Ofili: Oduduru urges Nigerian athletes to unite against injustice, maladministration

Nigeria 200m record holder, Divine Oduduru has urged Nigerian athletes to come together to fight the common enemy instead of fighting for those oppressing them.

Oduduru took to his Facebook page on Thursday to make this plea in the wake of sprinter, Favour Ofili’s threat to boycott the World Athletics Relays next weekend in Guangzhou, China.

Ofili’s name was erroneously omitted from women’s 100m list at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games despite meeting all the conditions set by both World Athletics and the Athletics Federation of Nigeria for the event.

Ofili was quoted by The Guardian newspaper that ‘developments in Nigerian athletics show that officials don’t reckon with the athletes and therefore choose to do whatever they like because there will not be any consequence.

‘There was a panel to investigate the events in Paris and some people were indicted by a panel set up to investigate the incident. Now, those people indicted have been selected again to lead the contingent to China. ‘It means we don’t matter at all. This is very disheartening.’

Two officials of the AFN, Samuel Onikeku and Rita Mosindi were indicted by the panel. While Mosindi has been redeployed to another Federation, Onikeku remains the technical sub-committee head of the AFN.

While some athletes believe Ofili has been wronged and traumatized, some others are querying her decision to threaten the AFN.

Oduduru however believes athletes need to be united in matters like this clear injustice to the sprinter.

‘Until the day Nigeria athletes will wake up and stand up for the right thing, nothing will change. You all should keep on fighting yourself as athlete, forgetting the real problem and coaches condemning athlete for another athlete,’ wrote the second fastest Nigerian man in history.