and qualifiers, and back home, we had a very long period of camping. We had good food and accommodation. You can’t liken it to what we have now. Currently, there is no national weightlifting gym in Nigeria, it’s a shame. These are the things that need to change. The way athletes are taken care of and the facilities should be paramount when preparing for international competitions,” Ogbeifo told The PUNCH.
Nigeria first appeared in the Olympic Games in 1952 in Helsinki, before recording its first major international victory in 1954, when Emmanuel Ifeanjuna won a gold medal in the men’s high jump at the Commonwealth Games in Cardiff.
Ifeajuna’s feat threw the entire nation into celebration. After making the headlines across the then-British Empire, one British paper, writing on the Ifeajuna accomplishment, stated, “Africans have a natural spring.”
In boxing the last home-bred world champion produced by the country was Samuel Peter from Akwa Ibom. The ‘Nigerian Nightmare’, as he was popularly called, held the WBC heavyweight crown in 2008.
The country’s success was not limited to boxing, in athletics; long-jumper Ajunwa had set the pace by winning the Olympic Games gold, the first by any Nigerian, at Atlanta 1996.
Ogbeifo led the way in weightlifting, winning silver at the 75kg class at Sydney 2000, to which Miriam Usman added bronze at Beijing 2008, followed by a Commonwealth Games gold at Glasgow 2014 (and four African Championships golds).
In Taekwondo, Chika Chukwumerije claimed a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, while Odion Aikhoje won gold at the Chess Olympiad in 1998 in Russia.
Wellington Jighere won the inaugural WESPA Championship in 2015 to become the first African to be crowned world scrabble champion.
The achievements recorded by these sports would readily have paved the way for more global recognition. However, the reverse is the case, as all the sports in question have witnessed dwindling returns, instead.
What went wrong?
However, a lot of sports, which were hitherto Nigeria’s strong forte, are in a comatose state following abandonment by the relevant authorities, unlike the case in previous years, due to several factors.
From the early 1980s Nigerians, including sports officials, placed more focus on football, which inadvertently, led to the sliding fortunes of other sports.
However, despite the privilege enjoyed by the sport, it has only managed gold (Atlanta 1996), silver (Beijing 2008) and bronze (Rio 2016) at the Olympic Games.
It is a known fact that football is one of the most organised and financially rewarding sports in the world but despite its lucrative and appealing nature, some other countries over the years have been able to develop other sports unlike Nigeria where over-reliance on the game is threatening the existence of other sports.
Renowned female wrestling coach, Purity Akuh, laments the sad state.
“When you look at our community, you see a lot of youths running to football even when they are not fit in and that’s why you see somebody who has practically the physique for boxing or wresting running to play football, you see a short guy standing in the middle of the post and want to be a goalkeeper. When you go to screening you see all these things and you begin to ask if something is wrong with us.
“But you can’t blame them because all the attention is shifted to footballers and everybody just wants to play football whether they know how to play or not they just go for screening.
“Despite all the focus on football, we’ve not even won any major laurels in the last 10 years and the sports that had won a lot of medals for the country are not being appreciated and they are not investing in them so that we could even win more.”
Aikhoje, who after 25 years remains the only world champion from the country, said lack of in-depth knowledge about the game from the government is the reason why such is happening.
“This is a discussion that has been going on for many years but I think at the end of the day it comes down to finances.
“When I won the championship in 1998 it wasn’t actually explained to the government what has been achieved. Assuming it was explained that with such little resources, somebody was able to get to the peak; probably they would look to see how they could support the game but because the recognition was not there and the game was not really known in Nigeria, that impetus to other people to want to go the extra mile and achieve more was not there. Even till now, the government is still not aware of the achievement and that is because they don’t have information.”
Lack of exposure
In the 21st century, sports science has been at its height, with the sector churning out latest technological applications for optimum output. These ranges from technical to personal sports management, programmes, marketing, information, infrastructure advice, and human resources.
In Nigeria, most athletes and coaches are not exposed to the modern dynamics of sports and game time management, as well as the best of sporting infrastructure.
Paucity of funds has stalled regular the organisation of seminars and workshops where the new tricks of the sector are taught, while the facilities are either in dilapidated state or non-existent.
The sports ministry, in time past, played a major role in this regard, in developing their coaching and athlete personnel but Akuh says it’s a rare privilege these days.
“I don’t think in the last 10 years anyone has asked me from the ministry to go for a seminar or course to upgrade my knowledge,” Akuh told The PUNCH.
“Its either you develop yourself, or for some of us who have a president that understands everything and says, ‘Purity you need to upgrade yourself.’ But nothing like upgrading from the ministry. It is like that with other sports.
“The wrestling federation can’t say they have a budget allocated to them by the ministry, where they say they want to organise programmes for the youths. Every time we want to travel we keep looking for sponsors and bothering the federation presidents. It is very unfair.”
Also speaking with The PUNCH, 2004 Olympic Games 4x100m bronze medal winner, Deji Aliu, says lack of sponsorship is a major bane of athletics.
He said, “Athletics is suffering largely due to the fact that what made it thrive back then are no longer in place but I also think it is more than that.
“As the years go by, the problems keep increasing. Some sports were able to thrive in the past largely because of the investments that those sports enjoyed at the time. But right now, nobody is investing in sports anymore and it is affecting every sector of the industry. Lack of facilities, lack of incentives for the athletes and lack of exposure to international competitions are reasons why those sports that used to bring us laurels in the past are no longer doing well.”
Neglected heroes
Nigerian sports officials have a notorious reputation for abandoning their athletes in their hour of need. Countless examples abound.
Former Nigerian long jumper, Ayo Aladefa, died aged 47 in 2017 and was buried in the United States of America.
His sister, Taiwo, claimed that Aladefa died as a result of an injury he sustained while representing Nigeria.
Aladefa won silver for Nigeria at the maiden African Championships in 1989 in Lagos and in the second edition in 1990 in Cairo, Egypt, he won gold.
He also won gold in Mauritius 1992 and came second at the 1993 edition in Durban, South Africa. Aladefa represented Nigeria at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria Canada and the1999 African Games in South Africa.
Taiwo stated that the deceased was left to his own fate following the injury he sustained while on national duty.
“I can only hope and pray that new AFN administration takes the welfare of athletes seriously and not just abandon them any more. We never heard from anyone in Nigeria while he (Aladefa) was down with illness. It’s very disheartening but thank God for the bonds with our sports family here in US, they were very supportive,” Taiwo told Vanguard.
Despite her successes as well, Ogbeifo in an interview with The PUNCH, said she was also abandoned after suffering an injury while representing her fatherland.
“After the Sydney 2000 Games, I had an injury, a severe elbow dislocation on my right hand, while preparing for the Manchester 2002 Commonwealth Games. I flew to London for treatment after Nigeria left me to my fate. A very senior official promised to look after me and pay for my treatment but didn’t. The injury forced me into retirement. I finally relocated to the UK after treatment and that is where I’ve been ever since. I went back to school and studied Social Works and now, I’m a qualified social worker.
“When I had the injury, I was in camp in Imo State preparing for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. It was a very light weight that pulled off my elbow. I was seriously in pain and had to travel to Lagos. I met Dr Akin Amao and after looking at the hand, he referred me to the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Igbobi. I went to Igbobi, but from there, I started moving from one hospital to the other. A dime has not been given to me for my treatment till this moment. When I saw that the injury wasn’t healing, and my entire hand was swollen, I had to travel to England. I treated myself and paid the bills and travel expenses with the allowance I got during the Olympics. I used all the money to treat my elbow at Crystal Palace.”
Following her poor treatment, the 51-year-old said she would never allow her children to represent Nigeria.
She added, “Never. I’m only encouraging the young ones back home to become a breadwinners like me in their various families. Once they are out there, I shall advise them to keep going because Nigeria as a nation is not worth dying for.
“Even though I love the country, our leaders are dream destroyers. That is why I would like to be the weightlifting federation president in future, to bring back the lost glory, to focus on the welfare of the athletes.”
The case of Ogbeifo is just one out of many other successful Nigerian athletes.
In 2017, Olympian Etim Bassey, another former weightlifter, who represented Nigeria at the Los Angeles 1984 Olympics, resorted to menial jobs for survival.
Viral photos online showed Bassey filling potholes with a shovel, directing traffic and packing sand from the drainage beside the road to give way to a free flow of water along the Addo-Badore road in Ajah.
Just as Ogbeifo, Bassey, who won a gold medal at the 1983 Commonwealth Games in Malta, revealed to music artist Oc Cares that he suffered an injury while representing Nigeria at the 1984 Olympic Games.
“I sustained an injury, and when I came back, Nigeria refused to take care of my injury, so I had to use my life savings to go back to America in September 1985 to take care of the injury,” the Iron bar, as he is fondly called, stated.
“But I still come out to volunteer myself to give back to my country. People are saying, ‘why should you do that? They didn’t take care of you.’”
Super Eagles captain, Ahmed Musa, donatedN500,000 to the Commonwealth gold medallist as Nigerians berated the government on social media for treating their heroes with disdain.
Former boxer and national coach, Jeremiah Okorodudu, died in June.
Okorodudu’s contributions to Nigerian boxing and his remarkable accomplishments made him a revered figure in the sports community, yet the late boxer died in penury.
Okorodudu passed on at a private hospital in Lagos, after battling with foot ulcer that left him bedridden for months.
After his death, the once glamour boy of Nigerian boxing was in the news for the wrong reason, following the non-release of his corpse by the hospital following unpaid bills.
A week before his demise, Okorodudu suffered a stroke attack and had extreme difficulty speaking, before subsequently falling into a coma.
In a video online, Okorodudu, who represented Nigeria in the men’s boxing event at the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, begged Nigerians for help.
“My fellow Nigerians, my name is Jerry Okorodudu. I was a Nigerian boxer, I am very sick and in the hospital. I need your help, please. Help me, I cannot walk,” Okorodudu said.
Sports journalist, Enitan Obadina, believes the continual neglect of the country’s past heroes will not encourage the up-and-coming athletes to give their all to the country.
“Athletes’ welfare must begin with the government because the athletes represent Nigeria. There is nothing bad if we have a pension plan for our athletes, the money might not be much, but anytime they are in camp a certain amount should go into their pension with the full knowledge and agreement of the athletes,” he told The PUNCH.
“The government has to put insurance in place for the athletes because there are a lot of retired and serving athletes struggling with injuries.
“We should have a strong policy that can be a connection between the ministry and federal hospitals that gives them discounts when conducting surgeries and monitoring their recoveries to lessen the burden on the athletes but because there is no policy framework it becomes a problem and the sports minister can just wake up and say ‘let me just help you, put everybody on my bills.’
“What we want is a framework that provides succour for these athletes, so, that when they get injured on national duties there is a guarantee of their bills being taken care of by the Federal Government. If these things are put in place they will be willing to give their 100 per cent for the country.”
Expectations
While the treatment of these sports has been unfair, the actors believe that the government can still make up for the years of mistakes. This, they believe, could help stem the current negative tide, and hopefully, these sports that once placed the country on the global world map, would take their rightful place again.
“The way forward is starting with the improvement of our facilities, provide an enabling environment for the athletes of the sports in question to complete, increase competitions and try to bring in more financial incentives to encourage the athletes. Put a square peg in a square hole and not the other way round,” Aliu said.
Aikhoje added, “If we want things to be better, I think the first thing we need to do is to first recognise sports in a professional manner, sports developments cannot happen to the level we want as long as our sports federation are seen as civil service job.”
