By Tim Parsons-
The Nigerian Olympic team faced huge embarrassment on Wednesday, as it emerged that the awaited kits for the Olympic team only just arrived in Rio, 3 days to the end of the Olympics.
The correct kit came after most of the athletes had already concluded their events and many were returning to their base. The kits which arrived late were rumored to have been delayed because money that was supposed to be spent on them had been withheld for unknown reasons, until some top officials insisted on them being purchased and delivered to the representatives of the country, despite the short time left before the conclusion of the games.
This embarrassment is in addition to the other embarrassing fact that the team nearly missed the opening ceremony of the games until Delta Airlines intervened and took the Olympics squad to Rio in Brazil where all the other teams had already assembled and settled down. Worsening an already embarrassing situation, was the fact that the Nigerian Olympic team had to resort to the use of warm-up track suits for a football match that followed the naming ceremony because the official attire arrived late for the opening ceremony.
Strangely, the entire Nigerian football 23 man squad, who were on a training tour in Atalanta U.S.A, could not be flown to Rio until a few hours to their opening game with Japan until they were bailed out at the last moment by Delta Airlines.
The team were practically stranded in Atlanta, and reportedly nearly missed the match, which they eventually won following their arrival.
The team are said to have conducted an exhibition before Nigeria’s president, Mohammadu Buhari, and the country’s national media before setting out for Rio Janeiro. Yet the basic requirement of delivery was left not just to the last moment, but shamefully late.
IMPOSSIBLE
A Nigerian official in Rio, told the eye of media.com ” it is impossible to discern precisely what is in the minds of those who have delayed on the delivery of these kits. This is totally unheard of. This not something I have ever seen in all my years in sports. Ministry officials were holding money back for no logical reasons besides a covert plan to pocket a lot of it I can assure you they will be held to account for this debacle”. We were left to our own devices, and some athletes had to compete in their own personal kits. This is just unacceptable”.
Nigeria remains one of Africa’s most notoriously corrupt nations, only a few months ago, described by former UK prime minister, David Cameron, as ”notoriously corrupt”- remarks that made international news and even drew criticism against the fallen UK prime minister who resigned following the Brexit referendum in England.
President Buhari has built a reputation as being the country’s most anti-corrupt president, and was in the UK early this year to demand that fraudulently obtained money from the resources and corrupt investments in the U.K be returned to the country for constructive use. Buhari has since dispossessed some corrupt Nigerians of corrupt money and grandiose possessions abroad formerly defrauded by those individuals.
The tough rhetoric of corruption seems a long way away from stamping out corruption from the minds of its official representatives.
It is believed that an investigation will follow this embarrassment which was noted by the Olympics squads of other countries who participated in the globally celebrated games.