Making of Champions

The Nigerian Athletics Championships which wrapped up a week ago in Calabar seemed to usher in a new era in Nigerian Athletics – one which could see American athletes who have switched allegiances to dominate Nigerian Track & Field for some time to come, if there continues to be no serious effort or investment by the AFN or the private sector to develop athletes in Nigeria.

Athletes switching from USA to Nigeria has not been uncommon in the past few years. Indeed, Blessing Okagbare aside, most of the top athletes representing Nigeria currently, such as Regina George and Gloria Asumnu, once donned the blue, red and white of Team USA. That said, never has the systematic switch of allegiances of Americans to Nigeria caused as much controversy as it is causing right now, because in the past, the links that the athletes had to Nigeria were plainly obvious – within their names, and for the clear fact that either one or both of their parents were Nigeria. The only difference between them and other Nigerians was being born and brought up in the US.

What we are currently witnessing seems to be a completely new trend. Now, it seems that we’re no longer satisfied with recruiting Nigerians who were born and bred in America. The latest swathe of athletes recruited, who waltzed into Nigeria for the first time in their lives to dominate at the Nigerian Trials, would appear to have questionable links to Nigeria at best, completely fabricated at worst. We EXCLUSIVELY interviewed each of these new athletes at the Trials, so every day this week, we will be publishing the interviews with each of them, and asking you the public the questions that will inevitably arise – are these athletes really Nigerian? Were they really eligible to receive Nigerian Passports? Should they really be competing for Nigeria?

Probably the most critical question that arises is this – why are we expending great resources and efforts recruiting athletes who are not good enough to compete for USA, while we lose our best World-Class talents, such as Kemi Adekoya and Femi Ogunode, to the likes of Bahrain and Qatar respectively? Essentially, it would appear that we are mortgaging the futures of our best talents to take in these Americans, most of whom are in the twilight of their careers and will not make it past Rio 2016, even if they make it that far. Tell us what you think about each interview – interestingly, when asked about their family links to Nigeria, the responses we got ranged from parent, to grandparent, great-grandparent and even great-great-grandparent!

A quick check of Nigerian citizenship law shows that there are only 3 ways to obtain Nigerian nationality: (1) By birth (2) By registration (a woman married to a Nigerian man can obtain citizenship) and (3) By naturalisation (must have resided in Nigeria for 15 years). As such, the only way these athletes could possibly qualify is through birth: “A citizen by birth in Nigeria is a person who was born in Nigeria before or after independence and whose parents or grandparents belonged to a community indigenous to Nigeria, or any person born outside Nigeria either of whose parents is a citizen of Nigeria.“

Essentially, it seems rather unlikely that any athlete who does not have at least one parent who is Nigerian could possibly be eligible to receive a Nigerian passport and hence compete for Team Nigeria. It does appears the law may include a loophole, which states that people born outside Nigeria but with a Nigerian grandparent may be registered (by none other than the President himself) as a citizen of Nigeria if, among other stipulations, the person has shown a clear intention to be domiciled in Nigeria. So at a stretch, any of these athletes with a Nigerian grandparent could possibly squeeze in, but do you really see any of them intending to spend any time in Nigeria, outside of attending the annual Trials to win the right to compete for Team Nigeria at international competitions?

Sit tight, and watch out for these exclusive interviews throughout the week. We will update this post with the links to each interview as they are published!

 1. MARK JELKS Interview with the Nigerian Press immediately after winning the 100 metre Nigerian Title!

Mark ‘Amuju’ Jelks, 2014 Nigerian 100m Champion, recently switched allegiances from Team USA

2. NICHOLE DENBY Exclusive Interview with MAKING OF CHAMPIONS, after winning the 100 metre hurdles Nigerian Title!

Nichole Denby, 2014 Nigerian 100m Hurdles Champion, recently switched allegiances from USA.

 3. TYRON AKINS Exclusive Interview with MAKING OF CHAMPIONS, after winning the 110 metre hurdles Nigerian Title!

Tyron ‘Toritseju’ Akins, 2014 Nigerian 110m Hurdles Champion,
recently switched allegiances from Team USA

4. MONZAVOUS EDWARDS Exclusive Interview with MAKING OF CHAMPIONS, after finishing in 2nd place in the 100 metres at the 2014 Nigerian Trials!

Monzavous ‘Jolomi’ Edwards, recently switched allegiances from Team USA, and placed second in the 100 metres at the 2014 Nigerian Trials

And the last but not the least – this time a British Athlete, not an American!

5. ALEX AL-AMEEN Exclusive Interview with MAKING OF CHAMPIONS, after finishing in 2nd place in the 110m Hurdles at the 2014 Nigerian Trials! 

Alex Al-Ameen, recently switched allegiances from Team GB, and placed second in the 110m Hurdles at the 2014 Nigerian Trials (his father is Nigerian)

One former Nigerian Athlete who has made his feelings about the recruitment of US and UK athletes to Team Nigeria is Double Olympic Medallist Enefiok Udo-Obong, who did not mince words earlier this week on his blog where he expressed his strong feelings about Al-Ameen’s candidacy to represent Nigeria!

In case you haven’t seen these already, Making Of Champs was in Salvador Da Bahia, Brazil in December during the World Cup Draw, and recorded these messages of support for Super Eagles from Nigerians living and studying there, in PORTUGUESE!

As the Super Eagles go for history against Les Bleus today, here’s one last look at these AWESOME messages rallying ALL Nigerians to get behind our boys in Brazil! The first video below features former Nigerian International Richard Daddy Owubokiri aka “Ricky” (a football legend in Brazil and Portugal) who has lived in Salvador for over 20 years, after he played there in the eighties, scoring a whopping 63 goals in 89 appearances over three seasons for Vitória, a club which Brazilian greats such as Bebeto, Dida, Hulk and David Luiz all played for early in their careers!

Richard Owubokiri immortalised on the wall at Clube Vitória’s stadium in Salvador Da Bahia!

The rest are from a special group of students from Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) during their 1 year Exchange Programme in Brazil, part of their Portuguese Language Degree. They played a big role in making this project possible, not only as subjects, but also as Portuguese interviewers and translators – OAU has been running this exchange programme in Brazil for more than 30 years now!

If reports coming out of Nigeria today are to be believed, then it would appear the Federal Government of Nigeria has followed the actions of their Ghanaian counterparts last week, by sending a whopping $3.85 million on a plane to Brazil today for the appearance fees of the Super Eagles’ players at the ongoing World Cup, in the custody of none other than Nigerian Sports Minister Dr Tamuno Danagogo. The players reportedly boycotted training at their base in Campinas on Thursday before flying to Brasilia for their 2nd Round tie against France, and it would appear that their stance has led to this outcome.

This would appear to be ominous for the Super Eagles, as such appearance fee and bonus rows tend to come to the fore, just as they did with Ghana, when there is a chance that the team could be exiting the tournament – essentially the players fear (presumably from past experience) that once their tournament is over and they leave Brazil, that they may struggle to receive the fees and bonuses that are rightfully theirs. 

It goes without saying that Nigeria is certainly in with a shout of defeating Les Bleus tomorrow, but if that turns out unfortunately not to be the case, then the players have a right to the guarantee that they will be paid what is due to them. It would seem that this guarantee has come in the form of President Goodluck Jonathan sending a plane of money all the way to Brazil! It begs the obvious question – can’t this money just be deposited directly into the players’ bank accounts?

Until Africa improves the level of administration for their football teams, such problems look set to continue for World Cups to come – it seems that we do not realise that we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot, by not providing world class administration, and still expect the the team’s performance to be world class, and have any chance of ever winning the World Cup or progressing to the latter stages.

A potential solution for the future could be FIFA arranging to pay the players directly rather than through their National Federations – indeed, this was a possibility that was mooted by FIFA General Secretary Jerome Valcke, as he weighed in on Ghana’s bonus row a couple of days ago! Until then it would seem that each player will likely have to make do with carrying over $100,000 in cash out of Brazil when their tournament is over!

The biggest winners in this whole mess? Surprisingly, Brazilian immigration, which is set for a windfall of over a million dollars (from the $3m Ghana and $3.85m Nigeria bounty combined), if reports that they will levy a tax of up to 17% on all the monies brought into Brazil are true!

Can the Super Eagles SOAR against ARGENTINA tomorrow? After bringing you our analysis of Nigeria’s chances to go through to the second round against La Albiceleste earlier today, we once again bring you the thoughts of some Brazilian fans, and a rather knowledgeable Argentinian, on Nigeria’s chances at the World Cup against Argentina and, if we dare to go deep enough in the competition, against Brazil! Isn’t it unbelievable how much this Argentine fan knows about Nigerian football?!?

Also look out for former Super Eagles striker, Richard ‘Daddy’ Owubokiri, a.k.a. Ricky, as he pays a fitting tribute to his former teammate and fellow goal-scoring legend in Portugal, The Goal-King himself, Rashidi Yekini (RIP)! 

To get an idea of what it was like to be in Brazil when Nigeria played there at the Confederations Cup last year, and a feel for what the support for the Super Eagles is like from the locals in Brazil, check out the first FOUR episodes of the mini-series which we’ve been running since the World Cup started!!

Click here for Part I: Introductions! 

Click here for Part II: Confederation Cup memories!! 

Click here for Part III: Brazilians supported Nigeria at the Confederations Cup!!! 

Click here for Part IV: Naijas in Brazil wishing the Super Eagles the best of luck, in PORTUGUESE!!!!

The final day of the Nigerian Athletics Championships on Saturday produced a major shock, as Nigeria’s 2-time defending 400m Champion, Regina George, not only lost her 400m crown at the U.J. Esuene stadium in Calabar, but was beaten into 4th place by all three of her teammates with whom she won the World Relay Bronze medal in the 4x400m in the Bahamas last month. Folashade Abugan claimed the GOLD in 51.39s, with Omolara Omotosho taking Silver in 51.56s, and Patience Okon George took the Bronze in 51.62s – Regina George could only manage 51.67s, losing out in the photo finish for third!

Folashade Abugan at the World Relays in the Bahamas, where she won Bronze in the 4×400 metres. She is Nigeria’s new 400m Champion, winning at the 2014 Nigerian Trials in 51.39s!

The result was especially surprising because of Regina George’s fine form in the Relay team this year – she ran 50.5s and 49.4s splits for Team Nigeria at the Penn Relays and World Relays respectively. She also won her semi-final in Calabar with a time of 51.30s, the fastest time in the whole meet which would have been good enough to win in the final! For the last two years George has been Nigeria’s undisputed number one quarter-miler, so it is indeed a puzzle that she did not perform well enough to win a third consecutive Nigerian title in Calabar. It will be interesting to see how she bounces back from this setback, and if she can continue her recent dominance of the one lap race in Nigeria!

The significance of George’s defeat will not be lost on Nigeria-based fans and athletes alike, many of whom are still reeling from the surprise appearance and subsequent dominance of recently converted American athletes at these Nigerian Trials. American-based athletes have long been considered better than their home-based counterparts, and while in the past the athletes who switched allegiance from USA had obvious Nigerian heritage through at least one parent (such as Regina George & Gloria Asumnu), the recently recruited athletes would appear to have questionable family links to Nigeria at best, fabricated at worst.

The arrival of the new American-Nigerian athletes will undoubtedly further curtail the opportunities for home-based athletes to develop and eventually represent Nigeria. George’s surprise loss will give hope to athletes all over Nigeria that they also can go toe-to-toe with their US-based counterparts. Abugan, Omotosho and Okon George will inspire their fellow home-based athletes to rise to the new challenge posed by the newly converted athletes. This will certainly re-ignite the home-based versus foreign-based rivalry in Nigerian Athletics in a way that we have never seen before!

In other news from Day 3 of the Nigerian Trials, Blessing Okagbare completed the sprint double as expected, winning the 200m in a time of 22.62s, almost a full second ahead of Gloria Asumnu in 23.54s, and Dominique Duncan, another recently converted American on her first trip to Nigeria, in 3rd place with 23.91s. Home-based Divine Oduduru won the men’s 200m easily in 20.87s, with Odele Tega in 2nd with 21.33s, and another US convert, Monzavous Edwards, finishing a disappointing 3rd in 21.38s. US-based hurdlers Cristian Morton and Amaka Ogoegbunam claimed the men’s and women’s 400m hurdles crowns respectively, while Isah Salihu claimed the men’s 400m crown in 46.15s, ahead of last year’s Champion Noah Akwu in 46.34s and Omeza Akerele in 46.56s.

The Nigerian Championships this year are the Trials for the Commonwealth Games starting in Scotland next month, and the African Championships in Morocco in August. At this time it is unclear whether the athletes chosen for each event will be the first 3 from the Trials or the athletes with the best times throughout the season, so we wait with anticipation to see what the final Commonwealth and African Championship squads will be. If the selection criteria is indeed the Top 3 in each event from the Trials, then we could see Regina George missing out in the individual 400 metres, something that would have been unfathomable just a couple of days ago!