By Francis Ajuonuma
The outgoing year witnessed the staging of several international and global competitions in different parts of the world, ranging from the Africa Athletics Championships in Mauritius, the World Athletics Championships in the United State, the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom and world boxing titles fights amongst others, with Nigeria competing in some of the competitions.

The outcome of these championships has left many sports pundits with divergent opinions on Nigerian sports. While some believe that it was a disappointing year for Nigeria, others see the performance of Nigeria in some of the events as very encouraging.

Although many sports pundits never saw it coming, 2022 turned out to be a remarkable year in the history of Nigerian Sports after years of competition against the very best in the world.

The year commenced on a very disappointing note for Nigeria with the Super Eagles failing for the first time in many years to make the top three finish, having crashed out of the round of 16 of the 2022 AFCON in Cameroon.

Nigeria’s woo in international and world sports continued in June with FIBA banning Nigeria’s women’s basketball team, D’ Tigress from participating in the 2022 FIBA Women’s World Cup following the sports ministry’s decision to withdraw the team from the championship due to the unending crisis then among the Nigerian basketball family.

It was also a disappointing year for Nigerian women’s football as the Super Falcons, failed to successfully defend their Africa after being eliminated by Morocco in the semi-final of the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations in Morocco but qualified for the 2023 FIFA World Cup as a semi-finalist.

The poor outings of Nigerian football teams on the international stage also led to the call for the head of then President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick.

However, the country’s Fortune charged for the better later in June as ‘Golden Girl’ Tobi Amusan-led Nigerian athletes to shine at the 2022 African Championship in Saint Pierre, Mauritius, where Nigeria finished third on the medal table despite competing with limited athletes.

Nigeria’s surge to the top continued at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, United State, where Amusan again wrote Nigeria’s name in gold after winning the women’s 100 m hurdles with a world record of 12:12 sec, while Ese Brume won silver in the long jump event for women.

The impressive performance of Nigeria in the year under review climaxed at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, again Amusan was the centre of attraction as she won the women’s 100m hurdles and led Team Nigeria to win the women’s 4x100m event.

Nigeria also dominated in wrestling, weightlifting, and powerlifting to place 7th on the overall medal table and number one in Africa, having won total medals of 35 made up of 12 gold, nine silver, and 14 bronze medals.

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The performance was dubbed the best Nigeria has ever attained since 1984.

The year also saw Nigeria flop in professional boxing with Anthony Joshua losing his world titles to Oleksandr Usyk in back-to-back defeats, while the duo of Israel Adesanya and Kamoru Usman losing their Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) titles respectively.

Another big achievement Nigeria sports witnessed in the year under review was the return of peace in the crisis-ridden Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF) made possible by the Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, NBBF president, Musa Kids, and other stakeholders.

The successful staging of the 2022 National Sports Festival in Asaba, Delta State was another plus for Nigerian sports in the year ending.

However, most sports stakeholders who spoke with us on the progress of Nigerian sports in the year under review, despite some dismal performance, thought that the country recorded a remarkable achievement with Tobi Amusan, Ese Brume, Blessing Oborududu, Adekoruye singled out for praise.

Former Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), Tony Ubani, though admired that Nigeria recorded low in some areas her overall performance was remarkable.

“For me, I will say our sports in the year 2022 witnessed good and bad but I think the most remarkable thing about the year was the dominance of Tobi Amusan at the World Athletics. Tobi Amusan remains the face of sports in Nigeria for the year 2022.

“She was fantastic, breaking all records, retaining all the records she did in 2022 – talk about the African Championships, the Commonwealth Games, and then the only Nigerian living or dead that is a world champion, that to me is an incredible record by any Nigerian in any standard.

“The very first time a Nigerian is being a world champion, record holder. Breaking the world record and even lowering it further, though that second one was wind-assisted I think that’s the most outstanding thing that happened to Nigerians in the year 2022. Nobody expected that a Nigerian could achieve such an incredible thing.

“While there were so many jubilations in Athletics, there were so many spices in football which Nigeria did not make it to the world that was a very low point on Nigerian Sports. Our local league too has gotten so low that Nigeria also made a record as the worse country that its league as you see it nobody knows when it’s going to start.

“It has no calendar, there is nothing to talk about Nigerian League and that to me also portends doom for Nigerian football’ because without the local league that means we cannot service the national teams, so that’s a very terrible record for Nigeria.

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“So for me is sadness and joy but I think with the joy of Ese Brume, Tobi Amusan, Blessing Oborududu, and Adekoruye were the ones that made the country proud. Football that every Nigerian relied so much on was a huge disappointment and then there is also no time that our football will bring joy to Nigeria in the year 2023.”

National Chairman of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club (NFSC), Rev. Sam Ikpea in his assessment noted that it was one of the best years for Nigerian Sports in many years but moaned about the inability of Nigeria to future at the World Cup in Qatar.

“The outgoing year witnessed some positives for Nigeria Sports. Though we recorded a lot of disappointments in the 2022 AFCON failure, World Cup failure, and AWCON failure in Morocco, our athletes including the physically challenged athletes did the nation proud, writing the name of the country in gold at the African Athletics Championships in Mauritius, at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom and at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene United States, as well as at the Diamond league.

“Also it was a year Nigeria produced a world Athletics champion in the history of the sport, so I want to believe that the year 2022 was the best year for Nigerian sports in many years of participation at the global level.

“We should also note that the successful hosting of the 2022 National Sports Festival in Asaba, Delta State was a huge success for the country for the fact the festival has been the talent ground for Nigeria Sports,” Ikpea said.