By Uzor Odigbo
It has been alleged that failure of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN) to follow up release process at the Sport Ministry was the reason behind athletes allowance delay.
Recall that eight months after the Africa Senior Athletic Championship was held in Asaba, Delta State, some of Nigeria’s elite athletes and coaches are yet to receive their allowances.
AFN, whose responsibility it is to follow up and secure the release of the funds at the Sports Ministry has allegedly maintained a docile stand.
TheNiiche gathered that plans were rife to host the athletes soon after the championship by President Muhamadu Buhari at the Villa, but was cut-short owing to AFN’s slowness in putting its acts together.
Sports Ministry sources insisted that “no one would force AFN to fight and get what rightly belongs to the athletes or the federation, instead, they chose to remain silent.
“None of them has come to demand the athletes allowance or how the matter surrounding the rejection of the initial funds would be resolved since the championship ended, so tell me, how would they get it?
“Its unfortunate that innocent athletes are suffering it, I can’t say more.”
We also learnt that athletes involved rejected the allowance as not being in line with the promise officials made to them before championship.
Later, there was an assurance that the issue would be amicably resolved by sports ministry officials.
Sadly, it was revealed that athletes have been sending several emissaries through different channels to AFN for their money, yet, no word of assurance from the federation.
Some of them insisted that failure to remit their allowances on or before the All Africa Games in Algeria would mean the country no longer needs them.
The Africa Senior Athletic Championships was held in August 5, 2018 in Asaba, Delta state where Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria placed first, second and third respectfully.
