By Francis Ajuonuma
Nigerian sports in 2023 recorded some ups and downs that have left analysts and administrators expressing divergent opinions on how sports faired in the year under review.
While some analysts and administrators believe that Nigeria’s participation in international competitions were disappointing, others postulated that Nigeria did fairly well competing at the international and world stages.
Nigeria started the year on a promising note at the U20 AFCON Championship held from February 19 through to March 11 in Egypt with the Flying Eagles under the tutelage of Coach Ladan Bosso winning the bronze medal at the tournament to also qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup finals in Argentina which later held May 20 to June 11, but this time around the Flying were sent out of the tournament early in the quarterfinals.
Some football followers in the country saw Nigeria’s outing in Argentina as a huge disappointment going by Nigeria’s pedigree in global youth football.
Nigeria’s most disappointing and humiliating outing in 2023 was at the U17 Men’s AFCON hosted by Algeria. Coached by Nduka Ugbade, the Golden Eaglets against all expectations failed to go beyond the quarterfinals, thereby not qualifying for the 2023 FIFA World Cup in Indonesia.
The Golden Eaglets’s early exit at the U17 AFCON finals in Algeria attracted a lot of condemnations from followers of the game in Nigeria with some attributing the dismal outing to inept coaching and inadequate preparation.
While Nigerians were still yet to overcome the disappointing outing of the Golden Eaglets in Algeria, the country’s sports further suffered a devastating blow on July 19 with the suspension of Women’s 100m hurdles World Champion, Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan by Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for missing three drug tests within 12 months. The suspension was later lifted on August 17, a few days before the World Athletics Championships in Budapest Hungary (August 19-27), after Amusan proved her innocence before a Disciplinary Committee of the AIU and her participation at the championship of course failed to live up to expectation as she finished very far outside the medal zone.
However, Nigeria’s fortune charged for better at the Afrobasket Women’s Championship in Kigali (July 28-August 5) where D’Tigress conquered the rest of Africa to retain the title and qualify for the 2024 FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament slated to hold from February 8-11 in Belgium. It was not the same story for the Nigeria men’s team as they flattened in Angola and missed out on the qualifiers for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Also at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand from July 20 through to August 20, the Super Falcons, though crashed in the round of 16 after penalty shoot-outs with England were outstanding in the championship, as they held Canada and Republic of Ireland to scoreless draws respectively and defeated highly-rated Australia 3-2 to qualify for the knockout stage. The nine-time African champions never lost a match within regulation time at the championship, as their performance was well hailed by followers of the game.
Nigeria’s glory in sports continued on September 17 as Tobi Amusan returned to the Diamond League in Doha, Qatar to dominate the women’s 100m hurdles with gold, to once again prove to the world the quality she is made of.
The impressive showings of Nigeria at the international and world levels were on display again at the Africa Olympic Boxing Qualifiers held in September in Dakar, Senegal as three Nigerian boxers – Cynthia Ogunsemilore, Omole Dolapo and Olaore Adams secured their tickets for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and ensures Nigeria’s participation in boxing event of the games, having missed out at the 2020 edition in Tokyo, Japan.
The success story was not different at 2023 Girl’s U-17 African Nations Volleyball Championship in December in Abuja, as Nigeria against expectation finished second behind Egypt to qualify for the inaugural U17 Women’s Volleyball World Cup scheduled to hold in Dominican Republic next.
The glory of Nigerian sports in 2023 climaxed on December 11 at the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Awards Night in Marrakech, Morocco as Nigeria dominated the night, taking home three top honours. Asisat Oshoala was named Women’s Player of the Year and Victor Osimhen named Men’s Player of the Year, while Goalkeeper of the Year (Women) went to Chiamaka Nnadozie.
Nigeria’s sweep of top honours at the CAF Awards Night was a clear indication of the successful impact of Nigerian sportsmen and women in 2023. Though Tobi Amusan was not voted the Athlete of the Year by World Athletics, she was listed among the top 10 best athletes in 2023.
However, Nigeria’s success in international and global sports in 2023 was all down to the outstanding performances of Nigerian female teams. The men’s athletes did not do well compared to the female.
It is also on record that Odunayo Adekuoroye lifted Nigeria high at the 2023 World Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, as she won a bronze medal to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Taking a critical look at Nigeria’s Sports in the year under review, Independent Sports producer and analyst, Segun Olarenwaju averred: “The year 2023 was a year with mixed feelings for pundits and sports enthusiasts. Quite a lot were expectant that the quagmire era of the past minister would come to an expected end quickly because of the non-achievement of his tenure. Not allowing his non-Performance to take the shine off some individual brilliance of some Nigerian gifted athletes in all spheres of our sporting endeavours, the likes of Victor Osimhen, Tobi Amusan, Ese Brume, and the brilliance of our amazing Para- Athletes especially the powerlifters, who have always and continually done Nigeria proud at their outings. Nigerian sports tried to lift itself back to reckoning. Athletes who have continuously worked hard always gave their fans something to cheer. So in a nutshell 2023 was a year for the entire Nigeria sportsmen and women. Capping the year with the CAF Awards was the icing for so many fans.
For the President of Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), Engr. Habu Gumel, 2023 was a successful year for sports in Nigeria.
“2023, was a successful year for sports development in the country. There were remarkable achievements in Nigerian sports. Nigerian athletes were very outstanding in major international competitions, winning laurels.
‘’We need a new result at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games; by improving on the 1996 Atlanta Games, where Nigeria won two Gold medals.
“Also at the NOC, despite financial constraints, we were able to achieve our objectives.
Gumel’s position was supported by the president of Nigeria Basketball Federation (NBBF), Musa Kida, who described 2023 as a wonderful year for the game of basketball in Nigeria.
“We thank you all for your support, understanding, and helping us with your resources to make basketball in Nigeria have a wonderful 2023.”
“We thank all stakeholders, the states, private and individual clubs who graced our tournaments and leagues starting from the Total Energies Division 2, Total Energies Division 1, Zenith Bank Female League and Nigeria Men Basketball Premier League.”
Executive Director, Sports Industry Working Group, Femi Abioye said: “Nigeria is lagging in sports technology and needs to take advantage of the opportunities digital sports offers. Assessing Nigerian sports in 2023 is a bit difficult before with how many numbers of sports. We’ve about forty sports federations so how many are you using to assess Nigeria’s performance in 2023? Well, for the very few you have named, I’ll say Nigeria has not done badly for the year but we still have to improve.
A football analyst, Kenny Okey in his assessment said: “Well, it wasn’t that a bad year for Nigerian sports. I think the country did well in major championships and was able to stage the National Sports Festival in Edo State. But my only disappointment is with the Super Eagles, though they qualified for the Nations Cup in Cote d’Ivoire, they were never convincing.
