UNITED STATES Of AMERICA-based Nigerian athletics coach, Chris Onwuzurike, has some strong and hard words for a board member of Athletics Federation Nigeria (AFN) who is allegedly bent on causing problems for the body that has been waxing stronger with each passing event it has staged in the last three years.
Coach Onwuzurike warned against using his son, Udodi, and other innocent foreign-based athletes to settle a ‘dirty fight’ between a rebellious board member of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and its leadership.
A visibly angry Onwuzurike gave this stern warning on Wednesday shortly on arrival in Nigeria alongside his son for the ongoing National Trials in Benin City, to select Team Nigeria athletes for the World Championships in Budapest the Hungarian capital.
The duo arrived in Lagos in the early hours of Wednesday and were waiting to connect a local flight to Benin City, only to be told by officials of the AFN to remain in a hotel in Lagos so as to join the team for the trip to Lome, Togo, the following day for a relay qualification event.
While waiting in the hotel in Lagos, Onwuzurike and his son were greeted by a sensational headline on an online platform, operated by one of the AFN board members saying that Udodi and three other foreign-based athletes had been ruled out of the team to Budapest.
According to the report, Udodi and the three foreign-based stars will not be in AFN’s team to Budapest for not honouring the National Trials in Benin City. “How can someone, who is a board member of the AFN write this kind of rubbish without making efforts to find out the true position of things?”, Onwuzurike queried.
“My son spend five hours flying from San Francisco to Atlanta, and we flew 12 hours to Lagos only for someone to cook up this rubbish story. Udodi is so angry, but I had to calm him down. At the moment, he is the number two 200m runner in the World and has already qualified for the World Championships”, the coach explained.
He further stated that his son is ready to light up the track and represent Nigeria well.
“Udodi is so eager to link up with his teammates in Benin City. It was the AFN that said we should wait in Lagos for the trip to Togo. I had to call some officials of the AFN in Benin City only to be told that the writer of the story had been waging a war against the President for reasons best known to him. That is crazy.”
Onwuzurike has some nice and encouraging words for the boss of AFN, Chief Okowa as well as the man who also led the athletic body, Chief Solomon Ogba.
“The man (Okowa) is trying his best and should be encouraged by other board members. To make matters worse, the writer was even painting the former AFN President in a bad light. I am sure he was referring to Chief Solomon Ogba. What concerns Chief Ogba in this matter?
“I remember that in the days of Chief Ogba as AFN President, some big athletes were suspended for their misbehaviour. To paint Ogba in a bad light is wickedness on the part of the writer, and he should desist from such an attitude of trying to drag other people, particularly the athletes into his dirty war with the AFN.
“The World Championships is around the corner, and I think all right-thinking Nigerian should support the AFN in its planning,” Onwuzurike further stated.
Though all the local flights from Benin City to Lagos were fully booked as of Wednesday, it was learnt that the AFN made frantic efforts to move the athletes and their officials to Lagos for the trip to Togo for the African Region 2 relay event. It will be held today in Lome.
Nigeria is still searching for qualification tickets in the 4x100m (men and women), 4x400m (men and women) as well as the mixed relay.
Eighteen-Eleven Media