The minister for youth and sports development John Owan Enoh has apologized to Nigerians over the poor representation of Team Nigeria at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Senator Enoh who posted on his X handle expresses disappointment at the Nigerian athletes for failing to win a medal.
In his words: ”The Olympic Games, Paris 2024, has ended, and I accept that our performance should have been a lot better. It obviously fell short of our objectives, expectations, and hopes of Nigerians.
”I must apologize to our compatriots and reflect on what went wrong while looking forward to the Paralympic Games, Paris 2024(August 28- September 8th).
Enoh, who was appointed minister in August 2023,in his defence stated that the preparations for the Olympics had not begun when he assumed office, and the tight schedule also included the AFCON and the African Games.
He said the ministry will comprehensively carry out a process to look into what went wrong at the tournament;
“As a responsible organisation, we have swung into a review process. We shall evaluate the competition readiness of every athlete comprehensively, including their injury and medical history within the limits of patient confidentiality. The role of coaches and administrative staff will also be examined.
”There must be a lot of lessons to learn from our performance and improvements must be made in all ramifications. The last time we returned from the Olympics without a medal was in 2012. The next two Olympics after that we’ve had a bronze medal in 2016 and a silver and bronze in the 2020 Olympics.
“As a country, we deserve more. Let’s turn the disastrous outcome of the 2024 Olympics to a huge positive for Nigerian sports,” he said.