Team Nigeria Return To Abuja After Tokyo Olympics

Nigerian athletes who participated in the Tokyo Olympics arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja on Saturday.

The Team Nigeria athletes, who arrived at the airport at about 1 pm, clinched two medals at the games, including a bronze in the long jump and a silver in wrestling.

Naija News reports that both medals were won by Ese Brume and Blessing Oborududu respectively.

Team Nigeria’s appearance at the Tokyo games was marred by the disqualification of 10 athletes, shortage of kits, the row over phones and most recently, the termination of PUMA contracts.

Star athlete Blessing Okagbare and nine other athletes were suspended for not complying with out-of-competition drug testing requirements.

Reacting, Sports Minister Sunday Dare expressed satisfaction with the team’s performance at Tokyo, after placing 69th on the 205-country medal table.

Meanwhile, former Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung has blamed the Sports Ministry for the poor outing of Nigerian athletes at the just concluded Olympics games in Tokyo, Japan.

In an interview on ARISE TV on Friday, Dalung accused the ministry headed by Sunday Dare, of bringing shame to Nigeria at the event.

Dalung also faulted the dissolution of the boards of federations less than three months to the Olympic Games.

He said: “I think the dissolution of boards. It is a lack of patriotic political will to consolidate on the gains on the ground.

“When I was the minister, I continued from where my predecessor ended. When we get to the field, we built on previous successes and Nigeria did very well.

“Dissolving federations three months to Olympics is an indication that we are not prepared for Olympics. No general dissolves his troops on the eve of an attack and expect to win a war.

“The dissolved boards have trained and catered for the athletes for more than two years. Crises are part of human existence, the management is what determines the quality of leadership. I inherited many crises, but I resolved them.

“Leadership is about taking responsibilities. When things go wrong, somebody has to be responsible. The entire drama of shame is avoidable. This is a shame that the country has found itself.”