BARELY four weeks after Nigeria’s contingent to the recently held Paris Summer Olympic Games returned to the country without a single medal, another contingent that represented the country in the World Junior Athletics Championship Campaign will be returning without any medal following the completion of the tournament yesterday.
This development is bringing to the fore the parlous state of the country’s sports and the rot that has eaten so deep in the sector.
The World U-20 Athletics Championships, which took place in Lima, Peru, between Tuesday, 27th August, and yesterday, Saturday, 31 August, went without Nigeria registering a single medal throughout the campaign.
These back-to-back world events, starting from the Paris Olympics without any medal in track and field competitions, is a reflection of how sports have taken a nosedive under the leadership of Sports Minister, John Owan Enoh.
The embarrassing free-fall also shows the government doesn’t care about sports which should ideally be a unifying and cohesive factor for Nigerians.
To underscore the fact that the issue may be operator-induced rather than non-availability of talents, youngsters of Nigerian descent represented other countries, some winning medals.
A stakeholder who spoke on condition of anonymity opined that no athlete of Nigerian descent who sees how the country’s athletes are being treated will want to represent Nigeria. 
“You will then wonder who will take over from the current athletes who are already in their prime.
“Let’s not forget AFN is quick to tell Nigerians they don’t care if athletes switch allegiance to other countries. Maybe they have plans on manufacturing athletes in the future though, one can never tell with technology these days”
Eighteen-Eleven Media