Members of the Nigerian Union of journalists, Ogun State Council have berated the poor administrative lapses that led to the embarrassing disqualification of ten Nigerian athletes at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics games holding in Japan.
At its monthly congress held at the union Secretariat in Iwe Irohin on Thursday, the angry journalists accused the administrators of double standard and lack of patriotism in the running of sports sector in the country.
Leading the discourse, the State Council Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Journalists ,Comrade Soji Amosun, expressed disappointment that the disqualification could make some of the athletes to run to other nations in the nearest future.
Others who spoke about the incident appealed to the federal government to as a matter of urgency constitute an independent National Sports Commission and such should be extended down to the state and local government levels.
In his contribution, Ace sport journalist, Comrade Wole Otayemi, traced the origin of the crisis to the leadership tussle that has bedeviled the sports sector in the country.
According to him, while other serious minded nations were busy preparing for the Olympics games, Nigerian sports administrators were busy fighting over the soul of the athletic federation of Nigeria, where two Presidents in Gusau and Timi Okowa emerged .
The Same scenario was experienced in basketball where we had Musa Gida and another one fighting over the leadership of the federation.
Ideally, the federation officials are supposed to monitor, supervise and provide logistics support for all their athletes , ensure that they attend the qualifications tournaments on time, and get exposed to three out of the competition's random doping tests.
This is one major requirement of the Athletics Integrity Unit of the World Athletics body.
These were not done before the team was ferried to Japan for the games.
Among the disqualified athletes are Knowledge Omovoh,Ruth Usoro, Favour Ofili, Rose Mary Chukwuma, , Glory Patrick, Yinka Ajayi, Tina God bless Chidi Okezie, Chioma Onyekwere and Annette Echikunwoke.
The expulsion of these athletes threw the Nigerian camp into serious confusion.
Reports suggest that Nigeria is grouped among Category A nations
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Sports Minister, Mr Sunday Dare has not reacted to the development, but most of the country's contingent are returning home after crashing out of the games.
The table tennis and badminton teams are expected to leave the games village on Friday.
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