Incredible: Okowa Says Ofili Dumped Nigeria for Money, Absolves AFN of Blame in Athlete’s Tokyo and Paris Olympics Ordeal

Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) President Tonobok Okowa has told ESPN that Favour Ofili decided to switch allegiance from Nigeria to Turkey because of money.

“Ofili herself knows the whole truth. This is all about money. She and her coach are trying to make some money. I don’t see anything wrong with that, but as far as I am concerned, if she wants to go, it’s okay. She’s an adult, but she should stop using these reasons as her excuse.

“Okay, the Kenyans and Jamaicans that are going to Turkey, what reasons do they have? Let her go in peace. She’s an adult; she has the right to make her decision if she wants to switch allegiance or not.”

He also confirmed that World Athletics and Ofili have both contacted the Federation about the change.

“They have officially informed us, both World Athletics and the athlete herself.”

Ofili, in a social media post, had anticipated that many people, now including the president of a federation she represented selflessly, would link her decision to money.

“This change comes from my heart, not from financial motives,” the 22-year-old Paris 2024 Olympics finalist wrote in her message.

Ofili was one of 10 Nigerian track and field athletes excluded from the Tokyo Olympics due to the negligence of the AFN. She was also not registered for the 100m event at the Paris 2024 Olympics despite fulfilling all conditions for qualification.

The USA-based athlete said in another post that she neither received compensation nor an apology from Nigerian officials for the glaring administrative incompetence of the AFN.

“They are all still in office. They said I was paid compensation. I got nothing from anyone at all, not even an apology,” she said, following reports that the Ministerial Committee set up by John Enoh, the Federal Minister for Sports Development at the time to provide Nigeria’s negative exposures at the Games, recommended a $5,000 compensation for the athlete to be paid by the AFN.

Okowa, however, claimed in the ESPN interview that the Federation he heads, when both incidents happened, was not responsible for either the Tokyo Olympics debacle or the Paris Olympics blunder.

Instead, he blamed Ofili for not making herself available for testing.

“As far as I am concerned, for the first Olympics, she did not complete her out-of-competition test. And Nigeria cannot be held responsible. At that time, I was not even the president, we just came in two weeks after (June 15, 2021). Her preparation was done by the former administration.

“But an athlete is supposed to fill in her whereabouts to enable the testing officers to reach him or her. Unfortunately, she did not complete her three out-of-competition tests, and that was why some of them were not allowed to compete. That is not the AFN’s problem,” Okowa said in the interview.

He, however, did not state what steps the AFN took if the athlete evaded testing. If Ofili truly evaded testing, the Federation should have issued her a notice to that effect.

On the Paris Olympics debacle, he said: “The technical department said they put her name, and truly I was sure that her name was there. The list that I saw last, that we signed off, her name was there. So I don’t know where down the line the name got missing in transit.”

Okowa’s opinion here differed from the testimony of his technical director at the time, Samuel Onikeju, who confessed he knew Ofili’s name was not in the 100m list at least two weeks before the start of the event in Paris.

The AFN president also assumed the position of a coach in the ESPN interview and predicted Ofili would not have done well in the 100m event at the Games, as, in his words, she “barely managed to qualify during our trials.”

“The other two athletes that were registered for the 100m, Tima Godbless and Rosemary Chukwuma, had better qualifying times. Ofili barely managed to qualify during our trials.

“Technically, she may not have been able to handle both of them. In the final race for the 200m, she was already tired and was shutting down. It is possible that the technical department decided to give her just the 200m because it was decided that she would not be able to do both, but I doubt if that is what it was,” said Okowa, revealing that Ofili may have been deliberately left out of the 100m event by the AFN technical department.

Okowa’s claim on Ofili’s 100m status before the Olympics is also sounding more like tales from moonlight.

For the avoidance of doubt, Ofili not only won the Nigerian Championships in the event (11.06), she also sped to two marginally wind-assisted times of 10.85 (+2.2 m/s) and 10.78 (+2.5 m/s) before the Games.

More importantly, she was the fastest Nigerian sprinter from June 24, when she ran 11.06 to win the Nigerian Championships and qualify for the Olympics in Paris which means she was the athlete that was in form.

Interestingly, Chukwuma placed fifth (10.98) in the race where Ofili ran 10.78 to win at the ATX Sprint Classic in Georgetown, Texas.

Stakeholders across Nigeria’s sporting community have expressed deep concern over the dismissive and disparaging remarks made by the President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria about Favour Ofili, an athlete who represented the country with distinction from 2018 to 2024 and brought home multiple honors.

Many view his comments as unbecoming of a national sports administrator and a betrayal of the values of respect, accountability, and institutional integrity.

That such language would be directed at a young woman who endured administrative failures yet continued to compete for Nigeria is, to many, not only regrettable but emblematic of a broader culture of impunity and disregard for athlete welfare within the Federation.