Tunde Sulaiman
21 July 2008
Lagos — Almost 32 years after the Olympics witnessed an African boycott of the global sports meet, the spectre once again looms of a similar action by the same nations.
However, unlike the contentious issue which marred the 1976 Montreal Games, which was to protest New Zealand's sporting ties with the apartheid regime in South Africa, this time around their grouse is with the host of next month's Games - China.
African nation's are unhappy with the antics of the Chinese embassies in their countries with regard to the issuance of visas for their various delegations to attend the Games, which begin on August 8.
The embassies are making it very difficult for the various African countries to procure the travel documents for their delegations to attend the 17-day sporting extravaganza taking place for the first time in the world's most populous nation.
A highly placed official of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) who disclosed this to THISDAYSports, explained that their umbrella body for the continent, ANOCA (Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa) had been in touch with one another and had resolved to put pressure on Beijing 2008 LOC to mount pressure on their government to lower the bar for procuring visas.
"It is not only us (Nigeria) that is facing difficulties, the same situation is playing its self out in other African countries and our body ANOCA is unhappy at the development.
"We have been in constant touch with one another and it appears that is a deliberate policy to frustrate us," said the official, who said countries from outside the African continent were not facing such difficulties.
Although he said the issue of boycott was not something to be taken lightly, the official confirmed that if they were unable to secure visas for top government functionaries it could be come a distinct possibility.
"How will we travel to Beijing without members of the government or governors of the states? If we can't get visa's for them then the NOC in conjunction with the African body will be ready to consider all weapons at our disposal to get them (China) to change their position," explained the official.
THISDAYSports learnt that the Chinese embassy is asking intending travellers to China to show proof that they have already bought tickets for the Games and evidence that they had paid for accommodation.
"This is against the gentleman's agreement we had with them. What is painful is that it was Africa that gave them massive support when Beijing was bidding for the games so why are they now treating us this way? Even then when we agreed to back them, we got a gentleman's agreement from them that they would not be making their visa requirements so stringent."
The NOC official said even efforts to convince the embassy that they could vouch for the government officials travelling for the games has fallen on deaf ears.
"It's unbelievable that a senator, governor or even a member of the House of Representatives would travel to China and not return to Nigeria. But they (embassy) are insisting that they show evidence of their tickets and accommodation for the Games," said the very worried official.
He also said the tough stance was not only limited to government officials as they were also finding it difficult to get visas for some of the federation Chairmen.
THISDAYSports learnt that each discipline was only allowed a certain number of automatic accreditations, which means the federations, have to carefully select the officials who should receive them.
"But in the case of judo for instance in which only one competitor is going only three officials are entitled to accreditation. In this case it is the coach, secretary and doctor. So what happens to the Judo Federation chairman who happens to be Chief Orji Kalu? Will he not be going or should he stay in the Games Village with his athlete and do all the administrative work?
"Yet the embassy is insisting he (Kalu) must show that he has tickets for the Games and already booked accommodation!
"We tried to explain to embassy officials that we will give him (Kalu) a daily pass which would enable him go into the Games Village to see his athlete and daily VIP tickets which would enable him get into the stadium. Yet despite all these assurances the embassy has so far declined to give him a visa.
"We also made the same offer for other officials and so far the embassy has declined to honour them too," said the official.
The NOC source said if those they were ready to vouch for were finding it difficult to secure visas, he wondered how others like the Supporters Club and ordinary Nigerians would be able to make it to the Games.
"It will be a psychological blow if the Supporters Club can't make it because Nigeria is known the world over with the support they get from the Supporters Club. But as things stand unless the embassy relaxes its position I'm afraid they (Supporters Club) won't be in Beijing to back our athletes, which will be very sad indeed," said the NOC official.
While acknowledging the difficulty in getting visas, NOC spokesman Tony (Nezeana (said they were still working hard to get the Chinese embassy to budge on the issue.
"We're still talking with them and we're still very hopefully that something can be worked out," he said yesterday.
On the possibility of an African boycott, (Nzeaya) said: "I'm not sure about a boycott but I know that many of our counterparts (ANOCA) are facing the same visa problems and are unhappy with the development. I also know from conversations we've with had with some of them that they are considering we put up a united front to tackle the issue. After all it is our best interest to unite to overcome a common problem."
Although it is highly unlikely that it would get to this level, it is clear such thinking would be pleasing to the ears of Western nations who are still piqued over China's volte face in backing tougher UN sanctions against Zimbabwe.
At the G-8 Meeting of Industrialised Nations, which held early this month in Johannesburg, it had been agreed that they would put up a common front against Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe only for the Olympic hosts and Russia to use their vetoes to torpedo the resolution, which would have placed tougher sanctions on the East African nation.
The Montreal'76 Olympic boycott was spearheaded by Nigeria under aegis of the Supreme Council for Sports in Africa (SCSA), which ordered African nations out of the Games because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to ban New Zealand from Canada after its rugby team had toured South Africa, which was then under isolation because of its racial segregation policies.
Incidentally, although the SCSA action was condemned by many, the next two Olympics also suffered the same fate with the US leading the boycott of the Moscow'80 Games in protest over Russia's invasion of Afghanistan and the 1984 Games in Los Angeles, which was boycotted most of the countries of the former Eastern Block in solidarity with Russia, which used the occasion to pay the US back for their Moscow miss.
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