
By Francis Ajuonuma
After the rain comes the sun. This implies the performance evaluation at the end of every programme, which leaves us with the question of how Nigeria fared at international sporting activities in 2024.
The year 2024 saw Nigeria participate in several international competitions: the 2023 AFCON, hosted by Cote D’Ivoire from January 13 to February 11, 2024; the 13th African Games, also known as Accra 2023, hosted by Ghana from 8–23 March 2024; the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, hosted by Cote D’Ivoire from July 26 to August 11, 2024; and the Paris 2024 Paralympics in France from August 28 28 to September 8, 2024.
Prior to Team Nigeria’s participation in these competitions, sports-loving Nigerians had high expectations of witnessing an eventful and impressive outing by the country in these competitions, especially considering the quality of athletes and players in Nigeria’s arsenal and the billions of naira spent by the government in prosecuting these competitions.
However, at the end of these competitions, some Nigerians were left frustrated and disappointed with the country’s performances, which was evident in the lamentations that followed every competition the country featured in in the year under review.
While some believe that the country’s outings in 2024 had some positives, others insist that it was a year of lows and shame for Nigerian sports that witnessed some ‘disgraceful’ controversies, especially at the Olympics in Paris, France, where one of the Nigerian athletes competing in a cycling event had to borrow her bicycle from Germany before she could compete in her event and also the disgraceful disqualification of Nigerian female athlete, Favour Ofili from the women’s 100metres dash for a fault not hers but mainly due to administrative ineptitude of the Nigerian sporting authorities.
Nigeria began the year by participating in the 2023 AFCON, which was hosted by Cote d’Ivoire from January 13 to February 11, 2024.
The Super Eagles progressed to the final, losing 2-1 to the host country, the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire, whom they had beaten 1-0 in the group stage. Nigeria ended the championship as the second-best team on the continent.
At the 13th African Games, Accra 2023, held in Ghana from 8–23 March 2024, which was next on Nigeria’s participation schedule, Team Nigeria, with 47 gold, 34 silver, and 40 bronze medals totalling 121 medals, finished 2nd behind Egypt that had 103 gold, 47 silver, and 43 bronze medals, totalling 193 medals. Indeed, Nigeria’s outing was not bad; it was an encouraging performance because over 50 African countries, including South Africa, that finished 3rd, vied for honours at the Games.
However, the biggest sporting event of the year, which Nigeria participated in with high hopes—the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, held from July 26 to August 11—turned out to be a colossal disaster, disappointment, and disgraceful outing for the country. Parading some of the best and most talented sportsmen and women in various events at the games, Nigeria came back home empty-handed with no medal to show for. It was one of Nigeria’s poor outings in the history of the Olympic Games.
Next for Nigeria was the Paris 2024 Paralympics in France, held from August 28 to September 8. It was a sort of face-saving event for the country, as the special sports athletes brought honours to Nigerians by winning seven medals: 2 gold, 3 silver, and 2 bronze.
Also, Nigerian teams have had huge disappointments at continental club football competitions this year, as they have often been in the past ten years, not going beyond the group stage of either the CAF Champions League or the CAF Confederation Cup.
As of today, of the four Nigerian clubs that featured in the continental club competitions, only Enyimba of Aba are still in the race but don’t stand any chance of progressing further. Rangers, El-Kanemi Warriors, and Remo Stars all crashed out in the preliminary rounds.
The year also saw the scrapping of the sports ministry and the return of the National Sports Commission (NSC), a move that has received much praise.
Newstap.com editor Ifeanyi Eduzor, in his assessment of Nigeria’s performance in 2024, believes that it was a disastrous year for Nigerian sports and that the country deserves better.
“Nigeria didn’t achieve much considering the fact that we didn’t win anything at the international level, not minding that before the Olympics, we had very high hopes for Tobi Amusan, the world champion then. She was one of our medal hopefuls, but unfortunately, she couldn’t win anything.
“So, the year you could say, it was a bad year for Nigerian sports. We got to the final of the Nations Cup; we couldn’t win it; as much as some people might believe that it was a good performance when we consider that Cote d’ Ivoire almost got eliminated in the group stage, came up and was defeated, then you will be looking at it as a disaster.
“For me, we had an abysmal outing in 2024. However, with the coming of the National Sports Commission, we hope things will become right. And from 2025 and beyond, we’ll start seeing good results from Nigerian sports.”
In his assessment, Tony Ubani, former Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), concurred that 2024 was a year of sighs, hisses, and very lows for Nigerian sports, blaming it on the ineptitude of administrators who run Nigerian sports.
He said, “2024 was a year of sighs and hisses. It was a year of very lows. Almost everything was going empty-handed until, once again, football proved it’s still the king of sports in Nigeria. That’s because of the CAF Award that favoured Nigeria, especially that of Ademola Lookman, and the other awards from Nnadozie and the Super Falcons.
“I think that before this time, there has always been grumbling about the favouritism of football in most high quarters. It’s opportunities like this; what happened this year has presented itself to show that football is the numero uno (number one) sport in this country, and that, of course, is justified by what happened. My assertion of this is because one, the year in question was an Olympic year, and of course, you know that the Olympics remain the best sporting event in the world where all the sports gather.
“Even though Nigeria had a world record holder in Tobi Amusan, Nigeria went to the Olympics and then came back empty-handed; it’s such a big shame for a country that has so many talented athletes and so many athletes in the world that had already gotten themselves favoured with wins, then, unfortunately, we just saw that there are too many distractions and of course, as it’s always been, while others were winning medals, Nigeria is always coming out with a lot of scandals, a lot of stories that are not favourable.
“It showed itself again during the Olympics, and Favour Ofili was not favoured in the decision that followed her removal from the women’s 100 metres dash that she qualified without notification and of course, that caught the eyes of the world. Then Nigeria was bound in controversy, making the government revert to the National Sports Commission.
“I think Nigerian sports was so low that not even wrestling, Nigerian wrestlers that had conquered everywhere, both in Africa and Europe, could get a medal for our dear country. It was so bad that Nigeria was also mentioned as borrowing bicycles from Germany during the Olympics.
“It was so shameful that the world was left with all those negatives concerning our dear country, Nigeria. In every other thing, I think it was a very, very bad year; that’s why I said it’s a year of sighs and hisses. People were sighing, why waste so much money with no positive results.”
A staunch sports follower, Cornelus Adebiyi, disagrees with the submission that Nigerian sports performed poorly in 2024.
He believes the country had encouraging and above-average outings in the year under review.
“I disagree with those saying 2024 was an abysmal year for Nigerian Sports. It’s not true. Yes, we had some disappointing outings, like at the Olympics, but we did well at the All-African Games, where we finished second among the 53 countries that participated,” he said.