Last week, the sports minister confirmed that eight Nigerian athletes failed the dope tests. This adds to the previous 21 and brings to 29, the number of Nigerian sports personalities to have been caught and sanctioned for the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs or banned substances.
The rising figures are disturbing. The latest failed dope tests put Nigeria among the top 15 countries with the highest figure of athletes caught in the anti-doping drive. In fact, Nigeria is joint 13th with the Netherlands among those to have failed dope tests and ranks second to Morocco among African countries.
The leading countries in the anti-doping black book runs thus: USA 221, Russia 141, Australia 66, Italy 61, Germany 56, Ukraine 50, Spain 44, Brazil 42, England 38, France 39, Turkey 37, Morocco 31, Holland 29 and Nigeria 29.
Seven of the Nigerians who failed the dope tests, were caught during the last African Games in Congo, and thus reduced Nigeria’s medal haul by five gold medals and a bronze medal. Nigeria’s gold medal haul therefore drops from 47 to 42 and just managed to retain its second position ahead of South Africa, whose gold medal haul will also move from 41 to 42 being a beneficiary of the gold medal that will be retrieved from wrestler, Patience Opuene in the 55kg women wrestling competition. She will also lose her silver medal in 60kg women to Egypt.
Chinazom Amadi, who won the gold medal in the women’s long jump, will lose her medal to Cameroon while Samson Idiata’s medal in the male version will be forfeited to Senegal. Similarly, Elizabeth Onuah who won gold medal in weightlifting and bronze in clean and jerk will lose her medals and get eight-year ban in return.
Deborah Odeyemi on her part was caught in Warri last July during the preparation for the African Games. The sprinter who clocks 21 next month and specializes in the 100 metres, 200 metres and 4 x 100 metres, is ineligible to compete till July 29, 2019.
The import of this is that the little gain Nigeria may have made in sports can be eroded by the dope test failures. What a damaging effect it is for a country whose exploits in youth football is globally viewed with suspicion as painted by the reports of the Switzerland-based Football Observatory, which traced the underperformance of most African teams at Grade A level, to massive cheating at youth levels.
Considering that this is an Olympic year, coupled with the raging suspected state- supported doping of Russian athletes among others; global attention will be on other countries whose athletes recently failed dope tests. Although some of these athletes may not have deliberately taken performance enhancing and banned substances, there is the need for close monitoring of our athletes preparing for international contests.
The various national sports associations and federations in the country just have to clean up our sports. In 2014 Commonwealth Games, one of our weightlifters who won gold medal, later failed in competition routine tests and was stripped of the medal in addition to a two-year ban. There was a similar case in the preceding Commonwealth Games when two silver medals in 400 m and 4×400 m relay were forfeited.
Winning medals at the Olympics is a rare occurrence for Nigeria. One wishes that the low medal outing should not be marred with bigger doping scandal. This is another reason we must brace up and clean our sports.
The Nigeria National Anti-Doping Organisation which is an arm of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) should be enabled to conduct anti-doping education to our athletes and coaches to be compliant with the world anti-doping code.
A new Challenge for Oliseh
Nigeria opens its account at the 2016 African Nations Championship in Rwanda with a Group C encounter with Northern neighbours, Niger Republic. It will be the ninth clash at the national team level for the two neighbours that rarely meet.
But beyond the title quest for Nigeria and the possibility of using the competition to improve on FIFA ranking ahead of the June draw for the final qualifying series for 2018 World Cup, today’s match offers Nigeria the opportunity to avenge the defeat inflicted by Niger in 2010.
That 2-0 defeat in Niamey cost Nigeria the qualification for 2011 CHAN in Sudan as even the drafting of the then Super Eagles’ coach Lars Lagerbäck could only yield a goalless draw in the return leg in Abuja. Niger went on to cause sensation in the championship eliminating strong sides like Ghana and Zimbabwe before being stopped by the hosts, Sudan, through the lottery of penalty shootout in the quarter finals.
The Niamey match six years ago is the only loss Nigeria got from a clash with Niger. However, this is not to say that the northern neighbours are a push over. Last September, Sunday Oliseh’s boys had to fire full cylinder to extinguish the fury of the adventurous Nigeriens.
Thanks to the penalty goal of Skipper Ahmed Musa which was complemented by a late goal by Simon Moses. A comprehensive victory today will to a little extend improve Nigeria’s ranking. A Rwandan defeat of Cote d’Ivoire last Saturday may have negatively impacted on the leading African football nation.
Nigeria will have the chance to overtake at least two of the African countries that stand ahead of the Super Eagles in the FIFA ranking. These are Tunisia and Guinea which are in the same Group C like Nigeria.
Oliseh’s boys just have to beat the two teams to aid Nigeria’s ascendancy. The ultimate objective is however to win the CHAN trophy for the first time. This will not only prove the pedigree of the Nigerian league, it also means the country has won virtually all continental honours at national team level in Africa – The All Africa Games in 1973 (when it was a Grade A competition), the Africa Nations Cup (1980, 1994 and 2013), the Under 17, Under 20 and Under 23 African Nations Cup competitions.
NIGERIA – NIGER HEAD TO HEAD
P W D L F A
Nigeria 8 5 2 1 12 2
Niger 8 1 2 5 2 12
12 April 1963 (F- Niamey) Niger 0-1 Nigeria
1 January 1965 (AAG q – Lagos) Nigeria 4-0 Niger
2 September 2006 (AFCON q- Abuja) Nigeria 2-0 Niger
17 June 2007 (AFCON q – Niamey) Niger 1-3 Nigeria
14 March 2010 (CHANq –Niamey) Niger 2-0 Nigeria
27 March 2010 (CHANq – Abuja) Nigeria 0-0 Niger
15 August 2012 (F- Niamey) Niger 0-0 Nigeria
8 September 2015 (F- Port Harcourt) Nigeria 2-0 Niger