OLYMPICS: A Battle of Unequal gods

As the world goes agog with the opening ceremony of 2008 Olympics in Beijing China, I cannot help but laugh at Christian athletes participating at the obvious pagan ritual in honour of Greek gods and a worship of the Spartan spirit of the Greek. Some may want to refer me to the analogical use of race, bodily exercise etc by Paul in his letter to Timothy, but let me flatly ask, would Paul have participated in the Olympics, knowing that the touch/Olympics flame ritually very four years is lit at Mount Olympus, where Zeus and not Jehovah is the Alpha and Omega?

It is this unclear relationship between Olympics and religion that has made Nigeria among the weeping boys of each t Olympic Games. Nigeria’s greatest feat was in Atlanta 1996, when she netted in 2 Gold Medals. This feat was by sheer personal effort and the hunger for glory by these athletes. Mind you, Chioma Ajunwa, was just dusting off from a drug abuse ban and the Kanu dream team had Japan 1993 victory and an eye on personal contract with major European club sides to spur them on. And above all, they attribute their victories to “God”.

 Going by this year’s preparation, one cannot help but predict doom for the contingent. Even the Minster of sports and Chairman National Sports Commission, Mr. Abdulrahman Gimba concurs. In a letter to Mr. President, the Minister wanted Nigeria to withdraw from the Beijing Games, according to the Minister “the litany of woes and underperformance of this sector (sports), has been exemplified…Except for God’s guidance and luck…dire consequences for national  psyche and image”

To further buttress the looming national woes, an occasion at the National Stadium Abuja meant for the formal hand over of the Nigerian contingent, ended in a shouting bout between the Minister and Chief Cosmos Maduka. Yes Maduka of the Coscharis fame. Chief Maduka, is the Chairman of Table Tennis Association. In that ill-fated meeting, the minister came late and Chief Maduka wrapped the Minister and said “we have been toiling and doing our best but we are discouraged by the ministry…Olympic medals are not picked on the street…there is no encouragement”

Sure the minster replied and exposed that Chief Maduka, is one of the biggest beneficiaries of contract in the ministry! This is a story for another day but suffice it to be said that Chief Maduka is a confessed born again Christian.

I wonder what a born again Christian is doing, leading a team of Nigerians to a pagan ritual. I have no problem with sports but why must the flame be lit at Mount Olympus? If this cannot be scientifically explained, then I have found a theological reason why Nigeria has been doing badly at the Olympic and the World Cup, despite abundance of talents. It is a documented and incontrovertible that Nigerians do well abroad or when they fly any other colour than green. Francis Obikwelu of Government College Owerri, the son of a retired Nigeria Police officer, now a Portuguese readily comes to mind. If you cast your mind backwards, you will remember Dele Udo.

The theological reason is simple. The Greco-Roman-Jewish god, defeated African gods. View the opening ceremony of the 2004 Olympics in Greece. All their gods were on parade. At every Olympics, this painful defeat/mental colonisation are brandished. Till Africans start attending these Games armed with African gods to challenge Onyibo gods, we will remain nothing but an afterthought on the medal table, winning only those games meant for messengers of the gods that require sheer raw strength.

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