“What a country!” – Peter Obi slams FG as Nigeria exits 2024 Olympics with no medals
Peter Obi, the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) during the 2023 elections has blamed the Federal Government over the nation’s disgraceful outing at the Olympics in Paris, France.
Obi made his displeasure known via a series of posts on his X handle on Sunday.
The former Governor of Anambra state wondered why, after allocating $12bn, the country still finished without a single medal in any of the competitions it contested.
“Now that the Paris Olympics 2024 has officially ended and our dear Team Nigeria, despite the huge financial investment made into the project, is returning without a single medal, let me unreservedly register my displeasure with the performance of our team and their handlers,” he wrote.
“The rascality and recklessness that has continued to characterise leadership in our nation in nearly every department.
“The general impression that has come to stick is the one that portrays our country as a joke, even on the international stage.
“How can one explain that a country like Jamaica spent less than 5% of what we spent on our contingents for the Paris Olympics 2024 and won as many as 6 medals?
“Yet with our huge financial investments and large contingent, we could not win even a single medal.
“This is over N136 million (about $85,000) spent on each of the 88 Nigerian contingents to the Olympics, and no single medal was won while Jamaica, a nation which spent far less than we did, a total of about $2300 on each contingent, won 6 medals; 1 Gold, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze at the Olympics,” Obi stated.
He highlighted the ineptitude of the Sports Ministry in cases involving Athletes, Favour Ofili and Annette Echikunwoke.
“Let us consider the case of Favour Ofili, a Nigerian professional sprinter who trained for years for the 2024 Olympics, only for her name to be recklessly and wrongly removed from the list of athletes for the 100m race at the Olympics by Nigerian sporting authorities.
“What explanation can anyone give about Annette Echikunwoke, a former Nigerian hammer thrower, who was frustrated by the same rascality of some Nigerian leaders, making her switch her allegiance to the United States, where she eventually won a medal in the just-completed Olympics?
“These same professional athletes were denied the opportunity to represent our nation in Tokyo 2020, for similar reasons of administrative recklessness.
“What a country! What a shame! When do we stop these rascalities that always rob our nation of golden opportunities to make a positive change?” Obi lamented in a strongly worded statement.
The LP flagbearer thought that the budget wasted on the Olympic games could have been put to better use in other sectors and ministries, highlighting that the budget “is almost twice the amount budgeted for the entire Ministry of Science and Technology.”
