Ese Did Not Explain Well; Nigerians Misunderstood Why She Had To Borrow Bike – Sports Minister

The Minister of Sports Development, John Enoh, has claimed that Nigerians have grossly misunderstood why Ese Lovina Ukpeseraye, Nigeria’s track cyclist, had to borrow a bicycle from the German team to compete in the Keirin and Sprint events at the ongoing 2024 Paris Olympics after the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) and Cycling Federation of Nigeria (CFN) failed to provide her with one.

Enoh contended that the federation was, at the last minute, able to secure a bicycle for Ukpeseraye to compete in the events, contrary to reports that the sports ministry did not provide equipment for her.

Recall that in a post on  X on Thursday, Ukpeseraye wrote:

Due to the short notice of me competing at the Keirin & Sprint, #teamNigeria, I had no bicycle to race on the tracks. In d spirit of sportsmanship, the German team @bunddeutscherradfahr came to my rescue by offering me a bicycle. Thank you.

However, in an attempt at clarification, the sports minister, in a post on Friday, said Ukpeseraye did not explain herself in the proper context.

He said the track race was reallocated to Team Nigeria after a team was disqualified and that it would need special equipment, which, if paid for, would take months to be delivered.

His exact words:

Ese’s post seems to have been grossly misunderstood, perhaps also because it didn’t give proper context to the matter in perspective. I must make some clarifications. Abinitio, Team Nigeria qualified for one road race in cycling and prepared for it in terms of training and the appropriate competition equipment.

Team Nigeria was fully prepared for this road race until two weeks ago, after the Cycling team with the rest of Team Nigeria had already left for the Olympics when a communication from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) was received reallocating additional slots to the Cyclist Federation of Nigeria (Kerin and individual sprint).

“This reallocation to Nigeria was due to the disqualification of a country, leaving Nigeria as the next eligible to make the list of qualified countries to compete. Unfortunately, this additional slot required using different competition equipment for biking,” he said.

“For this track race reallocated to Team Nigeria, exceptional equipment (explicitly approved for the Olympic track game) is used. It’ll take months to have it delivered after ordering and making payment.

“To get Ese to compete, the Federation through Ese’s Club in Europe and working with a German-owned Company, got a ‘Track Bike’ for our cycler Ese,” he said.

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