The chairman of Nigeria’s National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Shehu Dikko, has admitted that he is sad about the shock decision by fast-rising female sprinter, Favour Ofili, to switch her allegiance to Turkey, but stressed that efforts are already in place to prevent a repeat of the setback in future.
Sports247 reports that, while Ofili cited, among other thorny issues, controversial errors by the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) that prevented her from competing at the last two Olympic Games, in Tokyo and Paris respectively, Dikko insisted that measures are already in place to ensure better welfare for the country’s athletes.
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The former chairman of the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL) expatriated, “We are doing structural changes from the bottom and moving up. It’s not something we can do from the top.
“The kind of work we are doing at the Commission is to set up the structure by putting in the right perspective and, most importantly, be able to raise enough resources.”
The calm yet highly experienced sports administrator then unfolded a number of concrete steps that have already been taken to ensure better welfare for Nigerian athletes, especially in monetary matters.
He added, “We are working together with the Sports Development Fund. We know that success in sports is all about funding. That’s why we are looking at how we can be able to fund our athletes.
“If we can give them the best of training and the best of resources, they don’t need to go anywhere else. Once we can have the best implements and the best athletes, we’ll all be happy about it.”
Aside from reeling out what has already been put in place to ensure Nigerian athletes feel satisfied and cared for, Dikko disclosed that new ideas and processes are also being planned by the country’s sports authorities.
“We are sad about it (Favour Ofili’s matter), but we are already watching for the long-term process that will help us put this type of problem out of the way … by having a proper structure, proper system, proper road map and proper support system for all our athletes.
“That’s one of the reasons why we set up the Elite Athletes Development And Budget Board. It’s all part of our efforts to make sure there are people who are looking after our best athletes, by raising funds from the private sector and giving out grants,” Dikko disclosed.
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