i cant agree more..... the olympics is a reflection of where we are as nigerians,our traditional strength football we are not represented in athletics we churned out people who were inadequately prepared, I can bet you blessing okagbare our brightest light trained herself our basketballers got to london out of share determination and guess what our flag was carried by our greatest medal hopeful chika chukwumerije.... a politicians son!

kettykin: Please befroe you go further in your throwing of bucks and casting of aspersions in your fit of misplaced agression , find out whom the current minister of sporst is and the people running NFA and you can see clearly on whom you can put the blame on, also find out who the NOC president, and other sports administrators. Please this has nothing do with GEJ.

GEJ appologist go and check your brain fast fast..who appointed the minister? Na your papa abi? When a community,town,country is in disarray like this,check the leader in power.Bomb in kogi coming down to south gradually....GEJ should go and resign immediately.he has no answer to nigerian problem.

kettykin: Please befroe you go further in your throwing of bucks and casting of aspersions in your fit of misplaced agression , find out whom the current minister of sporst is and the people running NFA and you can see clearly on whom you can put the blame on, also find out who the NOC president, and other sports administrators. Please this has nothing do with GEJ.


So who does the minister of sports report to? was the minister of sports appointed by nigerians or by GEJ....... go and clean your brains please

banki: kettykin: Please befroe you go further in your throwing of bucks and casting of aspersions in your fit of misplaced agression , find out whom the current minister of sporst is and the people running NFA and you can see clearly on whom you can put the blame on, also find out who the NOC president, and other sports administrators. Please this has nothing do with GEJ.


So who does the minister of sports report to? was the minister of sports appointed by nigerians or by GEJ....... go and clean your brains please

pls, it doesn't take you some seconds to reason this. When every one in power is corrupt, how do you think a system void of corruption will come into existence? Its either the president (GCFR) are a move that will leave this leaders at the mercy of the masses or the people stand up to fight every corrupt leader in one voice. Pls, don't underestimate the power of the president.

while oda countries r "usain bolting", Nigeria is "moon WAlking" smh 4 our country

Nigeria, we can all see why Nigeria is not progressing. Just take a look at this thread, a thread where sensible comments is been made is still at 3 pages. If it where to be PEJ ate bread and poo beans, it would have been hitting 60 pages. We need reorientation.

Rossikk: @poster, but I have one question, what differentiates all those athletes and medallists from you?? Do they have two heads? Is anything wrong with your arms or legs? You see this whole ideas of guys sitting down behind computers and castigating the rest of the country for not going out there and winning gold medals is the very problem we have. When will YOU take personal responsibility??

Africans, especially Nigerians, are expert at blaming something or somebody.
Just some way of letting off steam. giving the country the stick for one's personal frustrations.

Especially rich, coming from people who have never played sport beyond their backyard, blaming the country for not winning an Olympic medal. Laughable.

I do not applaud mediocrity,as it is true that Nigeria has done woefully at these Olympic Games. However before we blow Nigeria out of the water it's good to put things into context.

Nigeria: Population = 170,123,740 (170 Million)
Medals = 0 (so far)

India: Population = 1,210,193,422 (1.2 Billion)
Medals = 3 (so far).

The countries doing well have invested to ensure that success.

Rossikk:

I wasn't blaming the athletes either. I was blaming the poster. You say 'everything is crumbling' but I don't see 'everything crumbling'. I just see people like you claiming everything is crumbling while sat on your fat assses doing nothing to assist the country. Sports being one example. WHY ARE YOU not an Olympic athlete? You sit behind your computer expecting others to go and win medals for you and when they don't you say the country is crumbling. It is YOU that's crumbling. You and all those well fed middle class Nigerians who were raised to believe that sports is for paupers, and the underclass. Well guess what? The underclass lack your nutrition, strength and confidence to take on the world. It is the well fed middle classes, fed on beef, chicken and cornflakes all their lives that should be out there competing for gold on the world stage, and even working in sports administration, training etc, but no, after attending our elite secondary schools, we all abandoned sports (no matter how good we were at it) to become lawyers, doctors, engineers, IT specialists, and then when the dregs of society are left to be our sportsmen and officials, we moan about a ''crumbling country'' when they don't bring home the gold. But it is you that is crumbling, not Nigeria. Go back to your air-conditioned office.

this is definitely the best constructive response i av read on nairaland,,the choice of words and the manner of approach was excellent,,,thumbs up,,,

yea

Nigerian had best olympic sucess under Abacha 1996

Rossikk:

I wasn't blaming the athletes either. I was blaming the poster. You say 'everything is crumbling' but I don't see 'everything crumbling'. I just see people like you claiming everything is crumbling while sat on your fat assses doing nothing to assist the country. Sports being one example. WHY ARE YOU not an Olympic athlete? You sit behind your computer expecting others to go and win medals for you and when they don't you say the country is crumbling. It is YOU that's crumbling. You and all those well fed middle class Nigerians who were raised to believe that sports is for paupers, and the underclass. Well guess what? The underclass lack your nutrition, strength and confidence to take on the world. It is the well fed middle classes, fed on beef, chicken and cornflakes all their lives that should be out there competing for gold on the world stage, and even working in sports administration, training etc, but no, after attending our elite secondary schools, we all abandoned sports (no matter how good we were at it) to become lawyers, doctors, engineers, IT specialists, and then when the dregs of society are left to be our sportsmen and officials, we moan about a ''crumbling country'' when they don't bring home the gold. But it is you that is crumbling, not Nigeria. Go back to your air-conditioned office.

Please give it a rest and stop attacking your fellow Nairalanders with your palpable anger based on reasoning no balanced individual, anywhere in the world, can identify with. Not calling a spade a spade, with the provision of nonsensical arguments and senseless excuses, will soon be the only thing Nigerians will be famous for - since we now do everything badly and cannot even admit the simple cause of the rot to ourselves.

If Nigerian Doctors are failing because of poor training, does that mean those who are not doctors should not lament what the Nation has become which has led to the situation now compromising our healthcare? Should we all start heading to medical school to then gain the right to criticise the rot in the medical sector?

So everyone who trained as an Architect, for example, must have no say in what obtains in the medical field? Guy, stop this your redundant and intellectually lazy reasoning. We are not and cannot all be athletes. Those who chose to be athletes can do much better if Nigeria was run better. This is the simple truth many worldwide admit to. This Olympic failure is a damning indictment leadership is letting Nigeria down badly even if folks like you want to submit viewpoints that makes no sense and only seek to deflect blame from where it firmly belongs. Monumental corruption now means no one bothers to pretend we are interested in Sports any more. I wonder what you think brings success. You think it is by millions of us , even those without the natural endowment, "patrioticially" becoming athletes or is it by ensuring those who are gifted athlete, whatever their numbers, are supported optimally to be the best possible?

http://saharareporters.com/article/london-2012-olympics-where-will-medal-come

London 2012 Olympics: Where Will The Medal Come From?
Posted: August 6, 2012 - 14:03
By Tony Ishiekwene
The London 2012 Olympics is now on its tenth day and should be finishing by the week end. As at the end of day 9, China leads the pack with 30Golds, 17Silver and 14Bronze medals, a total haul of 61 medals; The US is not far behind with 28Golds, 14 Silver and 18 Bronze ( a total of 60 medals in its haul); and host country United Kingdom has garnered an impressive 16Golds, 11Silver and 10Bronze medals, making a total of 37 medals with more chances of collecting a few more Gold and lesser medals before the end.


So far South Africa leads the African challenge with 3 Gold and 1 Silver medal: most of which were acquired in the Swimming event. The Ethiopians and Kenyans have been picking the Gold and lesser medals since Athletics- mostly in the long distance races kicked in over the weekend; even Egypt have picked a medal in Fencing!

My worry however is that this may well turn out the worst Olympics for Nigeria in terms of medal haul- since I started monitoring the sport event from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. The way things are going we may not achieve any medal of any description, not even one Bronze, from what I can see in the 2012 games. The traditional sprint event which Nigeria usually dominate, at least in Africa, is now in the doldrums with no Nigerian male- of the three selected for the event, including Obinna Metu, Ogho Egwero and Peter Emelieze- making it to even the Semi-finals of the 100 Metres sprint event, not to talk of the Finals, won by Usain Bolt again, with 3 Jamaicans making the final list of the 100 metres event on Sunday 5th August, 2012.
This is an event in which Nigeria had the highest number of finalists, along with USA, at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics won eventually by UK’s Lingford Christie, with Davidson Ezinwa and Adeniken Olapade making that finals. In the women event, we were lucky enough to have Blessing Okagbere who was peaking at the right time, making her personal best of 10.92seconds in the Semi-finals of the Women’s 100metres race, to make it to the finals, which again presented 2 or 3 Jamaicans. Unfortunately Ms Okagbare- with all the features of a world beater- suffered from a poor start, (dwelling on the blocks, more than she did in the semis but could not catch up with a stronger field, unlike in the semis) and posted a time of 11.02seconds, a far tenth/hundred of a second worse than her semi-final timing.
Our boxers are been pummelled for fun, with most of them, if not all been taken out in the first round; Our Basket ball team got hammered by the US team in an Olympic record of humiliation and the worst margin of defeat ever suffered in Olympics basket ball history. As for the other “minor” sports in water, field and other events our team are either not registered or could not compete with the best of the world. Not even the traditional 4X100 metres relay is our men registered for the event not to talk of winning a medal. Our football teams- male or female- did not even qualify from the African qualifiers to the Olympics never mind winning a medal at the event proper. This is an event in which Nigeria (for the male specie) have won Gold (Atlanta 1996) and a silver in the last edition of 2008 Beijing Olympics.) What a disaster for a huge country as Nigeria is with so much potential sport men and women if properly tapped and managed!

If a tiny country like Jamaica can keep churning out world beaters in the sprint events- both male and female categories- Nigeria with the largest amalgam of black young men and women should not have any problems producing at least sprinters from the large pool to chose from, if the motivation, proper management and adequate preparations are put in place. You don’t just wait till Olympic year or few months to the Olympics before you start your knee jerk, fire fighting preparations and thinking you will achieve anything against more serious nations.

[b]Like everything Nigeria, our sport is decaying and this decay cannot be ostracised from the general malaise of corruption plaguing the country in its entire facet. Sports are not adequately been funded as so much money is been misallocated to bureaucracy or outrightly stolen by those in the helm of affairs. Great Britain has shown that careful and proper investment in sports yield good results. Since 2006 when it got the offer to host the 2012 Olympics it started serious work on not just producing a first class facility for the events but also grooming and funding most areas of its sports including giving adequate grants to sportsmen to develop and excel themselves in selective sports areas in Cycling, Rowing, Equestrian, Fencing, Boxing and general Athletics. In other words preparations started over 6 years ago in all its ramifications and the result is not just the hitch-free hosting of all events at the London Olympics, but also its largest medal haul ever, including 16 Gold medals so far and counting. You cannot beat adequate preparation and funding.[/b]

With the massive unemployment in Nigeria I wonder why Nigeria cannot train and motivate more sportsmen to compete in Olympics with the best of the world every four year; I am surprised that Nigeria cannot produce Swimmers that can beat the world despite toddlers in Rivers, Cross River and Delta states swimming at the age of 4 years old. There are so many fresh rivers and most people in Bayelsa and Rivers state virtually live inside waters and know how to swim very well from very young age. It baffles me that we cannot produce Swimmers, Canoeist and other water-related sports persons at Olympics or All African games. There are so many water sports including synchronised swimming, Water Polo, Canoeing, Diving, Sailing and Rowing at the Olympics. Why can’t people from River abundant areas of Nigeria start and develop themselves in these water-based sports? I am sure most of the militants and kidnappers in Niger Delta areas could compete well if they are encouraged from early years in these sports. Sports do pay and government can use these to create more employment from the individuals to the medical teams, coaches and administrators in each of these areas. And what is more government can use these to earn more foreign exchange.

Sports administrators must start to look at areas where Nigeria could have competitive advantage and develop those areas of sports. Its no excuse to say we can’t afford it or we can’t be compared with Britain or the US because those are rich nations, but what about poor Jamaica turning out male and female sprinters for fun? Perhaps our sports administrators need to go study what Jamaica does to be world beaters in sprint races; I believe many Usain Bolts are wasting away in Nigeria, untapped, unrecognised and demotivated to perform sports to the highest levels..

tonykwene@aol.com

nateevs:


I had to go over the posts 4 times to find out exactly who and where someone has blamed GEJ.
I know people defend GEJ blindly after things are said. However, this is going to a new level now, defending him even before blames are apportioned.

It's the minister's fault but not GEJ's. For some strange reason, it's not GEJ's duty to ensure that the appointed Minister is competent.
Let's blame the incompetent minister but not the guy who employed him. Gosh!


@OP

You are right in every sense.

much as i support this view, i think the blame to Ged will still come if he refuse to sack the minister and replace him with a competent and experiemced person who knows what to do.