Nigerians have been calling for the immediate sack of sport minister John Owan Enoh after ending Olympics without a medal.
Shuiabu Gara-Gombe,the chairman of Gombe State Athletics Association on Friday, shortly after World Record holder, Tobi Amusan, failed to qualify for the final of the 100m hurdles event at the Paris Olympics said “What will the Sports Minister John Owan Enoh tell President Bola Tinubu now that Nigeria failed to win a single medal at the Paris Olympics?” He said Nigeria’s participation in this Paris 2024 is the worst Olympic in medal finish.
He further said; “When he was supposed to plan for the Paris Olympics, the minister was busy following NFA up and down looking for football coach and getting himself involve in technical matters and at the same time hosting all sorts of jokers and mediocres in the name of partnership and collaboration. He was busy travelling from one country to another doing nothing.
He failed to genuinely bring together unity among members of some sporting federations, including the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), which is the focal federation of any Olympics”.
Some other stakeholders also expressed their anger over Nigeria’s failure to get a single medal in Paris.
Former Green Eagles winger, now a Sports Scientist, Adegoke Adelabu, also said: “The question is whether we have any progressive plan to build on our past successes? I have said it times without number, that there will always be athletes that will represent Nigeria in international competitions, but do we have any progressive plan to perform better in subsequent competitions.
“We are really facing performance draught, and I think we need to rediscover our performance edge”.
A sports journalist also said.“Paris 2024 has been a classic case of the chickens coming home to roost as decades of incompetence, mismanagement, corruption, lackadaisical attitude and me, me, me culture, have all conspired to embarrass Nigeria.”
All in all,we hope this serves as a wake up call and we improve on our preparations for major competitions. And people who are in positions to make decisions for our sporting activities should be held accountable.