The Paralympians are doing what the Olympians could not do ? winning medals. By Jide Alaka
When ?Team Nigeria? left for the Paralympics last week, there was very little coverage for the team as they departed the Murtala Mohammed International Airport unlike all the attention the Olympians got when they left for London five weeks ago with all fanfare and chest slapping.
When they came back with no medals, there were excuses bandied around for the failures and how to stop the embarrassment in Rio at the next Olympics in 2016.
But in just a week, the embarrassment caused by Team Nigeria is been comprehensively wiped away by the courageous medal-winning performances from the Nigerians representing the country at the Paralympics in London.
As at the time of this writing, the team were sitting in tenth position with four gold and four silver medals.
To put these performances in perspective, we should ask questions on how they prepared for the tournament and what was expended on the whole team?
We should also ask if they went on any international tours as their counterparts did in preparation for London.
Since we did not hear anything, we can only guess that they were sent to represent the country not win medals but we are now been pleasantly surprised by the medals as they tumbling in.
The message is that Nigeria has the talents and can garner the resources to build world class teams in any sport. Names like Ivory Nwokorie, Lucy Ejike, Esther Oyemi, Ikechukwu Obichukwu and Ivory Nwokorie were unpopular in the country before their success at the Paralympics but they deserve national awards for showing us that there is nothing that is impossible if we put our hand to the plough.
We should also make sure to give these heroes a befitting welcome so that those that want to take after them know that we appreciate those that lift up the name of the country among the comity of nations.
Jide, formerly a professional footballer, is now a sports writer.
