- Falcons’ treatment leaves much to be desired
The mess involving officials of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) and the female national football team, the Falcons, has given shoddy administration a dirty new name; and for the Nigerian government, an ‘F’ grade for lack of sensitivity and poor response to critical national issues.
The Falcons are the current champions of Africa. After about two weeks of intensive competition, the Nigerian female team beat the whole of Africa in the African Women Cup of Nations (AWCON). They have won it eight out of ten times. The team is reportedly owed backlogs of bonuses and allowances that stretch back to the camping period.
Seeing that their pay was not ready, the team held on to the trophy they won and chose to stay put in their hotel rooms. And also seeing that no arrangement was being made to pay them, and concluding that after the celebrations they may never get paid, the ladies resorted to self-help.
This mild but strong protest by the victorious team rent the air and immediately gained global attention. Al Jazeera, the global cable television network aired the news. The federal government, caught napping, had to bring the matter up during the Federal Executive Council meeting last Wednesday. The outcome: the sports minister was mandated to raise funds to pay the ladies. But by the end of the working day last Friday, nothing had changed positively.
The Sports Minister, Solomon Lalong, not known to have added any value to the ministry since he began to head it over one year ago, merely added fuel to the fire. He was quoted as saying that the Falcons’ AWCON victory took the government by surprise as proper arrangements were not made.
According to him, funds were not available because the team was not expected to win the trophy. His words: “Don’t forget that nobody even knew that the team would emerge victorious; if we were confident they will emerge victorious, all the Federation would have done is to plan for process of participation and entitlement…”
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed blamed the crisis on recession: “Over time, it has become tradition to reward victorious athletes, but in the case of Falcons, I think this is caused by the biting economic situation.”
This is simply shameful. The NFF, the Sports Minister and the federal government all failed inexcusably in the handling of this matter. Those ladies should never have stayed in that hotel one minute longer after the president got wind of it. The issue ought to have received immediate presidential treatment.
It is worrying that the ill-treatment of the Falcons seems typical. During the last Olympic Games in Brazil early in the year, it took the intervention of the footballer Mikel Obi to save the situation as he reportedly used his personal money to bail out the Nigerian contingent when it could not settle hotel bills. In the on-going World Cup qualifiers, smooth payment of players’ allowances remains an issue.
During the last World Cup tournament, the federal government had to fly a plane load of cash to Brazil as Nigerian players threatened not to file out for the next match in the knockout stage if they were not paid their bonuses. It was ridiculous, considering that the country had four years to prepare for the world cup tourney.
In the last decade or so, Nigeria’s sports representatives, particularly the country’s football teams, have had to suffer unnecessarily over payment of allowances and bonuses.
The country’s sports administrators need to appreciate that failure to plan, organise and simulate options cannot but result in problems. Sports are about planning and preparation.
