Blessing Okagbare – One of Nigeria’s most decorated athletes is banned for 10 years. AFN, Sports Analysts tell Neusroom what it means
When the Athletics Integrity Unit announced on July 31, 2021, that Nigeria’s star sprinter Blessing Okagbare had been suspended from participating in Tokyo 2020, the decision sparked outrage from Nigerians.
A few days before the announcement, 10 Nigerians had been disqualified by AIU for not meeting the minimum testing requirements under Rule 15 governing National Anti-Doping Federation.
Okagbare’s disqualification came on the day she was scheduled to participate in the semi-finals of the Tokyo 2020 women’s 100m.
“She was looking forward to winning gold at Tokyo before the disqualification,” Charles Ogundiya, a Senior Sports Correspondent at Nigeria’s New Telegraph newspaper, told Neusroom.
Seven months after the disqualification, Okagbare has now been slammed with a 10-year-ban for failing a doping test.
“The Disciplinary Tribunal has banned Nigerian sprinter Blessing Okagbare for a total of 10 years, five years for the presence and use of multiple prohibited substances and five years for her refusal to cooperate with the AIU’s investigation into her case,” the AIU wrote in a statement issued on Friday, February 18, 2022.
Okagbare was indicted for using prohibited substances (human Growth Hormone (hGH) and recombinant erythropoietin (EPO).
On January 12, 2022, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced the charge of Eric Lira, a US-based “naturopathic” therapist alleged to have supplied performance-enhancing drugs to athletes before the Tokyo Olympic Games. Okagbare was also named in the criminal complaint indicting Lira.
Some Nigerian sports analysts told Neusroom that the ban may mark the end of the career she has worked so hard for more than 12 years to build.
The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), however, said it could not defend her.
From a young schoolgirl who started playing football in Sapele, a riverine community in Delta State, one of Nigeria’s oil-rich states, Okagbare, switched to track and field events in 2004 and recorded remarkable successes as a long jump and sprint athlete.
She shot to global fame in 2008 when she won a silver medal at her Olympics debut in Beijing. She followed the success with more than 10 gold medals, and over 10 silver and bronze medals from national, continental and international competitions, in a career spanning more than 12 years.
Yemi Olus, a Senior Sports Writer with Making of Champions Ltd and Freelancer for World Athletics, described Okagbare’s ban as a big blow.
“I know for a fact that it’s quite shocking and very sad because Blessing has been a sole athlete for almost 10 years, carrying the Nigerian flag in athletics. It’s a big blow for everyone,” Olus told Neusroom on Friday.
Ogundiya the sports correspondent says, “with the suspension and now the ban for 10 years, definitely that’s the end of her career unless she appeals and it is reversed.”
Okagbare is the second Nigerian sportsperson to be banned inthree years after Samson Siasia, a former Super Eagles coach, was banned by FIFA for life in 2019.
The implication of her ban
“The implication is big,” Enitan Obadina, a Contributing Editor at Sports Intel, told Neusroom. “It affects not just other Nigerian athletes but Nigeria as a country.”
Obadina said the AIU placed Nigeria in Category A on the list of countries who struggle at testing because of the country’s poor testing, “and this ban all but confirms our culpability in the act.”
He added that the ban means every performance by Nigerian athletes will be scrutinised, and they must never miss testing, whether during competition or out-of-competition.
“It will affect young athletes who are enjoying rave reviews after Nigeria was declared a rising nation in Athletics by World Athletics due to the stellar performances of our U20 athletes at the last world U20 championships in Kenya,” he said.
Olus also confirmed that with Okagbare’s ban, there would be a lot of scrutiny of Nigerian athletes on the international scene.
“Because she’s our biggest athlete, the scrutiny will now be so much for other athletes. I just hope everyone learns from it,” she said.
Chances at the appeal
The AIU said Okagbare has 30 days to appeal the ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which reduced Siasia’s life ban to five years in 2021 after his appeal.
Okagbare has also said her lawyers are reviewing the AIU’s decision and would take a decision soon.
“My attention has been drawn to the statement issued by the AIU regarding its disciplinary panel decision,” she wrote on Instagram on Saturday, February 19, 2022. “My lawyers are currently studying it for our next line of action which we will inform you soon.”
Olus said it is unlikely that Okagbare would appeal the AIU’s decision.
The AIU, in its statement on Friday, had said Okagbare refused to cooperate with the disciplinary tribunal. Because of her refusal, she was slammed with an additional five years ban.
Olus told Neusroom, “even if she does appeal, it is unlikely that anything will change because it is stated there that she did not cooperate.”
Ogundiya believes Okagbare could have gotten a lesser sentence if she had coorperated with the AIU.
“The information we’ve gotten before now was that she failed to cooperate with them during the investigation. She didn’t defend herself, and I think she has her reasons,” Ogundiya said. “When you find yourself in a situation like this, you look for a way out. If she had stated her part of the story, it wouldn’t have gotten to this level.”
He said if her appeal is granted, it will likely be reduced. “We’ve had athletes whose ban were reduced from eight years to four, four years reduced to two years.”
What is the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) doing?
Dare Esan, the Spokesperson of AFN, told Neusroom that Okagbare’s ban is “an individual matter, not a federation matter.”
“The AFN cannot be worried because the warning is clear for any athlete that is above 18 that you’re responsible for whatever is found in your system,” he said.
Esan added that it is not the business of the AFN to start defending any athlete caught as federations all over the world do not take a position on this kind of case.
He said since Okagbare has an option of going to CAS, AFN can only issue a statement after the appeal, “and that cannot happen now, so we can’t preempt what has not happened.”
“What federations can do is to advocate for a fair hearing which the AFN is going to do, that is if the athlete takes the option. So it is not AFN that will pick the option [to appeal] for her; it is the athlete that will pick the option whether to exercise that right or to accept the sentence,” he said.
