• ‘She remains a Nigerian athlete until Sept. 2028’
• Onyali reveals how she turned down request from four countries

The National Sports Commission (NSC) may have commenced moves to “block” United States-based sprinter, Favour Ofili, from achieving her dream of competing for Turkey.
 
The move to stop Ofili’s nationality switch is coming just as Nigerian sprint legend, Mary Onyali, revealed how she turned down offers to represent four other countries during her career.
 
Ofili, widely regarded as one of the finest sprint talents of her generation, announced last year that she was switching allegiance to Turkey, a move which came as a huge blow to Nigerian athletics.
 
However, a top official of the NSC told The Guardian yesterday that Ofili remains a Nigerian athlete.
  
“Ofili remains our athlete,” the official said. “She was among the elite athletes who were paid training grants by the NSC last year, and it is not possible for her to switch allegiance to Turkey. If Ofili wants to compete for another country, she will have to wait until September 2028. That is the simple truth. We took our time to study the situation and have written to World Athletics to explain our stand regarding Ofili’s nationality switch.”
 
Ofili is the only Nigerian woman to run under 22 seconds in the 200m, holding the national record with a lifetime best of 21.96s. Before she announced her nationality switch to Turkey last year, Ofili featured prominently at major global events, including the Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires (2019), the World Athletics Championships in Doha (2019) and Budapest (2023), the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (2022), and the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
 
She also represented Nigeria at multiple African Championships, underlining her consistency and impact on the track.
 
According to the NSC official, Ofili is among the athletes expected to fly Nigeria’s flag at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics.

On a recent report that another Nigerian sprinter, Favour Ashe, is training with Qatar, the NSC official said:

“I doubt if Ashe will switch allegiance to Qatar. We are talking.”
 
Meanwhile, sprint legend Mary Onyali, has stated that she turned down offers to represent four other countries during her career, choosing instead to remain loyal to Nigeria.
 
Onyali, a five-time Olympian (1988–2004) and two-time Olympic medalist (1992, 1996), stated that she had several opportunities to switch allegiance while studying and competing in the U.S., insisting she never wanted to run for any other country.
   
“During my time, Nigerian athletes studying abroad were always eager to return home to compete in national trials, but I never had the ‘guts’ to abandon Nigeria for another nation.”
 
Today, Onyali is considered a cornerstone of Nigerian athletics history and is recognised for her pride in representing her home country above the personal gains that might have come from switching allegiances.