The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), has expressed shock over the widely reported decision by one of the country’s finest female athletes, Favour Ofili, to dump Nigeria for Turkiye.
The news emerged yesterday that the 22-year old athlete has made up her mind to leave Nigerian athletics with the aim of representing Turkiye at the 2028 Olympics when she would be eligible to compete for her adopted country.
It will be recalled that since the Paris 2024 Olympics, where the AFN failed to list her for the 100m event, Ofili has not hidden her plans to leave the country.
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According to reports, Ofili has filed an application to switch allegiance to Turkey as of May 31, 2025, notifying the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) of her intentions.
Ofili listed that she has been frustrated in her athletics career by the AFN, recalling how she along with 12 other athletes were disqualified from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Nigeria’s non-compliance with doping regulations.
She also complained about her omission from the women’s 100m event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Although a probe committee was set up to investigate the circumstances that led to that embarrassment in Paris, it is said Ofili is yet to be paid the $5,000 compensation and presented with a letter of apology as recommended by the committee.
Consequently, she has also shown her frustration by shunning national trials and even when she turned up, she selected the events she preferred.
For instance at the 2024 African Championships in Cameroon she refused to compete in the 100m after running in the heats, claiming that the organisers did not provide the right atmosphere for competition.
Meanwhile, in a press statement issued yesterday, the President of AFN, Chief Tonobok Okowa, said like every other person in Nigeria, in Africa and beyond, he and his newly elected board had read and heard about Ofili’s desire to change nationality from the media.
“If this is true, it is sad, disheartening and painful but we are yet to get any official statement from her or any correspondence from World Athletics (WA), on her request. She is a promising athlete with huge potential.
“The AFN and the National Sports Commission (NSC), have been working hard to get athletics and other sports in the country back on track and to show that both bodies are matching goals, objectives and words with action, Favour Ofili had already been paid her training grant for this year,” Okowa said.
He also alleged that Favour has prevented the AFN from reaching her and that all efforts to heal the wounds caused by 100m Paris Olympic Games omission had proved abortive.
“From the moves we have been making to get her fully prepared and back to the big athletics family and her response, it’s also clear that she had been preparing and working on her new found Turkish love.
“She is old enough to decide what’s best for her but it is painful and hard to take for us. However, we will not stop her, she is still our child, sister and daughter,” said Okowa.
The Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) vice-president, therefore, apologised to Nigerians, the NSC and millions of people around the world who hold Nigerian athletics in high esteem for the said development.
As of Sunday, June 22, Ofili is still listed under Nigeria on the World Athletics website.
Ofili, 22, holds the national 200m women’s record with 21.96s and personal best of 10.78s, performances she posted in 2022.
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