There is palpable anger and displeasure by Nigerians over a trending video showing Nigeria’s shot put medal hopeful, Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, washing the lone jersey issued to him by Nigeria’s Ministry of Youths and Sports ahead of his final game at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
The TikTok video was initially uploaded by the athlete on his Instagram page, @thechuksay, before he deleted it.
The caption in the video read: “When you made the Olympic Finals, but you only have one jersey.”
Nigerians who reacted on social media described the video as the “latest embarrassment from Team Nigeria Tokyo2020 drama series.”
Team Nigeria members were the only national contingent who arrived Tokyo with different jerseys, including that of Arsenal and wore different shades of nose masks during the opening parade.
Apart from the fact that the officials of the Ministry of Youths and Sports clashed with athletes who wanted to find reasons to appropriate Samsung 5G phones allocated freely to athletes, 10 Nigerian athletes were disqualified for not meeting up with test requirements due to “officials’ negligence.”
Enekwechi, who had to wash his lone jersey because he had no spare, ranked seventh after launching his implement to a mark of 21.16m on the Men’s Shot Put Qualification table, advanced to the final of the men’s shot put final at the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
He secured a non-automatic qualifying spot for the final after clinching fourth position in Group B.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games Silver medalist in shot put, Enekwechi is also the 2019 African Games champion and the reigning Nigerian National Sports Festival champion.
He is a 12-time All-American, five-time NCAA medalist, and four-time Big Ten champion at Purdue.
Nigerians were unsparing in their anger at the disgrace of the leadership of Team Nigeria at the Tokyo Olympics.
Jay @Justvibes88 said, “There are some types of disgrace that one never knew existed before, Nigeria will introduce you to them.”
Judah Idowu @IdowuJudah said, “Nigerian leaders know that, no matter how ridiculous any action is, they’ll still have some Nigerians to defend it. This is why we’re here and nothing seems to be changing.
“There’s no level of incompetence that you won’t see some Nigerians defend. No matter how ridiculous.”
William Akpabio @Wilhelmjnr added, “Nigeria keeps winning in the ‘how low can you go’ challenge.
We keep breaking our own record in that event.”
@iamkingmonye said, “If I catch that angel that sent me to Nigeria, we go brawl tire.”
“They thought he’d lose in the first round, so no need to do waste More money for his jersey New moon with a face,” @UcheKlasique said.
Adefemi Lawalson said, “This is so embarrassing.”
Tega Agbro @AgbroTega noted that “After this international disgrace the Nigerian authorities will give him five Jerseys for the one day left to show they care.”
Adararichard added, “The truth is that even our so-called leaders are not expecting anything good from that perspective, that’s why he was given only one jersey. Don’t be shocked if he wins, there might not be a flag or anything indicating or attaching him to the country on the ground to celebrate his victory.”
“Shame on the minister and the ministry of sports,” Gorgeous @OBiobele.
This story first appeared in PUNCH
