“Are we the Bourbons of France?”

Egbunike in his running days

Former national athlete, Innocent Egbunike, on Tuesday, 25^th September, 2007 after the World Championships in Osaka, Japan wrote about his experiences. His observations are still true today four long years after. Are we Bourbons of France who learnt nothing from history and forgot nothing to history?

"The date was August 28, and I was at the warm-up track in Osaka, Japan, the venue for the 2007 IAAF World Championships. I could not sleep the night before due to the excitement of looking forward to seeing the new breed of Nigerian athletes. I stood on one corner of the track, where I could see everyone coming onto the track, looking forward to identifying my compatriots as they came walking into the track and field facility.

As I stood there, I saw every country walk in and to my disbelief, I did not see anyone wearing the great green, white and green. I went to the call room to verify if Nigeria was entered in the 400m and what I heard brought tears to my eyes. The IAAF official I met in the call room recognised me and said, "Mr. Egbunike, where is the Nigerian team? Do you know that your countryman, the African record holder in the 100m, was not entered in the 100meters?"

As I tried to respond, he went on to tell me that if it were not for the efforts of (Olusoji) Fasuba’s manager, he would have not competed in the 100m at the World Championships. This official then told me that the Nigerian quarter-milers came in the day before. As I tried to digest his comments, he asked me what was wrong with Nigeria.

A track and field historian, this man, lamented about the 1983 World University Games in Edmonton, Canada. In his words, Nigeria used to compete at the same level as the USA, when it came to the sprints and jumps. He remembered how Nigeria beat the USA at their game that year. Chidi Imoh won the 100m, Innocent Egbunike the 200m, Sunday Uti the 400m, Yusuf Ali long jump and Ajayi Agbebaku the triple jump, the 1984 4 x 4 bronze medal performance and my silver medal at the 2nd World Championships, Roma 87.

He paused and then asked me what each of the individuals he mentioned above were doing now and why Nigeria does not involve them in their track and field programmes. The official said he remembered when races used to be won between Nigeria, USA, Great Britain, Jamaica and Canada. As he spoke, he showed me the autographs he got from Grace Jackson, Bert Cameron, Don Quarrie, Mike Powell, Carl Lewis, Valerie Brisco, Alberto Jaunterona, Mike Connelly, Frankie Fredericks and Sergei Bubka then asked me for my autograph.

He said, "I wish some of your countrymen I mentioned above were here." I was amazed with his knowledge as he went on to talk about Nigeria’s strength in both the relays and later in the women’s events. He talked about Mary Onyali, Fatima Yusuf, Falilat Ogunkoya and Chioma Ajunwa. Most nations involve their former athletes. "How come Nigeria is not like that?" I responded by saying they do, and then he said to me you are here under USA ’s team. I do not see Mary Onyali, Chidi Imoh and Falilat Ogunkoya. Where is Olakpade Adeniken? Nigeria has so much talent, but it seems like they do not plan.

What is it he asked? Is it lack of leadership or corruption? As he continued his attack on Nigeria, I decided to excuse myself from him before I said something I would regret. As I walked away from him, I lost all my excitement and my heart immediately became heavy. I started praying that his story that the athletes came a day before their event was not true.

In 1987, Nigeria flew me from Los Angeles to New York, New York to Lagos, Nigeria and finally Lagos to Nairobi, Kenya for the African Games. I remember getting to Nairobi the morning of my event to find out that there were no room arrangements made for me. I went to the officials after my first round in the 400m to find out that they did not have any room for me. At that point, I realised my battle was not against flesh and blood, but the powers and principalities of darkness.

I laid a mattress on the floor of my teammates and slept there throughout the duration of the competition. What surprised me was how the same officials, who did not provide me my accommodations took all the glory for my performance. That was 20 years ago. Now in 2007, it is the same story. What a shame. In Nigeria, we have a saying, "pray and do your best to make sure your children surpass your success so they don’t go through what you went through." In this case, these young men and women are reliving the same nightmare. We say, "If eel is a curse, it won’t work" but unfortunately, it seems the curse is coming from Nigerian officials.

Our officials need to stop being greedy and learn to treat the athletes as their own children. So, when did Nigeria know about the African Games and the World Championships? We need to stop this crash programme. The Bible says a nation without a vision shall perish, and in this case, we need to rise above all this foolishness. During the ’80’s, we lost athletes to other sports, Christian Okoye, former African record holder in the discus, to American football. These days, we lose them to other nations. I remember other nations approached the like of Chidi Imoh and the Ezinwa brothers (just to mention a few) to change their nationality, but they stuck with Nigeria. Due to false promises, however, we have lost some very talented athletes, even this year. A nation that prides itself, as the giant of Africa, seems to forget the fact that charity begins at home. The mention of Nigeria around the world today triggers negative and funny looks and comments such as Nigerians are criminals, narcotics and now terrorists!

My nightmare continued when I ran into the first group of Nigerian officials and athletes and they told me they were stuck at the airport in Qatar for 18 hours and their flight took them from Nigeria to Qatar. They had an 18-hour layover and the immigration officers told them they would not let them in the country because Nigeria is considered a terrorist nation.

While our national athletes slept at the airport, their fellow competitors were resting in their hotel rooms preparing for the competition. This leads me to the same question: when did our officials know they would be sending athletes to the 2007 World Championships? As I tried to understand, I took a trip down memory lane, remembering our trip to the African Championships in Morocco in 1984. We were told that we would be given our visas upon arrival in Morocco at approximately 6:00pm. We found that we could not get visas until the next day. We slept at the airport as we watched the other nations proceed straight into Morocco.

Some of the people we competed against when we got to Europe started a slogan, "Nigerian passport, you could leave home without it." When will this nightmare end? I tried to console the athletes, I asked them to use their God-given talent to glorify God; gaze upon the Lord and glance at the circumstances they faced. Then came another bombshell: no daily allowance was provided and some even complained they had not received their training grant. Shame on us! As I tried to understand what was happening, the athletes gathered around me sharing their nightmares, one after the other. As I listened, I prayed for wisdom from the Lord regarding wisdom in my response. The athletes told me they needed guidance and that they felt ignored by the powers that be.

One of the athletes told a story of how one of the officials (from the Ministry) at the African Games in Algiers, went on a shopping spree. She had $5,000 travel allowance and needed to spend it before she went back to Nigeria. Amazing! Some of the athletes had not been paid and that official had such a lavish amount to spend. Again, I realised that we take better care of the ministry officials than we do the athletes. We forget that the athletes are the reason we go to these competitions. Where are our priorities? The last straw was when my name was announced on the public announcement system: "Innocent Egbunike of Nigeria please report to the call room."

I was at the World Championships under the umbrella of the USA. On my arrival to the call room, an IAAF official asked me the order in which the Nigerian 4 x 400m women would be running. As I was on my way out to find the athletes, he said, "make sure they have the same uniform, so we would not disqualify them as we did the women’s 4 x 100m." I was shocked when he disclosed to me that Nigeria did not come with a national uniform. We are talking about a national team, a country with over a 100 million people. This disgrace to us as a nation and to those of us had put our careers on hold to represent our great country. This was just the beginning of the drama. I met the athletes, and asked them if they all had the same uniform. The answer was no. Nigeria did not give them a uniform for this competition. The uniforms that they brought were their personal uniforms from years ago. At this point, we started scrambling. One of the athlete’s managers was very helpful. Thank God, one of the athletes that came to watch the competition had her long tights on and she was kind enough to give it to us. We cut it and gave it to one of the athletes so that she would have a complete uniform.

We brought the IAAF official back to okay our uniform. When he came, he unleashed the following statement on our government, "Your country has the talents and they need to stop embarrassing you and your athletes. Nigeria is one of the richest countries in Africa. Money is not the problem; it is the mismanagement of money."

He went on, "Nobody should be subjected to this when they are trying to bring positive light to their country."

As I went back to attend to my athlete, from the USA, the warm-up track became a comedy club about Nigeria. Some of the coaches, managers and athletes made jokes about my great nation.

One of the prominent coaches from the USA pulled me aside and said, "Your country has produced some of the best athletes in track and field and if you guys don’t do anything to encourage and support your present upcoming athletes, you will not have any representation at next summer’s Olympic Games." He is correct. We need to invest in our athletes, set-up a training programme that will bring about consistency, bring in a new breed of sports officials (not politicians) and encourage our athletes to go to school and get an education (knowledge is power). We need to keep in mind that when these talented young men and women are sweating for our nation, their colleges are advancing in their profession, it is important that we establish an opportunity to give them something to fall back on when their careers are over.

Now is the time to build a solid foundation for the future, by going back to the roots: inter house sports, regional track meets, school sports, sending our athletes to training camp/competition in the USA and Europe. Developing a clear performance standard that will determine who is qualified for training grants and how long. This will give the athletes goals to shoot for and help to establish a programme that rewards athletes. I believe that planning will eliminate embarrassment. Failure to plan is a plan to fail.

Hire people with a passion for the sports rather than individuals that are in the sport for personal reasons. Once we as a nation overcome these set backs, we as people shall rise again. Our talents will shine once again at the 2008 Olympic Games in China!