While Nigeria’s outing at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, where she finished without a medal, may be a surprise to many, it did not come as a surprise to me. To date, the 1996 Olympic Games remain Nigeria’s best showing at the global fiesta despite having participated in 18 Olympic Games since 1952, after boycotting the 1976 edition in Montreal, Canada. In that time, however, Nigeria failed to win a medal at the Olympics on eight different occasions; 1952, 1956, 1960, 1968, 1980, 1988, 2012, and 2024.

Nigeria first won a medal at the 1964 Tokyo Games in Japan, when Nojim Maiyegun won a bronze medal in the boxing middleweight division. Nigeria’s first gold medal was won by Chioma Ajunwa in the long jump event at the Atlanta 1996 Games. In the same Games, another gold was won in football, where Nigeria defeated Argentina 2-1 in the gold medal match. A silver was won in the women’s 4x400m relay. Mary Onyali, in the women’s 200m, Falilat Ogunkoya in the women’s 400m, and Duncan Dokiwari, a boxer, all won bronze medals, to make the Atlanta 1996 Olympics Nigeria’s best-ever outing to date.

Nigeria won another gold in the men’s 4x400m relay at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. All in all, Nigeria has won a few more silver and bronze medals, to bring her total overall medals tally at the Olympics to 27 medals, made up of 3 gold, 11 silver, and 13 bronze medals. For a country with the 6th largest population in the world, this is indeed a poor return in 18 Olympic outings.

While the Olympic Games is a sporting event, winning at the Olympics goes beyond sports, and so we must look beyond sports to understand why Nigeria consistently performs poorly at the Olympic Games. The Olympic Games is the global congregation of the best of the best, and so, only excellence can propel you to victory. For a country to do well at the Olympics, therefore, excellence must be an integral part of the national ethos and value system.

Countries which Nigeria come up against at the Olympics understand this, and so promote excellence in all aspects of their national life. These countries have realized that Olympic preparation starts from the mind of individual citizens, who must believe that nothing but excellence is good enough.

In Nigeria, however, excellence is mostly not good enough. Nigeria is the only country in the world, which, contrary to general beliefs, never puts her best foot forward. And that is the beginning of the Olympics’ failure. In most countries only the very best rise to the top. In these nations, there is continuous competition to filter out the best and elevate them. When occasions arise for international friendly battles like the Olympics, these are the ones to be presented. 

It follows, therefore, that any nation that applies any other consideration than excellence to bring people to the top would always fail. This is not just about sports. It is about the national ethos and value system. It is about the mentality and perception ingrained in citizens that only excellence would do. In Nigeria, excellence is usually not the number one factor in the rise to the top. Other considerations take precedence, while excellence is an unwanted distraction. I was once informed as a staff member of a Federal Government Agency that anyone could do any job. Which infers that a bricklayer could do the job of a medical doctor. That is Nigeria for you.

In elevating people in Nigeria, the emphasis is more on ethnic, religious, and regional balance or political connections than excellence. Nowhere in the Nigerian constitution does it propose that only the best must be appointed into offices. That is why, when candidates are nominated, the issues we consider are: How many Northerners/Southerners? How many Christians/Muslims? How many from each state? How many women? How many men? These are the issues that bother Nigerians.

Over time, these primordial issues have overtaken excellence in the national psyche. People no longer strive for excellence, knowing that excellence is not the number one consideration in rising to the top. Nigerians know that being Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, or a minority is more relevant in your rise to the top than your excellence. Our rise to the top, therefore, is determined more by our religion, ethnic background, tribal affiliation, state of origin, or political connections. How then does a country that promotes tribal and religious affiliation as its national ethos expect to compete at the global stage with nations that promote excellence?

I once met a student who scored over 300 marks in the Universities Matriculation Examination UME, and she could not obtain admission into a federal university due to high-level competition in her course of choice. In the same Nigeria, however, her contemporary, who scored 180, was offered admission by several federal universities for the same course simply because she was from a different part of the country. The mentality of that student and her perception of Nigeria has been damaged for life. She knows that working hard and doing well may not be good enough.

Nigeria is a complex nation of diverse desires. There is no national vision or dream. There has never been a consensus of national desire as to what is best for Nigeria. Every ethnic group, tribe, religion, and region has its own desires, which it pursues to the detriment of others. It is always one region fighting the other, a tribe fighting another tribe, or one religion against the other. How does such a divided country hope to compete favourably with other countries of the world? 

Since a bricklayer can do a medical doctor’s job, that is why a man who has never been to a stadium all his life and understands little or nothing about sports would be appointed Minister of Sports, when people who breathe, live and eat sports daily are available. That is also why excellent sportsmen and women are languishing on the sidelines, while politicians make up the National Olympic Committee NOC and emerge as presidents and technical directors of sports federations. The cumulative effect of the above issues is the reason why Nigerians may never excel at the Olympics.

It is also the reason why Nigerians excel in other countries. That is also why many Nigerians loathe their country and use any opportunity to japa. Many Nigerians are happy anywhere but in Nigeria. It is obvious that unless Nigeria retraces her steps by promoting excellence over and above other considerations, the era of failures at not just the Olympic Games but generally at the international stage would continue.

Vanguard