‘This is not just mismanagement, it is betrayal’: AFN muzzles Board member, Soetan for exposing Tokyo 2025 World Championships travel privilege scandal

The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has once again shown its disregard for transparency and its own constitution by removing Olalekan Soetan, the Southwest representative on its board, from the Federation’s WhatsApp platform.

His ‘offense’? Daring to question why AFN officials flew business class to the 20th World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, while the athletes, except Tobi Amusan, who had to request it, were dumped in economy.

Soetan, a respected coach and statistician, called out the hypocrisy in a strongly worded piece. He argued that this kind of decision is one of the reasons Nigeria struggles to win medals consistently.

‘Until Nigeria puts its athletes before its administrators, medals will remain accidents of talent rather than products of a system,’ he wrote.

He asked the obvious question: ‘Who deserves business class more, the medal winner or the medal taker?’

Soetan didn’t hold back. He described how athletes train for years, carry the nation’s hopes, and then get squeezed into economy seats for long flights before competing against the world’s best. Meanwhile, board members, including the illegal ones, who never run, jump, or sweat, relax in business class, sipping champagne.

‘This is not just mismanagement. It is betrayal,’ he said.

He compared AFN’s poor priorities with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), which ensures every Super Eagles player flies business class, even the last man on the bench.

‘The Nigeria Football Federation understands optics and performance. Every Super Eagles player flies business, even the last man on the bench. Why? Because they know performance starts before the match.’

‘Athletics does the opposite. Our federation paraded Tobi Amusan with a business ticket to Tokyo, as though it was a favor, not a duty. Yet once the spotlight dimmed, she most likely flew economy back to her base, a world record holder treated like an ordinary passenger. If the best gets that, what about the rest?’

‘Business class is not luxury for athletes. It is part of performance management. Recovery and readiness begin the moment an athlete boards a plane. Cramped legs and stiff backs mean fractions of a second lost, centimeters sacrificed, medals gone. For delegates, business class is comfort. For athletes, it is performance.’

Instead of addressing the issue, AFN leadership retaliated. Without following the rules in its own constitution, which it has violated repeatedly, including during the last elections, they ordered the Secretary General to remove Soetan from the WhatsApp group.

This isn’t the first time AFN has silenced voices illegally. Veteran journalist Dare Esan, recognized by World Athletics and a member of its Media Study Group for over ten years, was also removed from the platform by then president Tonobok Okowa. Esan had to remind Okowa that he had no such power under the AFN constitution before reason prevailed and he was reinstated.

Ahmed Shuaib Gara Gombe, former chairman of the Gombe Athletics Association, was also kicked out of the WhatsApp group for Chairmen and Secretaries of affiliated associations, again, without any legal basis.

Now, stakeholders are calling on the National Sports Commission to step in and stop AFN from continuing this pattern of abuse.

In a time when President Bola Tinubu is pushing for development across all sectors, including sports, which has received its highest budget allocation in history, many believe a federation that refuses to follow its own rules has no place in Nigeria’s future.

They are also waiting to see how former internationals on the board of the AFN, including Olympic 4x400m bronze medal winner, Fatimah Yusuf, technical director, Gabriel Okon, Victor Okorie, Oluyomi Sule and Solomon Aliyu will react to this mistreatment of Soetan and the athletes.

Okowa and AFN Secretary General, Israel Inwang did not respond to Whatsapp messages sent to them for clarification.