Due to a personal feud between the sports minister and the chairman of the AFN board, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), the umbrella body for athletics in Nigeria, has announced that the minister for youth and sports, Sunday Dare, has halted the distribution of sport kits to Nigerian Olympians.
The AFN, led by Ibrahim Gusau, signed a four-year sponsorship and license agreement with PUMA, a German sportswear manufacturer, in which PUMA pledged to provide free apparel to all age divisions of the Nigerian athletics team for four years.
In addition, Olympic medalists were to be compensated for wearing PUMA gear during the competition.
According to the Peoples Gazette, Mr Dare halted the contract’s implementation due to a leadership squabble between the Gusau-led AFN board and a factional board Mr Dare attempted to impose.
Mr Dare has pledged that Nigerian athletes will not wear the PUMA jerseys because of his quarrel with Mr Gusau, according to the AFN, and has thwarted repeated attempts to send the PUMA uniforms to the athletes in Tokyo.
“Several attempts were made to provide the athletes with PUMA kits, including mailing bags of kits containing 40 items apiece to Tokyo via the Nigerian Embassy in Japan, however Mr Dare wrote to the Ambassador preventing him from giving the kits to the athletes,” AFN tweeted.
An investigation by the State Security Service, SSS, cleared Mr Gusau’s AFN board and its marketing firm, Dynamic Sporting Solutions Nigeria Limited, of allegations of receiving money meant for the AFN, according to the AFN. Mr Dare’s basis for displaying contempt towards the Gusau-led AFN board was vacated, according to the AFN, by an investigation conducted by the State Security Service, SSS, which cleared Mr Gusau’s AFN board and its marketing firm, Dynamic Sporting
The Department of State Services DSS cleared the Ibrahim Gusau-led board and its marketing firm, Dynamic Sporting Solutions Nigeria Limited, of receiving money earmarked for the AFN on September 3, 2020,” AFN concluded in a sequence of tweets.
The implications of Mr Dare’s decision have been disastrous for Nigerian athletes competing in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, with numerous of them speaking out against the ineptitude due to a lack of sporting equipment and inefficiency in ensuring compliance with Olympic competition regulations.
