The Minister of Sports Development, John Enoh has issued a personal apology to Nigerians over the poor outing of the Nigerian team at the just-concluded 2024 Paris games, Olympics. President Bola Tinubu had approved ₦12bn for the country’s outing at the Olympics and the Paralympics. ₦9bn was earmarked for the former while ₦3bn was budgeted for the latter.
Despite the funding, Nigeria had ended the games without a medal.
Apologising to Nigerians in a statement on Sunday, Enoh said the team had fallen short of expectations. “The Olympic Games, Paris 2024, have 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).
“When I assumed office as the Minister of Sports Development in August 2023, I was confronted with the task of executing four international competitions namely the AFCON, the African Games, the Olympic and Paralympic Games in a matter of a few months. I was also reminded that the Olympic Games is the world’s supreme sports competition, and countries require at least four years to prepare for it. I held extensive discussions with the management staff of the Ministry and got to know that preparations for the Olympics, which was less than a year away, had not started.
“In the true Nigerian spirit, it was our view that we should spare no effort to sustain the international sports image of our country. Our target was to re-enact the Atlanta 1996 performance or even improve on it. “To this end, we embarked on a progressive approach to drive forward the performance of our athletes and coaches. In my first week in office, I requested all National Sports Federations to furnish me with plans and programmes. I also embarked on a nationwide inspection of our sports facilities. “Subsequently, I constituted a Ministerial Podium Performance Advisory Committee comprising seasoned sports performance professionals to drive our preparations.
At this time, we had hardly qualified for the Olympics in any sport. “We focused on both the AFCON and the African Games (both of which were happening in quick succession) while our athletes also participated in Olympic and Paralympic qualification tournaments. This had the disadvantage of compelling the athletes to attain peak performances several times within a short space of time. “I was also enlightened that athletes of many countries had qualified almost one year ago and had already structured their training programmes for the Olympics. We were not deterred.
“I convened a series of meetings involving the Presidents of the National Sports Federations, their Technical Directors, and Secretaries General. These meetings examined the preparations for the competitions.
