Athletes waiting for govt grants should forget Rio Olympics, says AFN boss

The President of Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Dr. Solomon Ogba has said that those who administered Nigerian athletics in the past made mistakes by paying special grants to athletes in preparation for big events such as Olympics Games.

“It was wrong for AFN to pay special grants to athletes in preparation for Olympics Games,” Ogba told The Guardian yesterday. “And that is the prize Nigerian athletics is still paying till today.”

In years past, some AFN officials allegedly hide under the pretense of paying special training grants to foreign-based athletes to enrich themselves, especially during preparation for Olympics Games.

Then, the foreign-based athletes were usually grouped in three categories, with the top stars listed in Grade A with a cash tag of N100,000, Grade B N80,000 and Grade C N50,000. That was way back when the naira

The officials would made it compulsory for the federal government to set aside huge sum of money to be paid as special grant to the foreign-based athletes, which in most cases never got to them (the athletes).

At the moment, athletes all over the World are preparing for the Rio 2016 Olympics and Ogba says such old practice of paying special training grants to athletes must be discarded.

“It was wrong for government to pay special grants to athletes who are preparing for Olympics Games. If you go to the Olympics and win a medal, the International Olympics Committee (IOC) pays you money for it. You want the money and want somebody to push you to get the money? No. Not in this era,” Ogba said.