Former President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Dan Ngerem, and former Head Coach of the body, Seigha Porbeni, are saddened by the country’s inability to secure a single relay ticket to the fast-approaching 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.  The qualification window for the Championships ended yesterday, but there was no news about Nigeria picking any of the tickets for the five relay events. It will be the first time since the inaugural edition of the championships in Helsinki in 1983 that Nigeria will fail to present a single relay team.
 
For Ngerem and Porbeni, the failure to qualify a single relay team to Tokyo 2025 is disappointing because Nigeria currently has some of the fastest individual athletes in the world this season, both in the sprint and 400m.
 
“There are usually multiple opportunities to qualify for relays, but if you are not proactive and keep waiting for government money, you may function well below expectations,” Ngerem said in his message to The Guardian.
 
“In my time as president of the AFN, we had to keep an eye on the board, and even when the government failed us at the last minute and there were no economy seats on all airlines, I had to use my own funds to fly the athletes and their handlers in business class via Qatar Airways. That was why we were able to qualify and went on to win the only Olympic medals for Nigeria at the Athens Olympics, and indeed, the only two medals by Nigeria were in relays. There are multiplicities of errors and it has been in a continuum and worsening,” Ngereem stated.
 
On his part, Seigha Porbeni said: “It is unbelievable that the AFN would squander a generation of some of the best sprinters Nigeria has ever had in decades in a twinkle of an eye due to arrogance, poor human managerial and administrative knowledge as well as a complete state of lack of foresight.”
 
“I am really bothered like all athletics’ lovers because in a country where you have top women sprinters as Tima Godless, Rosemary Chukwuma, Favour Ofili, Tobi Amusan, Ella Onojiwewhvo, Patience Okon, Esther Success, and brilliant men sprinters as Kayinsola, Israel Okon, Favour Ashe, Itshekiri Osheorise, Chidi Ogazi, Nathaniel Ezekiel, to name just a few from our loaded pack. Why must the AFN always wait for its national trials to kick start its preparation to qualify for the relays for the World Championships? I have asked this question several times. Can you be making the same mistake year in, year out and expect a different result, while using the same so-called professional technocrats?
 
“Last year, the AFN went to Togo, went to Cotounu afterwards, before coming to Asaba. The AFN spends huge sums of hard currencies inviting Ghana and other countries just to qualify. In all of these, our athletes are usually given peanuts,” he stated.
  
To correct the situation in the future, Porbeni advised: “The AFN should get its best sprinters in the USA, take a few at home to join them, then start with the Penn Relays, Florida Relays, all in the United States, and then prepare for the World Relays.
 
“Nigeria not attending this year’s World Relays was a strong red light. The answer is a veritable willpower, finance and early preparation with the right handlers. The result will surely be positive.”
 
Before yesterday’s expiration of qualification for Tokyo, Nigeria’s relay teams—men’s and women’s 4x100m, 4x400m, and mixed 4x400m- were not among the top 16 teams that qualified for the championships.
 
The men’s and women’s 4x100m teams were in 17th place, just outside the cutoff, and could only qualify if one of the 16 teams ahead withdrew from the trip to Tokyo. The women’s 4x400m team ranks 19th, while the men’s team were in 23rd, both well outside the qualification zone and won’t be able to benefit from any withdrawals.
 
The mixed 4x400m relay team is also ranked 17th, meaning that Nigeria’s only hope across all five relay events hangs on other countries pulling out from the World Championships in Tokyo.