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Former president of Track and Field Athletics Association of Nigeria, Adu Uruemu is livid. The technical assistant to the then Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN)’s director, A. K. Amu, who represented the University of Benin in the 80s during the West African Universities Games, has sensationally revealed that the Director of Sports in the National Sports Commission (NSC), Dr Amos Adamu’s vituperation that Nigerians should be contented with the four bronze medals the country won in Beijing was an insult to the nation.

Dr Adamu had on arrival from the shameful Beijing outing, implored Nigerians not to crucify the athletes that took part at the Olympics in Beijing, but to be contented with the outcome we had at the event.

A Uruemu, while assessing Nigeria’s outing in Beijing, said it was nothing but a charade. He stated matter-of-factly that the Sports Ministry’s lackadaisical attitude in releasing money late for athletes’ training and the alleged Mafia in the Athletics Federation denied Nigeria gold medals in Beijing. He told Sunday Sunsport in an interview in Lagos that Adamu’s performance was unacceptable.
"The Beijing result is unacceptable," Uruemu began. "Looking at the medals table, I think Nigeria is far behind.

"It is very simple, our failure was as a result of lack of planning. I had always said it. I even said it once that our going to Beijing would be a jamboree, but some people reprimanded me. But we all saw the result. The three bronze medals we won in Beijing was as a result of individual efforts of those athletes who got the medals for us, the feat was not based on the strength of our sports authorities.

"Our Sports Director, Dr Adamu, said he was satisfied with our outcome of three bronze and one silver. For me, it was an insult on the integrity of Nigerians taking into consideration that we have the human and economic capacity to do far better.
"If countries as small as Jamaica, Kenya and other could boast of gold medals, I think such an outburst from a sports numero uno like Adamu was really an insult on Nigerians, after the country spent close to N2billion on the Olympic outing.

"The problem we seem to have in Nigeria is that we don't ask pertinent questions when it matters most. Our athletes were paid an allowance of $3,500 each and N1.7billion was reportedly released to prosecute the Olympics Games and we came home with mere three bronze medals and a silver. Does that not tell you that something is wrong with our sports administration. I think we could have done better than that.
"For 15 years, Dr Adamu has been piloting sports in the country. I believe it is high time he called it quit."

Uruemu spoke further:
Against all odds, Nigeria was tipped to do very well in athletics at the Beijing Olympics, especially in 4x100m relay. We had our hopes hinged on Uchenna Emedolu and Olusoji Fasuba, but they failed the country. What do you think went wrong?

I think injury was responsible for Fasuba’s unimpressive performance at the Olympics and moreover, I think a lot of things were not properly put in place for the athletes to do well. The technical facilities were not in there for them to work. Fasuba was not motivated, so also were other athletes. If you ask me, I would say the $3,500 allowance given to each of the athletes was too meager.
We should adopt a long-term approach to winning gold medals at international competitions. Before the last All African Games, Fasuba was injured and he told me that he spent over €3,000 to treat himself for about two weeks and look at the amount that was given to him as an allowance?

Emedolu was alleged to have sabotaged the country in the 4x100m race. He was said to have deliberately slowed down to get even with some athletics buffs. What is your take on this?

I don't know anything about that except you ask him. But I think that no athlete worth his salt would want to go to the Olympics to sabotage his country. I think the authorities should critically look into the matter, because there may be more to it that meets the eyes.

Could you expatriate on the statement that there’s more to it that meets the eyes, because the same Emedolu was alleged to have equally done the same thing in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia some time ago.
I said before that you can only ask him. For me, Emedolu has retired and he has been able to raise one or two boys who are also good on the tracks. The technical crew did not know the athletes they were taking to Beijing. They brought in foreign coaches who did not know the idiosyncrasies of our athletes. If they had known this, probably they would have mapped out a way of avoiding Emedolu by scheming him out of the final race.

What would you say about the alleged mafia that exist in our athletics cycle? Do they have a hand in the supposed sabotage?
Well, I don't know, but the Mafia really exist in the system. Take for instance, in a situation where a coach who does not know the depth of athletes, who has not been in Nigeria to really see how our athletes are coping is chosen to coach the athletes, how does one explain that? Who were those who single-handed picked national coaches without seeking the opinions of those that know them better? How were those coaches recruited? When you consider all these, you will conclude that there are people who already determine the fate of the nation without recourse to due process. That simply tells you that mafias exist in the system. And this is one of the reasons we failed to win gold at the Olympics.

We should go beyond thinking that a particular person is the only one who is capable of doing a certain job. I think the problem we are having now is the fact that we have lost focus. When I was in secondary school and the university, we used to have a lot of competitions before major championships like the Olympics. When you don't do well, you are shown the way out. Nobody looks at your pedigree that you had done it before. There were more rigorous training then with good challenges.

We were camped for a long period of time. We were well fed, put in a good accommodation for about six months, all we had to do was just to train hence we produced good results. We used to do a round robin competitions spread across the states, which gave the then coaches an ample opportunity to work very hard. But now, our coaches do not have even a single athlete they can send to the national team. It has gone that bad and that is what promotes mediocrity instead of merit in the whole system.

Again, we are not developing sports in the country. Sports development is all about identifying budding talents, supporting and nurturing the to becoming superstars. We should identify our athletes and support them to grow through adequate training via competitions, but lack all these in our programmes if we really have any.

We do not have competitions any longer and without competitions, you cannot do well in international championships. Blessing Okugbare was able to win bronze in women's 4x100m because she engaged herself in self-sponsored competitions in the United States of America. I congratulate her efforts. But it is high time our sports associations get technical directors if actually we want to move forward in athletics. I advocate for a technical adviser, preferably a foreigner.

Chioma Ajunwa-Opara won gold in Atlanta’96, many people did not know how she braced the odds. A Nigerian technical director will always dance to the tune of Nigerian politics. The politicians always look down on them and that is why our sports is experiencing dwindling fortunes. We need somebody who will be able to sit down and look at the technical aspect of our sports. Athletics is a technical event and so, we need a sound technical director to handle the sport.

Each time we perform badly at a major championship, we come home to give excuses, yet we don’t do much to rectify our faults. So, how do we move forward?
I don’t see any bright light in the clouds, because it is the same people that are still in the system. They have been there for the past years yet nothing has changed. For me, we need a change. I suggest that government in all the levels should hands off from sports if we have to move forward. In places like Jamaica and Barbados, those who govern sports are businessmen, real chairmen of conglomerates. These are people, who know what it takes to run sports as business. Here if government’s bureaucracy is taking our sports back, we should knock it off. We need a chairman, who is business-conscious, who can market sports to handle our sports. And sports can market itself if the right people are put in place.

Athletics can market itself. Football can market itself and so on. All they need is a take off grant and they well work out fine. We can buy shares in sports, invest in it and still use the money in running sports in the country.
We failed in Beijing because we had no plan to succeed. We failed in China and in the next four years, the same scenario may repeat itself. The system is bad and unfortunately, there is nobody to bail the cat.

I come from a family of good athletes. My father was a pole volter, 800m runner, mother was a 100m runner, my elder brother was an NCWAA long jumper in the USA, and also was my younger sister, who was a silver medallist in long jump. She made over 7.9m. I was a little bit fray when I was in secondary school. During our time, our training was well standardized in the sense that we had good food and so on. I represented the University of Benin during the West Africa University Games (WAUG).

I was also one of the top athletes in Nigeria. I represented Nigeria in some other competitions. I was a sub-committee member of the AFN, technical assistant to A.K. Amu, the then director of sports. I have been an athletics coach in Plateau State, I was once the president Track and Field Athletes Association, a member of NATO and member, Track and Field Athletes of Lagos State.