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Although most Nigerians needed no Daniel to help them interpret the hand writing that preceded the 2016 Rio Olympics, some are right now mourning the woeful performance of Team Nigeria at the world’s largest games in Rio de Janiero Brazil.
Before the games, only incurable optimists still believed Team Nigeria would perform better than they did four years ago in London.

Instead of preparing for the games, what dominated the headlines were crises of different proportions. Preparations were to say the least completely unsatisfactory. Indeed, most of the athletes who managed to qualify for the games were like sheep without a shepherd.
Unlike in the past when athletes who qualified to represent Nigeria at the Games were exposed to foreign training tours, the Solomon Dalung led sports ministry did not deem it necessary to arrange foreign training camps in time for the athletes.
It is an open secret that the authorities responsible for athletes preparation dwelt more on the ‘missing N2.9 billion’ released to the then National Sports Commission, NSC, by the Presidency for the All Africa Games in Congo Brazzaville.
The unexpected scrapping of the National Sports Commission, NSC, by Dalung and immediate removal of the then Director General of the commission, Alhassan Yakmut, a thorough bred sports administrator did not help Team Nigeria’s preparations for the 2016 Olympics.
Well even as there was another Olympics disaster looming in the horizon, at the last minute, Team Nigeria was hosted by President Muhammadu Buhari with the charge to go and conquer.
Although there was no money for preparations, government promised to make money available for Team Nigeria’s participation in the games. Pessimism among Nigerians was really high going into the games but some remained optimistic that Team Nigeria would banish the ghost of London 2012.
For such optimists, the Rio games are gradually coming to an end, yet there is nothing to suggest that their optimism will produce anything different from what was witnessed in London. As at the time of press, Team Nigeria was yet to win a medal.
As a matter of fact, the failure of the Dream Team to qualify for the finals in the football event has caught the attention of Nigerians more than the anticipated failures in other events where Nigerian athletes crumbled like a pack of cards.
Although the Dream Team still have a chance of winning a bronze medal when they face Honduras in the third place match, the same cannot be said of the other athletes who are down and out and cannot redeem themselves in Rio.
Like the Dream Team, reigning African champions, the D’Tigers dashed the hopes of millions of Nigerians who felt they would use the Rio Olympics to atone for their dismal outing in London. Unfortunately, they have failed to rise to the occasion again.
D’Tigers stirred up the hopes of Nigerians that they may reach the quarter finals after they came back from two straight defeats against Argentina and Lithuania to beat highly rated Croatia 90-76. However, they faltered in their final group match against the host nation Brazil 68-86 to crash out.
For basketball loving Nigerian’s the performance of the D’Tigers is a huge disappointment because they had prepared better than most members of the Nigerian contingent.
And based on their Olympics experiences, Nigerians expected the table tennis trio of Segun Toriola, Olufunke Oshonaike and Aruna Quadri to impress in Rio but it was the same story of disappointment as they failed to get close to any medal in their event.
Apart from Quadri who made history by becoming the first African to reach the quarter-finals in the singles event at the Olympics, the rest did not go beyond the second round.
While veteran player Segun Toriola who featured in his seventh Olympics crashed out in the second round 4-2 to Japan’s Niwa Koki, his compatriot Oshonaike who attended her sixth Olympics bowed out in the women’s singles round one after losing 2-4 to 15 year old Adriana Diaz of Purto Rico. It was therefore early exits for Nigerian medal hopefuls in table tennis.
The failures of the less fancied Nigerian canoeist and rower, Jonathan Akinyemi and Chierika Ukogu heralded the disappointments in table tennis but did not surprise anyone. While Akinyemi crashed out of the slalom canoeing event after placing 20th, Ukogu finished second in the finals of her event with a total time of 7.44.76 but did not qualify for a medal.
Although she has been labelled as Nigeria’s queen of the track, Blessing Okagbare appears to be living on past glory. In Rio she failed to re-enact the form that has seen her winning numerous international competitions.
Unlike in London 2012 Olympics, Blessing failed to qualify for the 100m finals in Rio. The commonwealth champion finished third in her semi final race with a time of 11.09 crashing out of the finals qualification as only athletes that ran under 11seconds made it to the final.
She then shifted her attention to the 200m event but again failed to qualify for finals as she finished fifth in heat one of the semifinals in 22.69secs, where she competed with Holland’s Dafne Schippers, Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson, Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith and Germany’s Lisa Mayer.
It is said when talking about oceans, rivers are mentioned so other less popular Nigerian athletes followed in the disappointing footsteps of their more illustrious colleague as they all fell by the way side in Rio.
Nigeria’s only boxer at the games, Efe Ajagba lost 2-1 decision to world number two ranked Ivan Dychko of Kazakhstan in the super heavyweight category. He had raised hopes by knocking out his opponent Nigel Paul of Trinidad and Tobago in the run up to the quarter-final clash.
With all these failures, Nigerians sole consolation was the encouraging results coming from the Dream Team. They had qualified for the semis after beating Denmark 2-0 in the quarter-finals.
Unfortunately, they were made to look anything but formidable by the more sophisticated ‘German machines’. The Dream Team lost 0-2 to miss a chance of winning at least a silver medal which they won in 2008 under the present coach.
As at the time of press, Team Nigeria was conspicuously missing on the medals table even as other African nations like Kenya, South Africa, and Ethiopia had written their names in gold. So as curtains draw on the 2016 Rio Olympics, prayers are already mounting for Team Nigeria to at least avert the London 2012 disaster of no medal.
Definitely there would be a lot to discuss when the games in Rio end but even as Team Nigeria are still struggling to win a medal, most Nigerians are already making demands which they believe, if taken and implemented, would turn around the sports sector.
One of such Nigerians is the former Katsina State Director of Sports, Alhaji Aliyu Kofar-Soro who blamed Team Nigeria’s dismal outing on the minister of sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung.
He said the minister is entirely responsible for the failure of Team Nigeria in Rio as he insisted that Dalung’s decision to scrap the National Sports Commission and also remove the then NSC Director General Alhassan Yakmut with few months to the Olympics was the most unreasonable thing to do.
“I am not surprised at all by what has happened. As patriotic as I am, I was not expecting anything from Team Nigeria. The sports minister messed up everything.
“The man who would have guided Team Nigeria’s preparation was removed on the eve of the Olympics. Before he was removed, Yakmut was already preparing athletes for the games. You cannot do that and expect to win anything.
“After the games, President Muhammadu Buhari should please look at the sports sector. If the minister must remain, he should be told to engage professionals who are knowledgeable in the sector. For now, he is leading sports by the nose. He cannot take sports anywhere,” he said.

Did you invest in them? Or they look like the Niger delta oil you have been tapping without investing in the land?

The performance was as expected, u cannot plant yam and reap corn. It is every fund in naija DAT is always missing, I don't know why dey cannot release money on time

This boy scout is d worst sports minister I have ever seen, UNITED STATES OF NIGERIA