Team Nigeria Olympics disgrace shocks Orji Uzor Kalu 

Without mincing words, former Abia State governor Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu blamed the country's dreary performance at the 2012 London Olympics on the Federal Government, while praising the athletes for doing their best under the worst of conditions.

Kalu argued that the era of relying on mother luck instead of hard work was gone for good, insisting that Nigerian officials had carried their luck too far and needed such a woeful performance to wake up them from slumber.

"The Federal government planned to fail; this government is not interested in sports. We talk of nearly 2.5 billion naira released for the Games. You administer drugs on a corpse and expect a miracle. Money was released close to the Games when other countries had finished with preparations. Did some of us not hear that Ajoke Odumosu borrowed money to prepare for the games? Chika Chukwumerije relied so much on his family to cater for himself. God is not partial; he could not continue to shower good luck on our lame efforts."

Kalu expressed surprise that Nigerian sports under President Goodluck Jonathan had continued to drown in the ocean of failure in spite of the interest he showed as a deputy governor.

"I am as baffled as confused. Dr. Jonathan was the only deputy governor that flew to Sydney for the 2000 Olympics, and he mixed freely with journalists, athletes and the Nigerian community in New South Wales. I thought our first Olympics under him would bring a change. Since his Presidency in 2010, we have tumbled from hero to zero. At the 2010 World Cup, we had our worst performance. Greece had neither scored a world cup goal nor won a match. Yet they achieved both against Nigeria.

In 2011, the Eagles failed to qualify for our 'birthright,’ the Africa Nations Cup. At the London Olympics, the American Dream Team set an Olympic record in the defeat of D'Tigers. This should worry Mr. President, "Kalu lamented.

The ex-governor however praised the Nigerian basketball team for setting an African record. He promised to award them personal gold medals at the appropriate time as well as other athletes like Blessing Okagbare, Odumosu and Chukwumerije.

"D'Tigers impressed me. As first timers I knew it was going to be tough. Well, for beating Tunisia, they deserve my gold medal. Okagbare set a personal best, Odumosu an African record and Chukwumerije confessed that he did his best. The other athletes deserve bronze for trying, at least. You know what it means to send Orji Uzor Kalu United against Barcelona. I guess now someone should wear their thinking caps," Kalu said.