By Ben Efe

There is trouble in the hearts of the American coaches and their Nigerian counterparts attached to Abuja High Performance Centre as salary stretching back to nine months have been left unpaid by the Sports Ministry.

It was gathered from one of the coaches that things have gone so bad with them, to the extent that one of them was recently evicted from his abode.

The HPC in Abuja was a project of the former administration of Goodluck Jonathan. Former Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdulahi employed the coaches…Angie Taylor, Eric Campbell, Master Kim, Michael Afilaka and Gabriel Okon for the programme geared towards producing medals for Nigeria at the Rio 2016 Olympics. This was after Nigeria’s dismal outing at the London 2012 Olympics.

Dalung

Former NSC director-general, Al Hassan Yakmut cancelled the programme, but much to the surprise of Nigerian sports enthusiasts, Sports Minister Solomon Dalung revalidated the contract of these coaches.

A letter authored by coach Campbell and addressed to the Sports Minister on July 26 2016,  implored the Sports Minister to pay their salaries since things were getting difficult.

“Please consider this letter as an inquiry about our past due salaries and money owed for past programs that were not reimbursed.

“We have empathy for the current situation of the Nigerian economy but it is not fair to us nor is it justified that we are moved to the bottom of the priority list Every time a little money comes to the Ministry.

The Ministry is owing the High Performance team 7months salaries on August 1. We were promised that when money comes for the Olympic Games, we would be paid from that money. Now that the money has come (or is coming), we are being told something different. I beg Sir, this can not continue. We cannot accept less than what is owed to us.

We ask that the Ministry catches up on our salary before we travel to the Olympic Games. We understand that the money given to the Ministry is less than that what was expected. But 70 million Naira will not stop Nigeria from participating in the Rio Olympics but it can definitely make a difference in our lives.

“We have tried to manage the situation the best we can but we are afraid that there is no more we can do with the current situation but stand firm against any decision that goes against settling our past salary debt,” the letter stated. Phone calls made to the Sports Ministry officials did not yield dividends.

However, an official in the ministry hinted that monies have been approved but it may have been diverted to other uses.