Nigerian Sports Minister apologizes for poor performance at Paris Olympics after accepting N12 billion in funding

Nigeria’s Minister of Sports Development, John Ino, has apologized to the Nigerian people for the poor performance of the Nigerian team in the just concluded 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.

President Bola Tinubu has approved a N12 billion allocation for the country’s participation in the Olympic and Paralympic Games, of which N9 billion is budgeted for the former and N3 billion for the latter.

Despite the financial resources, Nigeria failed to win a single medal.

“The Paris 2024 Olympics is over and I admit that our performance should have been better. But it did not live up to our goals, expectations and the hopes of the Nigerian people. I must apologize to our countrymen and reflect on what went wrong in anticipation of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games (August 28-September 8).”

“When I took office as Minister of Sports Development in August 2023, I was faced with the task of hosting four international events in just a few months: the Africa Cup of Nations, the Africa Games, the Olympics and the Paralympics. I also realised that the Olympics is the world’s top sporting event and that countries need at least four years to prepare. I had extensive discussions with the management of the Ministry of Sports Development and understood that preparations had not yet begun with less than a year to go before the Olympics.

“In true Nigerian spirit, we believe that we should leave no stone unturned in maintaining our country’s image in the international sporting arena. Our goal is to replicate our performance at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics or even surpass it.

“To do this, we have taken a progressive approach to improving the performance of athletes and coaches. In my first week in office, I asked all national sports federations to provide me with their plans and programmes. I also started inspecting our sports facilities across the country.

“I subsequently established a Ministerial Podium Performance Advisory Committee of experienced sports performance professionals to drive our preparations.

At the time, we barely qualified for the Olympics in any sport. Our focus was on the Africa Cup of Nations and the Africa Games.”