By Roland Ike
The immediate past Commissioner for Youth Development and Sports in Ebonyi State, Charles Akpuenika, has said that Nigeria’s dismal Olympic Games outing can become a tonic to revive its sports fortunes.
The country’s contingent to the just concluded games held in Paris, France won no medal despite the billions of naira spent by the Federal Government for the competition.
Akpuenika said in an interview on Monday that though sports fans across the country can express their feelings over the dismal performance, there are positives to take from the outing.
“I support those calling for a state of emergency on Nigeria’s sports but such should no longer take a blame game angle but solutions, to return the country to its glorious sporting era.
“The Olympics should not be the only area of focus but sports in general due to the country’s poor performances especially in football and other events.”
The Game Changer as he is popularly called in Ebonyi sporting circles, said that the sporting authorities should realise that sports is the only unifying factor in Nigeria.
“We should discard the going back to the drawing board notion because it has failed in all instances suggested or applied.
“The sporting authorities should instead, be sincere in implementing policies and programmes that would address factors which prevented us from winning medals at the games.
“Luckily, these authorities were in Paris, saw other countries compete, observed the technical and organisational attributes which brought success to countries and other recipes for success.”
Akpuenika noted that the strides of the D’Tigress could serve as a launching pad for the revival as the team surpassed expectations despite exiting at the quarter final of the female basketball event.
“The team could had won a medal if it did not meet the American ladies at that stage as it still won the heart of the world with the way it battled its more fancied foes.
“The nomination of its Coach Rena Wakama as the best coach of the event is a pointer that the Nigerian Basketball Federation is doing something that others sporting federations are not doing.
“The feat should also serve a yardstick to solve all problems bedeviling the federation which has taken a huge toll on its operations especially on the Senior Men’s team, D’Tigers.”
Akpuenika called for support for the sporting authorities to enable them to utilise the chance of making amends after the games’ dismal outing.
“The minister for instance is only one year in office and must have surely learnt valuable lessons from the games.
“Countries such as Kenya, Botswana, South Africa among others won medals even gold at the Olympics and these are countries Nigeria rates higher than, in Africa.”
