AFN Suffers Talent Loss as Popular Athlete Dumps Nigerian Citizenship

By Ed Malik, A | ed@ddnewsonline.com | posted 25th June, 2025

The reported move by Nigerian sprint sensation Favour Ofili to switch allegiance to Türkiye has sent shockwaves through Nigeria’s athletics community, with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and its president, Chief Tonobok Okowa, expressing disappointment and heartbreak over the news.

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Favour Ofili, a 22-year-old elite sprinter and one of Nigeria’s brightest athletic talents, is allegedly seeking to change her nationality to Türkiye. She’s a track and field sprinter who competes in the 100 meters, 200 meters, and 4×100 meters relay races. Ofili made her Olympic debut for women’s 200m on 4 August 2024 at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.

The AFN claims it only heard the news through the media and has not received an official request or confirmation from World Athletics or Ofili herself.

“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”.

Chief Tonobok Okowa said the development is “sad, disheartening, and painful”, saying the AFN had already paid her training grant for 2025, a move signaling continued support for her athletic development.

Okowa lamented that efforts to mend the relationship especially after her omission from Nigeria’s 100m Olympic team for Paris 2024 have been unsuccessful. He suggested that Ofili had already been planning the switch for some time and was possibly influenced by better opportunities or treatment elsewhere.

“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,” the CAA Vice President stressed.

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No matter, the implications are foreboding. For instance, World Athletics (WA) will need to approve the switch, which usually takes time unless the athlete has been inactive internationally for three years or has dual nationality. If approved, Türkiye will gain a top-level sprinter heading into future global competitions like the World Championships and Olympics.

For AFN and Nigeria, it’s another wake-up call to reform its sports structures to stem the exodus and retain homegrown talents.