Former Nigerian sprinter Olusoji Fasuba has launched a scathing attack on the hierarchy of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) following a statement put out by the nation’s governing body in the wake of news that 100m and 200m athlete Favour Ofili had switched nationalities to represent Turkey.
The 40-year-old, who was the former African record holder in the men’s 100m with a time of 9.85s until South Africa’s Akani Simbine broke it in July 2021 after setting a time of 9.84s, spoke via an interview on radio platform Lagos Talks 91.3FM on Monday where he expressed his disappointment at the events which played out prior to reports alleging that Ofili had switched national allegiance Turkey.
“I’ll say it again, whoever said that shows and tells me that there’s a lack of leadership there, understanding what leadership is all about. Leadership is not about going down there and making people do things,” Fasuba said when quizzed about the AFN statement.
ALSO READ: World Record Holder Favour Ofili Turns Back on Nigeria, Changes Nationality
Fasuba also said, “Leadership is about going down there and serving people, finding a common ground of bringing everyone together and let them understand this is what we need to achieve. Well, I think that’s where the major failure is. And I think if this can be corrected this time, I think it may help solve losing our athletes.”
He added, “These are the implications of something like this because if a high-profile athlete like Ofili can do such a thing, it just kind of tells other athletes that maybe this is a direction in which we should be pulling. When they say they pay you training grants, the question there is how much is this training grant? Have you done this consistently? For how many years have you received the training grants? There’s a lot of things. Sometimes they may pay you $5,000, $10,000 and think that’s enough to get you an Olympic medal. Sorry, that’s a joke. That is a complete joke.”
Fasuba also voiced his backing of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games 200m finalist, “Yes, I support her 101 per cent because of the fact that she was treated badly and you know what? Whoever did it to her is still in the board and there was no penance for that. If the penance was paid, I would say yes hopefully she was wrong on that. But it is wrong and everybody will feel that whoever did that to her is still in the board or still in the administrative position.”
“She’s going to have that fear. She will never run fast again if she has that mindset that that person is still there. So, I think I support 100 per cent and I think she made the right choice on this occasion,” Fasuba concluded.