The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) is shocked and surprised with the news making the rounds that one of the country’s top female athlete Favour Ofili is seeking to switch allegiance to Turkiye, says AFN President, Chief Tonobok Okowa on Sunday.
Just like every other sports loving person in Nigeria, on the continent and beyond that he and his newly elected board read and heard her desire to change nationality from the media.
If this is true, it is sad, disheartening and painful but we are yet to get any official statement from her or any correspondence from World Athletics (WA), on her request. She is a promising athlete with huge potential.
The AFN and the National Sports Commission (NSC), have been working hard to get athletics and other sports in the country back on track and to show that both bodies are matching goals, objectives and words with action, Favour Ofili had already been paid her training grant for this year.
Okowa went on to state that, the 22 year old athlete has prevented the Federation from reaching her and that all efforts to heal the wounds caused by her Paris 2024 Olympic Games 100m event omission has proved abortive.
From the moves we have been making to get her fully prepared and back to the big athletics family and her response, it’s also clear that she had been preparing and working on her new found Turkish love. She is old enough to decide what’s best for her but it painful and hard to take for us, however we will not stop her, she is still our child, sister and daughter.
We want to apologise to Nigerians, the National Sports Commission and the millions of people around the world who hold the sport and country in high esteem for this sad development.
Many Athletics Federation of Nigeria officials are heartbroken about the matter, but they will not oppose Ofili’s wish to change her colours.
Despite our own inadequacies, on several occasions she shunned the national trials and even when she came, she selects the events she preferres to compete in.
At the 2024 African Championships in Cameroon she refused to compete in the 100m after running in the heats, claiming that the organisers did not provide the right atmosphere for competition.
She also did not turn up for the last Africa Games in Accra, Ghana. No doubt Ofili is one of best our athletes in recent times but she is difficult to deal with.
The AFN has its issues, but we are getting along well with other top athletes and are still thriving within the system. We wish her well in whatever she is doing and wherever she is going.
How we heard the news
Favour Ofili’s switch was made public by Jamaica-based journalist Kayon Raynor on his X handle late Saturday.
“Nigerian sprinter Favour Ofili has switched allegiance to Turkey as of May 31, 2025. According to TVJ News centre sources, 22-year-old Ofili has advised the Athletics Integrity Unit of her frustration with the Nigerian Athletics Federation,” Raynor posted via X.
Ofili cited missing the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the failure of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria and the Nigeria Olympic Committee to register her for the 100m event at the last games in Paris.
Ofili stated that the Nigerian Athletics Federation caused her to miss the Tokyo 2020 Olympics after they did not confirm her number of doping control tests, and then missed competing in the 100m at the Paris Olympics after they did not enter her for the event. She however finished a distance sixth in the 200m final.
We have further understood that Ofili impressed upon the AIU that her switch to Turkey was not for financial reasons.
The preparations for 2020 Tokyo Olympics had been planned and concluded by the former board and the Sports Ministry, in association with the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), we had no hand in the whole affair and build up to the Games.
Look at the number of test the AFN conducted under my watch, we funded sixty percent of the test carried out before the Paris Games, there were no doping violations or anything of the sort.
Despite the news of switching allegiance, Ofili, who won 200m silver at the last Commonwealth Games in 2022, is still listed by World Athletics as a Nigerian athlete, and since she competed for the country at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, there is a minimum window of three years for the switch to Turkiye to be completed.
Recently, Jamaican athlete and Olympic shot put bronze medallist Rajindra Campbell also switched his allegiance to Turkiye.
We gathered that his compatriot and discus gold medallist Roje Stona has followed suit. The Turkish Athletics Federation have been courting top athletes from Africa, America and Europe to move over to Istanbul.
Ofili, 22, holds the national women’s 200m record with 21.96 and 100m personal best of 10.78, she set in 2022.
Chief Tonobok Okowa is the President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria
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The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) is the governing body for the sport of Athletics in Nigeria
