The Federal Government appears to be returning to the ugly past as far as paying scant attention to the funding of national sports federations is concerned.

Barely a week after the men’s basketball team, D’Tigers, were almost thrown out of their hotel due to unpaid bills during the third window of the 2027 FIBA World Cup qualifying series in Angola, the country’s table tennis team will not be at the African Table Tennis Championships in Morocco later this year because the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) could not access funds to take the team to the Western Region Championships in Conakry, Guinea, which serves as the qualifying tournament for the championships.

This will be the first time in recent history that Nigeria will not feature at the championships.

Nigeria’s quartet of Matthew Kuti, Abdulbasit Abdulfatai, Favour Ojo, and Khadijat Okanlawon had been slated to compete in Conakry. However, their journey was aborted due to financial constraints, as the NTTF struggled to meet mounting expenses, including the ongoing camp for junior players at Babcock University in Ogun State.

A source at the NTTF told The Guardian that the federation submitted its programmes and the budget to the National Sports Commission (NSC) and, “but they keep telling us that they are coming.”

The source said that “flight tickets for the four players, their coaches and backroom staff will cost about N15 million because each ticket is N2.5 million. This is outside accommodation, team’s upkeep and other logistics,” he said.

The West African Championships, which started on Wednesday, will end tomorrow.

He said: “Nigeria’s absence from the African Championships means that for the first time in a long while, the country will not be at the World Championships because the African competition will determine the players the continent will present at the global event.

“They keep announcing that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is interested in sports, and has been funding it more than any other president since the country returned to democracy, but the federations are not feeling it. The NTTF has not received any kobo from the NSC this year and we are not alone.

“The Nigerian Tennis Federation (NTF) recently lamented that they have not been given money to settle the debts they incurred during the Davis Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan. The only exception to this poor funding is football because the players know how to force the NSC to release money for their games.”

Despite this setback, the source said that the federation managed to send four cadet players — Umar Ayoola, Habeeb Adebayo, Emmanuella Shaibu, and Elizabeth Emenike — to Accra, Ghana, for the 2026 Africa Hopes Week & Challenge.

In addition, a 16-man team led by Kuti and Ojo is expected to depart for Accra this weekend to compete in the 2026 African Youth Championships and Cup (BRF Cup).

The source said that the board members, especially NTTF President, Adesoji Tayo, and the federation’s former boss, Enitan Oshodi, have been contributing personal money to fund its activities.

Reacting to the development, NTTF President, Adesoji Tayo, expressed regret over Nigeria’s withdrawal from the Guinea tournament. He explained that despite efforts to secure the team’s participation, exorbitant flight costs and the lack of support from the NSC made the trip impossible.

He said: “In the last two weeks, our young players have been in camp preparing for the three events in Ghana and Guinea. With support from friends of table tennis and the management of Babcock University, we provided a conducive environment for training and ensured that the cadet players heading to Ghana departed last weekend.

“Unfortunately, our request for NSC’s support for the Guinea trip was unsuccessful, and the prohibitive flight ticket prices forced us to withdraw. This competition also served as qualifiers for the 2026 African Championships in Morocco.”

While Tayo assured that Nigeria will be represented at the African Youth Championships in Ghana, he admitted that missing the regional tournament in Guinea could have lasting consequences, particularly for Nigeria’s qualification prospects for the 2027 World Championships. He added that the setback would also dent Nigeria’s reputation as a table tennis powerhouse on the continent.