August 02, (THEWILL) – In an editorial piece published on Sunday, July 11, THEWILL drew attention to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and the factional crises at the very top of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and noted that “a leadership crisis in the body responsible for preparing a country’s contingent for the biggest sports event in the calendar is the last thing athletes need, ahead of the Summer Games. How far these squabbles can go to scuttle the chances of some sportsmen and women at the event is not easy to compute” before pointing at the disqualified 4x400m relay team as an example of a case that the leadership crises could be said to have allowed to happen.
In concluding the editorial, THEWILL stressed the point that infighting, at so close a time to the commencement of the Games, was detrimental to athletics, in general, and the athletes, in particular. It urged that for the sake of progress, growth and a good outing again at the Games, it was time to “put aside all selfish pursuits and political power play for the sake of the country’s image and glory above all else and seek commonsense means of charting a way forward.”
What happened on Wednesday, July 28, was proof that this counsel was largely ignored and a factual demonstration of the proverbial aphorism that one can only reap what one sows.
As if aware of what was to come, the editorial noted, “The preparation for the Games in Tokyo have not been ideal and expecting the best of our athletes under these conditions is not facing reality”. This played out when the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of the athletics governing body, World Athletics, issued a report that rendered 10 out of Nigeria’s 23 athletes that qualified for the track and field events ineligible to participate at the ongoing Tokyo Olympic Games.
To comprehend the extent of the embarrassing concatenation of events that led to this ban, where Nigerian athletes were the worst hit among seven countries involved in the AIU report, an anatomy of the unit that issued the report is necessary.
To begin, one must first answer the question of who or what is the AIU?
The Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which describes itself as a fully independent unit of World Athletics, the international governing body for track and field athletics, race walking, cross country, mountain trail and ultra-running, is the arm of that athletics governing body given the authority to oversee the sport’s integrity issues. Most of this work relates to cleaning the sport of doping and non-doping issues.
As the final arbiter in cases pertaining to cleaning athletics of cheats and other integrity matters, the AIU works in pursuit of clean sport in four key areas of activity that include Intelligence and Investigation, Education and Communications, Testing and Compliance and Case Management of integrity-related queries.
Under its duties of intelligence, investigation, testing and compliance, the AIU not only compiles and analyses data and intelligence to conduct investigations into violations of the Integrity Code, in cooperation with partners and law enforcement agencies, but also implements a world class and worldwide intelligence-based testing programme, using state-of-the-art testing and analytical methods.
As an in-house, yet independent, unit of the sports body, the founding of the AIU in 2017 began a new era in the management of threats to the integrity of sports, thus making athletics the first sport internationally to delegate complete authority for the management of its integrity programmes to an independent body. The unit prides itself as separated from World Athletics. It reports through its own board and operates with the level of rigour and transparency expected by the world’s athletes and supporters.
As a result, its decisions are held in the highest esteem and mostly unsullied by political interests, bias, favouritism, financial inducements, underarm sharp practices and any other corrupt acts that often colour the actions of many an international body, a global institution or a non-governmental organisation as some historical examples bear witness.
Such antecedents have given the AIU the reputation of being a unit not to trifle with, in terms of abiding by their guidelines for athletes intending to feature in World Athletics-governed athletics meets that dot the sporting calendar from the Olympic Games to the Stockholm Championship.
To avoid excuses, AIU publishes its “Rules of Governance”, “Anti-Doping Rules” and “National Federation Anti-Doping Obligations” online. How then did Nigeria’s contingent fall short of deserving the slammer of the AIU?
It can be traced to a decision from the integrity unit from last year. While the leadership tussle between warring factions at the summit of the AFN continued, the AIU wrapped up an evaluation of the 2019 integrity reports from World Athletics Member Federations and decided to maintain the Category A status of the following members: Bahrain, Belarus, Ethiopia, Kenya and Ukraine for 2020. It also added two African countries Morocco and Nigeria to this category under Rule 15 of the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules.
Introduced at the beginning of 2019, following a recommendation from the AIU Board to the World Athletics Council, Rule 15 of the World Athletics Anti-Doping Rules sets out the National Federations’ anti- doping obligations. As already pointed out above, it is one of the publications from the unit to ensure that Member Federations have clear anti-doping obligations, play a greater part in ensuring a level playing field and elevate the overall standard of integrity in athletics.
Under the AIU rules, National Federations are categorised annually by the AIU Board in three different categories: A, B and C. The categorisation is codified according to the level of doping risk to the sport. It is structured with Category A having the highest doping risk to the sport and Category C the lowest.
By AIU’s evaluation, although all five countries that were in Category A last year demonstrated a marked improvement over 2019 in several areas, they were required to maintain those improvements. It was also their responsibility to ensure close scrutiny of their athletes and enforce standards in testing procedures before any changes in the status of these federations can become reality.
What was the dismaying factor in the case of Nigeria and which resulted in the country’s demotion to a Category A status was that unfortunately internal bickerings and the internecine warfare that was raging in its sporting governance can be attributed to the fact that in 2019, the AFN failed to report on compliance with Rule 15’s obligations as mandated of a Category B country as under the AIU’s guidelines.
The consequence of such a serious oversight meant that there was enough motivation for the AIU Board to move Nigeria into Category A. The direct consequence of this is that doping threats in Nigeria became an acute issue to be concerned about. Was Nigeria still in Category B, the stringent testing demanded of her athletes could not have been a necessity and all 23 athletes who have toiled severely to reach Tokyo could have been eligible to represent the country.
However, because one of the major requirements of Rule 15 is that “an athlete from a ‘Category A’ country must undergo at least three no-notice Out-of-Competition tests (urine and blood) conducted not longer than three weeks interval apart in the 10 months before a major event”, Glory Patrick, Yinka Ajayi, Tima Godbless, Chidi Okezie, Knowledge Omovoh, Ruth Usoro, Favor Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma, Chioma Onyekwere and Annette Echikunwoke will regrettably not compete as they did not meet this Category A athlete requirement.
That is why it is understandable that track queen, Blessing Okagbare, expressed her deep emotions about such governmental mishap in her reaction to the AIU slam. The sprinter said: “The sport system in Nigeria is so flawed and we athletes, are always at the receiving end of the damages. They were busy fighting over power, exercising their pride over puma contract/ kits forgetting their major responsibility, ‘THE ATHLETES. It is sad that this cycle keeps repeating itself and some people will come out to say I am arrogant for speaking my truth. It is my career.”
She hit the nail on the head. This unfortunate and embarrassing situation, with the whole world watching, will continue in an inordinate vicious cycle if the divisions in the Federation are not promptly brought to an end and the business of reviving athletics in the country focused on squarely. How far the remaining eligible 12 athletes go will be nothing to celebrate if change for the better does not begin from the ashes of this mess in the AFN.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
