Bukola Olopade, director-general of the National Sports Commission (NSC), says the Super Falcons will receive the $100,000 promised to the team by President Bola Tinubu for winning the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON).
On July 26, the Super Falcons won Nigeria’s 10th WAFCON title in Morocco.
Two days later, Tinubu pledged a reward of the equivalent of $100,000 in naira to each of the 24 players and an additional $50,000 to members of the technical crew.
The president also conferred the national honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON) on every member of the squad and also awarded three-bedroom apartments in Abuja.
However, Rasheedat Ajibade, the Falcons’ captain, said all the promises made by Tinubu are yet to be fulfilled.
She also claimed that even the teams’ match bonuses still “a work in progress” and the players “have not received anything yet”.
Responding to the claims in a chat with Arise TV on Friday, Olopade said all bonuses of the Super Falcons from the tournament have been paid, “but for only one or two whose accounts have issues with the CBN”.
The NSC DG said all the rewards promised by the president will also be paid in due time, adding that “we are in a government that fulfils promises”.
“On the promise Mr President made, we need to stop playing politics and games with everything, it will be paid,” Olopade said.
“A few days ago, Mallam Shehu Dikko was still talking to the Minister for Housing, and I sat down with the gentleman in charge of the Renewed Hope Homes, and work has already started on how they will get the apartments in record time.
“Look, we are in a government that fulfils promises; a whole lot of things have changed. When we tell athletes ‘A’ will be given, they get ‘A’. We don’t play games with their remuneration, we don’t play games with them going for competitions. We are quick to say this is what we can do — go out and make the country proud.”
