By Henry Uche

Following Nigeria’s abysmal performance at the just concluded Olympics games in Paris, France, Nigeria’s sports minister, John Owan Enoh, on a monitored interview in Channels TV, spoke on the shameful outing of the team, sports prospects under his watch and other issues.

How sad was it for Nigeria that we went to that Olympics and came back with no medal?

Very sad, really very sad.

Do you take responsibility?

My letter has already said a lot of that. It was totally unexpected. As a country, I understand the sadness and the anger. For people who know me from my native Cross River, they would imagine how I feel, because I always like to win, and I worked hard to win. So, it was very sad.

You like to win, but you didn’t win this time around.

Yes, I didn’t win this time around. It wasn’t because I didn’t work hard. I did everything I should do, and I didn’t see this coming. I never envisaged it.

Some experts will say, Minister, you are wrong, there were signals, on the biggest sporting event in the world. Look at the Ofilis of this world, the Amusan of this world, our wrestlers, our weightlifters, who used to be the shockers to the world. They went there and they came back like dwarfs, not like the giants that they used to be…

It is those same people that you have mentioned, those giants of ours that went to the African games and we came second. Those same giants of ours that we presented at the Olympics. And that’s what I’ve told you, maybe not that we are going to overwhelm the world, but I didn’t expect at all that we will come back from the Olympics without one medal.

What were you expecting? How many medals did you think that we were going to get?

Now, let me tell you what it is. And this brings me to the structure of sports management and administration in our country. I had sessions with the sporting federations; as Minister of sports development, you do not directly train the athletes. You don’t directly monitor them. I mean, these are the responsibilities on the different sporting federations. You get appointed as Minister of sports development, unlike perhaps some other ministers, you have agencies, and you know all of that, and you can decide in terms of what you want to achieve for that sector or not. And imagine, for example, that these people are not good enough, you want to recommend some changes and all of that. The Minister of sports development hasn’t such luxury, because you get appointed and you have leaderships of different sporting federations close to about 40, elected in their congresses. They have the immediate and direct responsibility of running their affairs in such sports; they are limited and I had sessions with them.

Are you limited in your capacity to be able to control the nitty gritty of what they do?

Of course, the minister of sports development in Nigeria is limited. For example, I had technical sessions, which the different Olympic sports were qualified, 12 of them, and we got briefings, and that is the only way you can get involved. And you ask questions. And briefing after briefing, and I sat there, and I’ll ask, okay, president of AFN, (Athletic Federation of Nigeria), you’ve said this, you’ve said that, what is your medals projection? What’s the basis of that projection? And you go through, as Minister, that’s what you do. So, your expectations become governed by what the different Federation presidents and leaderships have told you, and the kinds of things they’ve been able to prove. I followed the athletics people to Dwala, where they went for the African championships and all of that. And I think that, reasonably;  in 2020, Olympics we won two medals, one bronze in Long Jump, and one silver in Wrestling. And both of these were in this last Olympics. So if, for example, four years ago, they got bronze, they got silver, I am making projections, I mean, you’re not wrong to project that you will expect that they’ll do better. So, when the federations come and they brief you about all of that, that becomes the basis upon which you look forward to what happens. And again, you had a responsibility, okay, the Minister of sports development and Ministry of Sports, has a direct responsibility of prosecuting these games. So, at the end of the day, it is the Federations that pick and select the athletes that they think are competitive enough for any game. Certain times as Minister, when my attention has been called to something that has happened, and I want to get involved, the federations are very strong in their defense of what decision that they have made, and that’s why a lot of the times, I’m sure you’re familiar with the fact that in Sports, there is a word – ‘interference’, because these federations guard what they do so jealously, and there are different sporting federations, that any attempt to change anything and things like it, is considered as interference. So basically, my responsibility is to prosecute the games, international competitions and all that. What I’ve tried to do, I’ve had African games, I’ve had the Olympics. I’ve avoided in my leadership, most of the pitfalls that have bedevilled our sporting competition engagement internationally for the last several years. So, that’s what it is.

You got N12bn, the last Olympics, got less than 2 billion to prosecute our Olympics, it looks like a wasted money in a moment when Nigeria does not have money. Do you take responsibility that Nigeria failed?

There is nothing I will say here that will seem to defend the fact that Nigeria didn’t have a medal. But I owe Nigerians explanations. I take responsibility. I made a communication out. I didn’t wait for anybody to want to blame me. I issued statement -a public apology.

People say you would have resigned your position for this abysmal failure

Do you know why? Two things. You have talked about N12 billion. I need to also explain the fact that N12 billion wasn’t for Olympics, it was for Olympics and Paralympics. Paralympics starts 28th of August to the 8th of September. So, the 12 billion is not just for the Olympics.  Specifically for the Olympics, it is about N8 billion plus and then for Paralympics, which is about N3 billion plus. Wait a minute, imagine what that money was, N2billion was four years ago. The Olympics and sporting activities are international matters, talk about it in terms of the dollar equivalent. I’m not saying N12 billion is not a huge sum, but I’m also calling attention to the fact that N12 billion in 2024 and N2 billion in 2020, do the arithmetic, you imagine the journey of the Nigerian Naira.

Was this amount insufficient?

I won’t say that because we did a budget which amounted to that, and it was provided for.

Did you get exactly what you wanted?

Yes, I did. That’s what was budgeted for. In the last couple of months, even before the Olympics, I’ve been very vocally talking about the fact that, as a country, what I find us doing in sports is that we fund competitions. We do not fund the training and the preparations for the competitions.

How long is right to prepare for an Olympics within the sector?

What I find, and what I hear is that at least four years. There are people who said four years is not even enough. It’s really four years. I became Minister August of last year. I met nothing on ground about the Olympics. It had to take me my initiative to even summon the Nigerian National Olympic Committee to a meeting to find out from them, unlike me and my permanent secretary, that are new. The NOC has been there for many years, and the NOC is aware that for Olympics, you begin to plan for the next one after this particular one has ended, and know what and what is required.

If the President is not firing you, you have not fired yourself, you have not fired anybody, it does look like the sporting community is taking the nation for granted.

At any point, I feel very sad about it. But you talk about firing people. At the Olympics, we tried to make sure that there wasn’t any bad or negative exposure in the course of it. I’m going to interrogate all of those things. You don’t fire unless you interrogate. And I’ve already stated my determination that I’m not going to allow things lie low. I’m going to take them up one by one.

Are you promising that heads will roll?

Well, if that’s what it’s going to take, if my findings and my interrogations get to that point in which people become liable, people become responsible for the kind of negative outing that we had at the Olympics, why not?

Can you confidently say that team Nigeria had the right preparation for the Olympics?

I can’t say. I cannot say so.

So, we were not properly prepared for the competition?

We were more properly prepared for the competition itself than the preparation for the Olympics. All we did as team Nigeria was to try as much as we did in the different sporting whatever to qualify for the Olympics, because the qualification is not automatic. So, we spend more effort qualifying. I try to get our best to qualify for the Olympics, whereas, for example, some other countries had qualified their outlets more than a year ago, we were still qualifying even a month to the Olympics. So that’s what we spent our time doing.

So, it was a knee Jack?

Well, if you call it so.

You went for two weeks to Germany for preparations. Do you think that you have wasted public funds on this?

In terms of measuring whether we won medals or not, we didn’t win. You’ll be correct to say so. Let me tell you what it is. Maybe, if, for example, I found out that because of our lack of preparation, let us not go for this Olympics, you’d have also imagined what the backlash would have been. But I think that before now and again, I make no excuse; I’m not saying this because I want to defend a very abysmal performance. This is it, even participating in the Olympics and in some of the sports, although we didn’t get medals, it’s a very thin line. That’s a place for those who won and those who lost. You mentioned basketball, talk about the fact that, in long jump, for the first time, we got about three Nigerians also competing. Some of them were returning for the first time. I’m trying to put together a report that tries to highlight that. I’m not going to agree with you entirely and totally, that we’ve wasted public funds only to the extent that because we didn’t win a medal, is as bad as that.

Favour Ofili qualified for the 100 meters event and was ready to compete at the event but she discovered she wasn’t registered, should Nigerians hold you accountable or responsible for that wicked act?

As Sports Minister, you won’t hold me responsible for what happened, as regrettable as it was. If you watched what was playing out, when that news broke out, I responded immediately, because it is not the responsibility of the Minister of sports development to register athletes. It is between the Federation in that particular sport and NOC. In fact, at the Olympics, the Sports Minister almost has no recognition whatsoever. The person IOC  recognizes is the president of a country’s NOC, even to get privileges in terms of rights, in terms of entrance into Venice and all that, it is the president of NOC that has to make that happen for you or not. As the administrator and minister, I immediately questioned it. I questioned AFN, I questioned NOC, and I said, whatever they needed to do to make sure her name was restored for that sport, it should be done. When it wasn’t done, regrettably, I still issued another statement, and I said, just so we don’t distract ourselves at the Olympics. After the Olympics, we are going to interrogate this and find out where the responsibility laid. That is what I should do.

So, would you find out what happened?

We just returned from the Olympics. Why not, we are going to find out, yes we will do that.

Nigerians say you should have looked into the details

No, you won’t be able to look at those details. Because the communication that goes on doesn’t involve you. it involved those federations. That is the way the system is structured. It’s not about the bureaucracy. It’s about the fact that you don’t even have recognition at the international Olympics Committee.

But the money is coming through your office to all of these federations?

Yes, you got it funded but you don’t have a say, you don’t have a role.

It’s more embarrassing and confirm to us whether or not this is true, some of the parents and some of the family members complained that they were supposed to get tickets to watch their family members. It was so bad that some of them were even denied tickets into those games. Are you aware?

Well, I don’t know much about that. All I can say is that for the games and for the sports that we could get tickets for to watch, we did.

I’m talking about corruption, about tickets alone

My attention hasn’t been called to this serious matter? I’m available, and I’m ready to get all the reports about all of this, and I’m willing to look into every matter that has been a problem in this Olympics, the Ministry of Sports development under my watch, will thoroughly look at it, we will not ignore, we are going to deal with it right on.

Has the ministry apologised officially to Favor Ofili?

As the ministry’s Minister of Sports development in Paris, I was regularly in touch with Favour at every step of the way, and that’s the kind of approach I adopted since I became minister.

Cameras caught one of our athletes crying. What happens to the handlers?

Why was the athlete crying? Who was the athlete that was crying?

We should be asking that.

And the President of NOC told me, at that corridor where she was crying, where after every event, the athlete had to pass through, the only people that can be there are accredited journalists. And I question the president of NOC, a certain number of journalists were accredited. What happened? And he sent me a photo that indicated a journalist was on ground when she was doing so. It was not because there haven’t been explanations that have been made. It is about the fact that, well, in spite of those explanations, people still run with them and all that.

Those explanations are not tenable…

Nobody had control over crying or not. All I’m telling you is that at that point that that happened, the president of NOC defended the fact that there was a Nigerian journalist at that point as well consoling her.

Clarify the borrowed bicycle matter. Did Nigeria really borrow bicycle for Nigeria to compete at the Olympics?

The explanation that I’m going to make in this programme are explanations that I get details from the different federations. Again, I underscore a point I made at the beginning about the fact that, those who run these sports and others are the various presidents and the various leaderships of the federation, but having said so, again, in terms of my proactiveness, there is none of these that I found that I didn’t immediately swing into action. I immediately called the president of the Cycling Federation to find out from him what happened and the details, of course, I already tried to explain with details that before Nigeria left for Paris, that Nigeria qualified for just one race in Cycling, and the Ministry made provision for every of the sporting Federation in terms of their competition equipment. In this case for Cycling, it’s going to be one- the cycling, that was going to be required for that competition. When they arrived in Paris, the attention was called by the international body to say that a country had been disqualified, and two more races were now awarded to Nigeria at that point, those races required what a particular equipment to compete with, an equipment, a bike, for example after paying and ordering, you need to wait for about two months. We already had Olympics. What the federation did was to liaise with AS’s school in Spain and in partnership with a German company to be able to get the bike that used to compete. That’s exactly what happened. It was not a failure in terms of the inability of the ministry to provide equipment. It was done for the race, and the only race that cycling qualified for, until this came up while the team was already in Paris.

It looked like there was nothing you could do at our moment because she was already at that event.

The most we could do was to make her to compete and to get into the kinds of partnership with the Spanish school, a German company and the federation in charge of cycling to be able to get in. When I called the President, the President was himself embarrassed that this thing had gone public with what she posted, but if you look at what she posted: two things; first, there was a misunderstanding of her post. Secondly, she didn’t also state the proper context in which that took place, and that gave rise to a lot of the things that we now heard. But I’ve explained to you. What I’ve explained is actually what happened already at the Olympics, two more races were awarded that required some particular approved bikes for which the country couldn’t have, even if we paid money that day. We will wait after the Olympics to get the bike. And what happened was to then liaise with her school in Spain, because this is a girl that the Federation even took permission to allow her to continue her training in Spain. So, she wasn’t part of the German camp that were actually established. So, all of these came in handy at the point that this came up. I don’t blame Nigerians when they are emotional.

You talked about administrative incapacitation,  the ministry is in the eyes of the IOC, the LOC, and the Federation, do you have power to sack or discipline any erring head of Federation?

I don’t have such powers?

Why are you a minister?

I’m unable to properly appreciate what happens in other climes, but I tell you, I have already stated an intention, an indication about the fact that we need to reform our federations. I’ve stated that intention. These federations, the leaderships are elected in congresses at the whole office for four years. Those four years are supposed to coincide with the four year Olympic cycle. Except that,  I now find out that almost all of them, they took office months after the last Olympics, and therefore their tenure is going to be until some months in the future. But what I can say, for example, is that, like I try to characterize, and I give an example, maybe my colleague, who is Minister of Aviation, becomes minister, and looks at the parastatals and agencies and finds people that will not contribute enough to the achievement of what goal he thinks wants to achieve, and he works towards what their replacement and all of that. The Minister of Sports Development hasn’t such luxury, he doesn’t have.

So, if that is what operates, why do we then have Ministry of Sports?

Because the ministry and the minister would normally take charge of the funding of all international sporting competitions, and what you are given is the outlets.

Unfortunately, your office is limited in powers to be able to prosecute and discipline such persons.

Let me tell you. A few days ago, I was talking to one of the presidents, and he told me, because I told him that look, I have thought loud about all of this, and I have had to ask people that both in the ministry, the leadership of the federations that this is not their first Olympics. A lot of them is their second, is their third, is their fourth. This president told me, this was his fourth Olympics, and I said I didn’t understand how they continue to feel. Because we may not have had a medal in this Olympics, but this is not the first time in which we will be underperforming in terms of the expectations of Nigerians.  So, you find out that the leaderships of these federations, there are various considerations that guide how they operate. And it’s interesting, because whatever has become of their considerations that have been adopted by the international bodies are what they have recommended to those international bodies. And I had cause to question, I provide the funding through government, government provides the funding, and you say, there’s nothing that can happen, that can be done, you know it’s an ongoing conversation. There is interference in every sport. There is such talk in every spot.

We need to break things down, it’s like they are operating in a federation within a federation

Without prejudice to some of the Federation presidents that I have found who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, what I can say, for example, is that with a lot of them, we need to get to a point in which you have people who have passion for this sport, people who have actually been in private sector involvement and funding, people who are not just going to use the platform of Federation leadership to their own advantages. Those are the kinds of people we need to encourage to assume leadership positions of these federations. And the only way you can achieve this is looking at, what do their constitution say ahead of their elections? What and what can the ministry and government do? And that’s one of the things that makes me glad about the ongoing conversation. Maybe as unfortunate as it is, you want to express how bad they feel, I agree, and I appreciate, but I’m also glad that these discussions are going on now, and I need these discussions to continue. Let’s not just be limited to the reaction, because we didn’t get a medal, let it go further in terms of what is playing out, which of those federations want to become an obstacle to that reform?

Athletes claim they sponsored themselves largely

Well, I don’t think I will understand or appreciate when Ahmed said they did this or that. Let me tell you, that has brought us to the region of the prosecution of the games, because after the Federation did what they did and presented the athletes, the ministry takes over in terms of sponsorships and all of that. One of the things that I have brought in as sports development minister is, trying to establish confidence, trust and transparency. I have tried to achieve that. For the first time, we went to an Olympics and came back. A lot of the allowances- almost all were paid even in advance. There’s nobody that has been owed a kobo. They were all paid, they were paid in advance, in most of the cases, even before they went for the Olympics proper, all the allowances for the Olympics paid ahead. No one is being owed a kobo out of this last Olympics. But let me tell you, when they talk about paying for their training, training allowances, again, it now brings us to that same issue about, how well do we prepare for each of these events. Now, the ministry the way it was structured, I’m glad at the center stage, the discussion on sports are now going. When we give foreign training grants to foreign athletes, these were provided. When I went to the games village in Paris, one of the most vexed issues that was thrown up was the issue about foreign training grants. And I can tell you on good authority that, all of that was paid, even when they made a case about the fact that they needed more money, I didn’t make an immediate commitment. I told them that if there’s something that we can do, we will do, for the first time, even the local athletes even though I now hear that there are complaints about the fact that they were billed a certain amount, but for the first time, in recent times, local athletes were also paid training grants. It has not taken place before.

They said they are being intimidated. They are not allowed to speak to the media. Doping issue. Cynthia Ogunsemilore tested positive for a banned substance and did not compete at the Olympics. Does this validate World Anti Doping Agencies claiming that Nigeria isn’t doing enough to address the issue of doping?

Well, yes and no. Yes, to the extent, for example, that was in the last Olympics, in the 2020, Olympics and all of that, of course, you know the number of athletes that couldn’t compete, one or two that has now been paraded as having won a medal of another country was one of them who couldn’t compete because the country or the ministry was unable to do the three out of Completion test that was required. So, you are right. But in terms of this particular Olympics, not only did the ministry ensure that the three out of Completion test was done, the ministry under my leadership took further, to make them understand the fact that we are serious about the doping matters in Nigerian sports, and we are determined to confront it, which is why the Anti- Doping Bill that for over 20 years had been here, nothing had been done courtesy of Mr. president in terms of his leadership and understanding. It was sent to the National Assembly, and it’s been passed into law, it is, awaiting presidential ascent. So, this is what this has done. When the issue about the boxer came up and all that, of course, I immediately got in touch with the CEO of the Nigerian Doping Committee that we presently have, and she talked about the fact that the last set of samples that were taken, they were waiting for the results before the athletes travelled. So, the fact that, that happened in itself is not in itself a reflection of our unseriousness with matters about doping. In fact, this ministry, the present leadership, has tackled doping challenges and issues head -on.

Wada declared that Nigerian athletes were asked to compete in their own names, and not in Nigerian athletes

It wasn’t for this Olympics. Nobody will need to educate me about this, I have followed it, that when I became minister, that same week, WADA put us on notice about our possible suspension, and the possibility that we’ll be stopped going for the Olympics, and went on and on. I was the one that got the ministry and the sector to declare a dispute with Wada, the matter went to the court of Arbitration of sports. That’s where the matter is now. So, the possibility of our being stopped from taking part in Olympics could not have arisen because the matter taken by Wada to court hasn’t been determined, it hasn’t been heard yet.

But would you take a closer look on this doping matter because of the danger it poses?

We are already doing so. A lot of efforts that have continued to be made: Individuals, camps, the local campaign, the foreign campaign, and all that. We had our teams of doping people, educating the athletes, we are not just stopping at the things I’ve mentioned here, and we’re going ahead because try as you try, you need to continue to educate, and continue to talk to the athletes about the dangers and about how he doesn’t do the country any good.

Do we have a structure, are you learning that lesson? Are you doing something immediately to build a structure?

It’s one of two things: First, I think you’re making the case for me. Secondly, I think that, I’m learning the lesson in the very hard way. And thirdly, what I can say to you is that, the truth is that we got no system. The truth that we got no structure. Yesterday, a former Minister of sports development called me to offer his own suggestions and advise, saying that he got lucky during his time, he won two medals. So even when he won two medals, he attributes it to luck. It is because there is no system. There is no structure. Now, two things. Now funding for whatever it is. I know you can’t talk too much about this funding because we got what we wanted, but for the competition, none for the provision. Go and check, since 2020, there is no item in the Ministry of Sports budget that reflects anything about Olympics, and that has to begin. We need to be intentional. There is none of the sporting federations that has, let’s say, an established Training Center where they quit for this sport, that has to happen. Sports has gone beyond the mere possession of talent. There’s something called, “Performance Centers”. Those things are the fact that, talent alone is not enough. There are other variables that determine the outcome of various competitions.

Why do we rely heavily on foreign Nigerian descent who majorly just decided to represent Nigeria anyway?

Because we were unable to produce ours in-country. We talk about structure. That’s what I think that we need to confront. Building a strong structure, incidentally, the decision cannot be taken by me alone because those athletes come from different states, they come from local governments, even our sub- regional governments need to be involved. Incidentally, sports is the concurrent list of the Constitution, so everybody’s hands needs to be on deck. The sub nationals, the private sector, government, all of that need to be in totality. But the ministry is going to lead that chat, we are going to lead the way. Because, I have told some people, we have been here before. You mentioned in 2012, but how many years after? Four years after, after the 2012 disasters outcome just like now, a meeting was convened at the villa, a lot of talk was done. But four years after, what did we manage to get? A bronze in football.

Another Olympics is upon us, we have heavyweights to face, when are we beginning that preparation?

That preparation starts now. First, one of the things we are going to do is to be able to do a post -mortem of what has happened in order to see what lesson that we can learn. We need to be targeted. We need to be intentional. We need to be able to, for the first time, the next year’s budget has to contain a line item that reflects that beginning preparation. So, we need to put the federations to the strictest test in terms of what they are doing in different federations, to get our athletes prepared and ready.

In two weeks, paralympics is here. That’s how prepared are we?

We have done the preparations that we can, the Paralympic team has left, they’ve gone for their own campaign as well. The camp is open now. They have finished the local, they are in their foreign leg.

You are confident that we might do better?

Yes, after Paris, and after taking 100% the promises and the calculations from the different federations, even as bad as we came back from the Olympics and all that. I’m also making my calculations very carefully. My expectations are we are going to come back with medals, but I can’t say how many. We can do better in Para Power Lifting, that should be able to do as good. Because we are good, Para Badminton, Para tennis, and Para Power.

Update on super Eagles, Coach, we have qualifying games for AFCON…

Well, once in a while I have made calls to the Federation because, like I have continued to explain, fortunately, unfortunately, again, it’s the Minister of sports development that is going to be asked that question, but the NFF has the immediate direct responsibility in terms of that regard, in terms of engagement, in terms of all of that. I have continued to ask questions. The guarantee I have is that, that is going to happen sooner than later, before the game.

Do you agree that we need to declare a state of emergency on our sports?

Why not? And I do this for obvious reasons, and you have already underscored the kind of reaction that has attended our dismal performance. Sports is what creates liveliness and happiness, is what binds us, is what is working. And I think that it deserves more attention it deserves. Regardless of what it’s going to take us to get result, because I know what results matter to Nigerians.