Favour Chukwuka Ofili, a 21 star athlete currently representing The Great Green White Green (Nigeria) at Olympic Games in Paris has not been registered (again) for the 100 metres race by the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC). The failure has limited Favour Ofili to the 400m, 100×100 relay and the 200 metre race which she has impressively advanced to the next stage of the competition.
It was reported on the 31st of July, 2014 by Punchng.com that promising young star athlete Favour Ofili will not compete in the women’s 100 Metre race at Paris Olympic Games due to the failure of Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) the Nigeria body setup for the responsibility of conducting the affairs of the athletes that are representing Nigeria at the on-going Olympic Games in Paris.
Ofili voiced out her frustration and discontent that she won’t be participating in the 100 metre race after working hard to qualify. “It is with great regret that I have just been told I will not be competing in the 100 metres at this Olympic Games. I qualified, but those with the AFN and NOC failed to enter me. I have worked for four years to earn this opportunity. For what?” her social media (X) read.
Apparently, this is not even the first time she has been at the receiving end of what seems to be gross negligence from the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC). Adding how she also suffered similar inadequacies during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, stating via her social media page (X) “Please remember, in the last Olympic Games, I was not able to compete because AFN, NADC and NOC failed to release funds for athletes to be tested, which made 14 Nigerian athletes that qualified to not compete. Now this…..” Her post read, “It is with great regret that I have just been told I will not be competing in the 100 metres at this Olympic Games. I qualified, but those with the AFN and NOC failed to enter me. I have worked for four years to earn this opportunity. For what?”
Despite qualifying for the event, Ofili disclosed that the officials did not enter her, marking a repeat of the previous Olympics, Tokyo 2020. She added, “Please remember, in the last Olympic Games, I was not able to compete because AFN, NADC and NOC failed to release funds for athletes to be tested, which made 14 Nigerian athletes that qualified to not compete. Now this……”, “If those responsible are not held accountable for taking this opportunity from me, neither organisation can ever be trusted in the future! Next one is the 200 metres. I hope I’m entered.”.
What should we attribute these consecutive errors to, are they lack of due diligence due to the incompetence of the body or maybe just a malicious intent (only GOD knows)? Either way, this shouldn’t repeat itself again, so not to lose our promising stars to competing nations.
