By Chris Onuoha

Recently, Nigerian female footballers have   stepped up their game if the current formbook is anything to go by. Despite the Falconets being edged out of the ongoing FIFA U-20 Female World Cup by Spain, their performance showed a high level of commitment, fervor and of course skill. Moreover, the senior Falcons started the African Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) tournament on a good note, thrashing their Malian counterparts 6 – 0.

All these and other feats have shown the level of passion and commitment Nigerian female footballers have exhibited on national assignments, winning and bringing honour to the nation. But the question remains, are Nigerian female footballers accorded their due honour compared to their male counterparts?

Chioma Ajunwa, Nigeria’s first Olympic Gold Medalist, former Falcon’s player and a force to reckon with in sports  development in the country spoke to Woman’s Own about the challenges facing Nigerian women in sports.

Are Nigerian women in sports not recognized in this country?

Women are not being accorded the respect or honour due to them. Perhaps, this is more visible in the area of football. When you come to athletes, I can tell you as I beat my chest that most of the medals gotten for this country come from women. I got the first gold medal, Mary Onyali won a bronze, Falilat Ogunkoya got bronze while the 4×4 relay team won silver in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, USA.

I can tell you more on what women are doing, but it is quite a pity that sometimes it’s like we are not being taken serious. In football, from the time I was playing with the Falcons, we are the best, even till today. It was, maybe two years back, when some African countries defeated our girls, but nonetheless, the girls are doing fantastically well.

Chioma Ajunwa

Would you say there’s bias in female to male football rating in the country?

Certainly yes, because when you check the African football table ranking, you will discover that women have done better than men but due to a heavier focus on men, people don’t realise that it matters. It’s only in Nigeria that the female footballers are not regarded despite immeasurable honour and glory they have brought to the country. The Falcons have played so well in several world cup tournaments even up to the quarter final level.

When it comes to the issue of welfare packages, billions of naira will be spent on men but when it comes to females, its peanuts and that generates noise. Personally to me, I don’t like that idea because football is football no matter who plays it. If it is one global sports body (FIFA) that handles both female and male football tournaments, why give preference to men.

Also, if you have problem or injury, you are on your own. There is an example of a female footballer I saw on crutches some time ago who narrated to me how a stranger paid her hospital bills  for an injury incurred while playing football for this nation. She has been bedridden for two years now.

Our girls are doing well, they are talented and dedicated but some club owners as well are not helping matters, it is not by force to own a football club, a club owner must be ready to cater for the players under his care. Majority of the girls squat anywhere they see yet they  play for their clubs. Most of them are not paid according to contracts agreements or as when due. These are girls who need some money to manage their life.

 Many of the Summer Para-Olympic team to Rio have decried neglect by government 

Well it is a pity we cannot help the less privileged among us even those in sports who have dedicated their spirit and strength to bring us glory. I thought that if government cannot give them scholarship, they should be able to see to their immediate needs and care. Though, certain state governors decided to honour them with stipends but federal government should do more. 8 Gold medals in a world tournament like the Olympics is not easy to overlook.

Remember they did what the able sports men and women could not achieve, yet government spent roughly 1.2 million naira on able bodied athletes who did not perform at nearly the same level. If government should give this Para-Olympic team  1 million naira each, I don’t think it is too much. Government can even engage them on  entrepreneurial skills that can benefit them for life instead of just thanking and dismissing them.

Some physically challenged persons are dedicated and committed when it comes to crafts; all they need is government or corporate support to start up business. This is the only way they can be encouraged to have sense of belonging in a nation like Nigeria.

In your own opinion, what do you think has gone wrong?

The people at the helm of affairs in this country, I mean football administrators will be able to tell why things are like that. Sometimes I am not happy because they put these girls in a demoralizing situation, making them not to give their best. If men go to world cup and you pay them ten thousand dollars for each match they win, why not replicate same to female counterparts, since both take the same risk.

How can men get a certain allowance per night and females don’t get anything. I think the disparity is obvious here. However, with the new government we have now that believes in ‘Change’ hopefully, things might turn around for good, but the problem is that wrong advisers influence decisions.

How do you mean?

Every new government comes with its own regime and administrators. If any appointed Minister receives good counsel, he will act well judging that the advisers are meant to be experts in that field. Government knows what to do to put smiles on the faces of sports men and women to be motivated and perform excellently well. The problem comes on when you put in someone that does not know anything about sports to occupy such position.

Perhaps, they usually deceive by presenting volumes of CVs with Oxford and Harvard certificates to confuse instead of convincing on what they can do when the job is offered to them. Some even present awesome sports certificates you may not know that exist just to assume that post but in their mind, they are political jobbers. Another thing is implementation of policies. Any previous quality policy can be discarded by the new administration which may not help matters.

Can a minister be exonerated for poor performance in sports?

Looking at the outcome of the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Brazil, everyone blamed the Minister of Sports for the abysmal performance of the team. Personally to me, it is not right to blame the minister, knowing full well that when the minister took over, anything pertaining to training had ended. The only thing left was to register the athletes that will feature in the Olympics. The issue of blaming him is not called for.

If the former Minister of Sports was allowed to finish what he started, perhaps, the DG will take the blame for any poor result, but with this kind of disengagement, the blame game is baseless. However, if the new Minister, after seeing all that has happened could not absorb proper hands to put things right, then he can be blamed for any failure in sports ministry.

Often times we usually ignore things that will cause us to make mistakes.  Minister should parley with relevant stakeholders in sports to ascertain the reality on ground because it’s only the spectators that can be more vocal and tell the truth, hence, they are not at the minister’s behest.

What is the way forward for Nigerian women in sports?

There must be a platform for this. Government can engage corporate organisations to invest wisely in sports development in the country. This can be done by tax waiver and other synergic understandings. One corporate company in this Nigeria can invest over 100 million naira in sports equipment that can help the youth and still make money out of it.

It can come in terms of building an international standard gym which we don’t have right now. We don’t have games village in Nigeria anymore. But during my time, there was one such in Bode Thomas, Lagos where athletes were camped and trained which should have been upgraded.

Unfortunately, greed and corruption have taken over many things in this country. Majority of these government officials do not have their children in sports and see no reason why government must invest heavily on a sector where they have no interest.