One year of sports under Muhammadu Buhari has been so far, so good, considering Nigeria’s successes in major international competitions since he became president on May 29, 2015.
He had assured sportsmen and women that his administration would accord priority to sports, and he did just that.
Basketball
Basketball brought the first laurel when on August 30, 2015 the D’Tigers, as the national male basketball team is called, won the 2015 Afrobasket Championships in Tunisia.
Nigeria defeated Africa’s number one basketball nation, Angola, to win the cup for the first time and in the process secured a Rio 2016 Olympics qualification ticket.
To grow the game, the African Basketball League (ABL) was created to rival the Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF).
ABL Chief Executive Officer, Ugo Udezue, disclosed that since the debut of ABL in December 2015, basketball has been rejuvenated and gathered more fans.
He said ABL was set up to improve socio-economic development on the continent through tourism and sports.
Table tennis
Nigeria’s men and women’s teams qualified for the 2016 International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF’s) World Team Table Tennis Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The ITTF also confirmed Team Nigeria as one of the 16 countries that will compete in the men’s team event of the Rio Olympics.
Team Nigeria will fly Africa’s flag in the company of world and Asian champions, China, as well as Germany, the United States, Australia, and hosts Brazil.
Others include Japan, Hong Kong, Portugal, Korea Republic, France, Sweden, Austria, Poland, Chinese Taipei, and England.
This means the trio of Segun Toriola, Aruna Quadri, and Bode Abiodun (the third highest ranked Nigerian in the world) have qualified for the singles event at the Olympics.
However, Nigeria’s female team will play no part, as Egypt will represent the continent in the event which will also feature China, Germany, the U.S., Australia, and Brazil.
Others are Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea Republic, Chinese Taipei, Korea DPR, the Netherlands, Romania, Poland, and Austria.
Africa Games
In spite of poor preparation for the Africa Games, the continent’s Olympics version, Team Nigeria proved book makers wrong to finish second behind perennial winners, Egypt.
The Games, held in Cairo from September 4 to 18, 2015, lived up to expectations and Nigerian athletes proved themselves.
Many analysts considered the showing good enough against the backdrop that Nigeria has never done better than that, safe for when it hosted and won COJA 2003.
Rio Olympic Games
Nigeria is scheduled to compete at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from August 5 to 21, 2016.
Since the nation made its debut in 1952, Nigerian athletes have participated in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games, except the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada because Africa boycotted it.
Nigeria will participate in athletics, basketball, boxing, canoeing, football, rowing, table tennis, weightlifting, and wrestling.
Nigerian athletes have achieved qualifying standards in the following athletics events (maximum of three athletes in each event):
• Men’s 100 m, Men’s 200 m, Men’s 400 m; Men’s 400 m hurdles
• Men’s triple jump, Men’s shot put;
• Women’s 100 m, Women’s 200 m, Women’s 400 m, Women’s 100 m hurdles, Women’s 400 m hurdles
• Women’s high jump, Women’s heptathlon.
Nigeria men’s basketball team qualified by winning the AfroBasket 2015 in Tunisia and will play the group matches against Argentina, Spain, Brazil, and Lithuania.
Besides, Nigeria has
• Qualified one canoeist in the men’s K-1 class, Jonathan Akinyemi, by obtaining a top finish at the 2015 African Canoe Slalom Championships in Sagana, Kenya.
• Qualified one boat in the women’s single sculls at the 2015 African Continental Qualification Regatta in Tunis, Tunisia. Chierika Ukogu will represent Nigeria.
• Qualified one female weightlifter by virtue of a top four national finish at the 2016 African Championships. The team must allocate this place by June 20.
• Qualified a total seven wrestlers for different classes. One of them finished in the top six to book an Olympic spot in the women’s freestyle 53kg at the 2015 World Championships.
The majority of the Olympic berths were awarded to Nigerian wrestlers, who were in the top two finals at the 2016 African and Oceania Qualification Tournament.
The wrestlers and their classes are Amas Daniel (65 kg), Soso Tamarau (97 kg), Mercy Genesis (48 kg), Odunayo Adekuoroye (53 kg), Aminat Adeniyi (58 kg), Blessing Oborududu (63 kg), and Hannah Rueben (69 kg).
• Entered four athletes in table tennis. Olympic veterans Quadri Aruna and Olufunke Oshonaike secured a place each in the men’s and women’s singles by virtue of a top four finish at the 2015 All-Africa Games.
Segun Toriola and Offiong Edem took the remaining table tennis spots by virtue of their respective top two finish at the African Qualification Tournament in Khartoum, Sudan.
Toriola will become the fourth table tennis player and the first ever African athlete to appear in seven editions of the Summer Olympics.
Football
The Golden Eaglets went to the Chile 2015 FIFA Under-17 World Cup, saw, and conquered.
The side, tutored by Emmanuel Amuneke, defeated Mali by 2-0 in June 2015 to lift the trophy for a record fifth time.
However, the distractions between the faction of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) led by Chris Giwa and the present one led by Amaju Pinnick did not help Nigerian football.
The Super Eagles for the second consecutive time failed to qualify for the African Cup of Nations, which ordinarily should be Nigeria’s turf, given its soccer pedigree.
As Buhari did not promise anything for sports during his electioneering campaign, one would say that he has not done badly.
He released funds in good time for the All Africa Games.
In a clear departure from the past when money was released for events a week or two to such events, Buhari had after meeting the leadership of the then National Sports Commission (NSC), which has since been scrapped, released money for the All Africa Games and preparation for the Rio Games, and three months before the Congo Games
He warned that the N2.9 billion approved must be accounted for to the last kobo.
One decision that has endeared Buhari to sports lovers is his reward for the Golden Eaglets who conquered the world in the maiden edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 1985 under his watch.
Buhari, then military head of state, had pledged to reward the players and their coaches handsomely, but he did not fulfil the promise before he was overthrown by Ibrahim Babangida in August 1985.
Buhari did not forget his promise and decided to “do something” while receiving other victorious Nigerian athletes.
He announced that each member of the U-17 team in 1985 would get N2 million and those who won the cup in Chile N1.2 million each.
Players and handler of the 2015 CAF U-23 Championship got N500,000 each while N300,000 went to the assistant coaches and other officials.
But Buhari lamented Nigeria’s poor outing at the 2012 London Olympics. He pledged the support of his administration for the Rio Olympics and urged the athletes to continue to do the nation proud.
However, the appointment of Solomon Dalung as sports minister came as a surprise to many as well as the scrapping of the NSC.
Many also believe Dalung has not done well in ensuring accountability and transparency in Nigerian sports, which makes the private sector shy away from investing in it.
Nigeria in the last one year has not fared badly in sports, but it could have done a lot better with good administrators in charge.
The bane of the country’s sports is administration, failure to maintain sports facilities, and the non involvement of the private sector.
Sports is not yet big business in Nigeria, unlike in developed countries. And for this to change, those running the show must look at the bigger picture and not just being interested in who occupies NFF Glass House.
The government must create the enabling environment for the private sector to get involved and for this to happen, and there must be less scandal in the sector.
Those in charge must be transparent and make accountability and the welfare of the athletes a top priority.