BEVERLY HILLS, May 30, (THEWILL) – The Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, caused a brewing Twitter stir on Sunday morning with a tweet he posted to congratulate Nigerian long jumper Ese Brume’s record-setting performance. Dare was berated for his choice of words by a cross-section of Nigerians on the micro-blogging platform, who took up issue with Minister.
Dare was praising long jump sensation Ese Brume after she set a new African mark in women’s long jump with an astonishing 7.17 metres leap at the Chula Vista Festival. The record overshot Chioma Ajunwa’s 25-year African record, which earned Ajunwa an Olympic gold.
The amazon’s record of 7.12 metres set a quarter of a century ago earned Nigeria her first and so far, only individual Olympics gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Games and entered Ajunwa’s name in gold in the annals of African track and field performances forever.
At the Chula Vista Festival, Brume needed six tries to exceed that record and the three-time African champion is now the leading long jump record holder in the world this year, winning the event’s gold medal and finishing ahead of Brittney Reese who leapt 7.10m to win silver while the bronze for a 7.07m leap went to Chantel Malone.
It marks yet another milestone for the Delta native who last year in Doha, became the first Nigerian to win a medal at the World Athletics Championships since 2013 when she claimed bronze in the women’s long jump event with a mark of 6.91m.
Excitedly, the minister took to his official Twitter account to congratulate Brume. He posted: “Ese Brume all the way! Ese just shattered the National and African records in long jump at the SanDiego meet. Her jump buries Chioma Ajunwa’s record. Congratulations Ese!
“Pix: in Dallas last week. Nigerian camp. She was calm and confident”
He was immediately taken to task by responders who wondered why he had to denigrate the achievements of one of Nigeria’s most respected Olympics heroines, who had inspired a generation of athletes of all classes but most especially young girls to dream the impossible because she could do it, so offhandedly when he is supposed to be the one upholding Ajunwa’s greatness as his office demands.
One of those who queried Dare’s post, Paul C. Nwabuikwu (@paul_nwabuikwu) replied: “There must be a better, more patriotic way to capture Ese’s achievement than saying her effort “buried” Ajunwa’s record. Ajunwa remains Nigeria’s ONLY individual Olympic gold medalist and her record which lasted so long deserves respect. Nigeria won again , nobody got buried.”
Others followed in that line of thought. Ejiofor (@Jimianthony23) commented with a hopeful reply: Haaa Oga Dare “Buried” is a strong acrimonious word o,especially in the context you used…Ajunwa record shouldn’t be slammed that way.Hope your tweet will be corrected.”
#Reels71 (@Veektour8) said: “No doubt she’s good… But the statement “Her jump buries chioma ajunwa’s record” was uncalled for and sounded like it was purposely used as an attack on chioma… That’s what i think..”
nnaEmeka Meribe (@ncmeribe) joined with a prayer for Brume at the end: “Ajunwa’s record wasn’t set to last forever. Records will always be broken. You can do better than using the word ‘buried.’ That is an unprecise word.
“Congratulations to Ese. I pray you break more records in your career.”
Isa Gusau (@SpokesmanBornoG) indicated the difference in importance of the two records: “Haba, minister! You, a media man, ought to choose words better. That harsh comparison with Chioma Ajunwa was unnecessary, especially since competing at the Olympics, with far more pressure, as Chioma faced to get our first Olympic gold, cant be compared with one SanDiego event.”
Aside a few of these responses that picked on the choice of words that Dare used in his congratulatory post, others joined in cheering the record-setting performance of Brume and urging her, with the rest of the country, to keep at her best and go further.
She remains one of Nigeria’s real medal hopefuls at the Tokyo Olympics which gets underway in July and her latest exploits will only serve to reinforce belief and expectations of her potential to achieve that and even more in the years ahead.
About the Author
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.
