More and more condemnations seem to pile up following the Nigerian authorities’ delaying the release of funds to the contingents of the country that were supposed to take part in this year’s Olympic Games that will be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and will officially start on the 5th of August, barely two weeks from now.
On Friday, some of the Nigerian athletes that were supposed to participate in Rio Olympics’ track and field events took to different social media platforms as well as numerous crowd source funding platforms online. They were soliciting for funds that can help to fly them to the much anticipated sports competition.
Some of these athletes cannot help but to be ashamed and dismayed with the possibility that they will miss out in the competition, especially after they prepared for it for 4 long years. With the delay in the release of their much needed funds, they tried to reach out to all the well-meaning Nigerians, hoping that somehow, somewhere, someone will come to their rescue.
These athletes from Nigeria were Regina George, the Nigerian sprinter born in America and Seye Ogunlewe, the 100m Champion and fastest man of Nigeria.
George’s specialization is the 400 meters run. She was also the representative of the country back in the Summer Olympics 2012 and was also awarded with the silver medal during the 2012 African Championships.
George, who uses @DivaOnTheTrack as her Twitter username, took her request to gofundme.com, a crowd-sourced funding platform, citing the need to raise $4,000. She also expressed her gratitude to her family, friends and her fans that have stayed with her through all the ups and downs in her life. she added that 2016 has been a financially difficult year for her and that it would not have been possible without the support of the people around her.
The award winning runner also stated that she was told that she and the rest of the athletes will have to pay their own way to this year’s Olympic Games. The announcement was sadly very short notice that makes it difficult for her to raise the required funds.
George said that the sports authorities of the country promised her a refund but she is still waiting for a lot of refunds that were previously promised. She said that she has been through many obstacles this year and through it all, she made her second Olympic team. She refuses to stop now after she earned that much coveted spot to represent her country in the Rio Olympics. She said that any donation can already help her situation and that any form of assistance will not go unnoticed and that she is grateful for all her supporters.
By the time of writing, George already managed to raise around $640 from some spirited donors.
As for Ogunlewe, whose Twitter username is @seyeogunlewe, he said that just so everyone will know, they already received the message that they need to get their own tickets to Rio. He added the hashtag #helpnigerianathletes.
It is to be recalled that last Tuesday, Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari gave the assurance that his administration will see to it that the fund allotted for Rio Olympics will be released without any further delay.
As of now, there is still no news whether the said fund has already been released.