The botched Puma deal and Team Nigeria’s misfortune at Tokyo Olympics

BY ISRAEL OJOKO

Like every other country, Nigerian athletes who had qualified for the 2020 Olympics, packed their bags, got good wishes from family and friends, headed to the airport, and landed in the old beautiful city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan.

According to Wiki, the busy city of Tokyo mixes the ultramodern and the traditional, from neon-lit skyscrapers to historic temples. The opulent Meiji Shinto Shrine is known for its towering gate and surrounding woods. The Imperial Palace sits amid large public gardens.  It is an aesthetic place to be.

The athletes, in high spirit, were hoping to have the best of experience which the Olympics is known for while competing against the finest across the world for medals. Though these athletes were not expecting too much from the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), sports ministry, and sports federations due to past ordeals, they just wanted to take their career to the next level and represent their country the best way possible.

In 2016, Nigeria’s football team escaped disqualification from the Rio Olympics by a whisker after almost missing the first game against Japan. The Samson Siasia side arrived in Manaus just seven hours to kickoff. The squad, captained by John Obi Mikel were stuck in Atlanta, USA, with the charter airline hired to fly them on the last leg of their journey refusing to leave until they get paid.

The sports ministry headed by Solomon Dalung at the time blamed ‘logistical mix-up with payments’ as the cause of the national embarrassment. The Dream Team went on to win bronze, and that was Nigeria’s only medal in Rio.

Before the Tokyo Olympics, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) was at loggerhead with itself in a leadership tussle. Factional elections were held on June 14 in Kebbi and Abuja simultaneously with Ibrahim Gusau elected for another four-year tenure, while Tonobot Okowa, chairman of Delta State Sports Commission, won the other election in Abuja to become the president of AFN.

Okowa has the backing of sports minister Sunday Dare, who refused the Nigerian athletics team from wearing the Puma kits at the Tokyo Olympics. Gusau had signed a four-year deal with the German company in 2019 in a contract that includes kitting the track and field athletes and also cash gifts for medal winners.

Perhaps the internal battle in the AFN would not have been viral if shot put athlete Chukwuebuka Enekwechi did not post a video of himself washing the only jersey he has as he prepared for the final. That viral video has been deleted because of the embarrassment it brought upon the sports ministry. The report also claimed the 28-year-old was given a thousand dollars to take down the video.

Puma, too big to be dragged into the mud by some irresponsible, egocentric set of people, terminated the agreement with immediate effect and threatened to drag the AFN to court for breach of contract. But back home, it is a game of blames flying up and down, with no one willing to take responsibility.

I read from the camp of the sports minister that Gusau, alongside Sunday Adeleye, technical director of the body, was dragged to court by the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) for alleged diversion of over $75,000. They also alleged that funds for the Puma kits contract were paid into personal accounts and the then Gusau-led AFN signed a confidentiality clause in the contract with PUMA which prevented them from revealing details of the contract to the supervising body.

Sunday Dare’s camp allegedly added that Gusau has continued his campaign of calumny against the ministry and Nigeria’s interest by wilfully sabotaging preparations for the Olympics and expending a whooping N2.7bn to sponsor negative stories in the media. Really?

N2.7 billion to engineer a campaign of calumny against the minister for what exactly? Global brands and institutions don’t get to expend this amount of money for lobbying purposes in Washington. Let’s call a spade its real name. Nigeria’s performance at the Tokyo Olympics is riddled with ignominy and unimaginable opprobrium.

What was the premise of dissolving the boards of federations by the honourable minister on the eve of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics? Who cuts his or her nose to spite their face? This would go down in the annals of Nigeria’s history as one of the most shambolic displays ever.

What about the ten athletes who were disqualified because they failed to undergo mandatory tests ahead of the global sports event. This is the responsibility of the AFN and sports ministry, but it was abandoned because personal interest took the better side of the last four years.

Knowledge Omovoh, Ruth Usoro, Favor Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma, Glory Patrick, Yinka Ajayi, Tima Godbless, Chidi Okezie, Chioma Onyekwere, and Annette Echikunwoke may never forgive those responsible for their painful ordeal. We all saw pictures of Nigerian athletes protesting at the Tokyo Olympics. How were Gusau, Okowa, and Sunday Dare able to sleep after seeing those photos? This is the height of it.

Every angle you turn to is a recurring decimal with the litany of lamentations by athletes and managers from Chimezie Metu, Michael Brown, Funke Oshonaike,  Blessing Okagbare, Aruna Quadri, et all. The honourable minister, Sunday Dare, at best should cover his head in shame and quit the attempt to repudiate the show of humiliation over the Puma sporting contract that was engineered by the Gusau AFN board

While the honourable minister deserves to be relieved of his appointment and tender an unreserved apology to the ten athletes and Nigerians in general, Gusau should also know that he is an accomplice in this display of witticism between the two camps. News of such reckless deeds must not emanate from the most populous black nation in the world, not anymore.