Watching the Athletics world championship in Daegu, South Kore, can I ask, where did all those short, dry foot men who could not even qualify from their preliminary group rounds come from? Surly not Nigeria!

I switched on the television late and caught a hundred metres preliminary round in progress. I saw one short black man with dry legs running furiously second to last. I was going to laugh thinking that the man was probably from Vanuatu or Papua New Guinea when I saw that his outfit looked Nigerian.

There was a time when if a Nigerian unknown athlete lined up on the track your heart would skip a beat because more often than not, unknown Nigerian athletes’ spring surprises and win, confounding the expectation of the world. I notice that this was the case during military rule in Nigeria.

In fact it looks as if Nigerians best sporting period in recent decades was during military rule. My question is why?

I have also been watching the IAAF and not a single Nigerian athlete so far, it's almost as if the authorities in Nigeria didnt know there was a championship this month!!