Duro Ikhazuagbe

With Team Nigeria completely missing all the five relay events of the 2025 World Athletics Championship scheduled to begin in Tokyo, Japan in two weeks, a former Olympic gold medal winner in 4x400m  for the country, Enefiok Udo-Obong, has placed blame on the doorsteps of the leadership of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN).

Udo-Obong needs no introduction in Nigerian nay African athletics circles. He is one of the very few Nigerians that can boast of winning gold and bronze medals at two Olympic Games. His yeoman service in Nigeria’s 4x400m relay at the Sydney 2000 Olympics remains engraved in the memories of track & field aficionados.  He literally made possible the silver that became gold following the disqualification of USA.  Four years later, Udo-Obong was part of the Nigerian 4x400m quartet that also won bronze at the 2004 Athens Games in Greece.

Today, Udo-Obong is at the head of Saudi Arabia’s Track & Field as Technical Director. He’s doing what he knows best, tracking and training young talents from the grassroots to make the Kingdom a force in the sport in no distant future.

Speaking with THISDAY from his base in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during the week, Udo-Obong insisted that Nigeria should not have waited till the last minute before applying to the Japanese Embassy for visas to attend the World Relays. Nigerian athletes were denied visas to attend the event because the documents were submitted late for the trip.

“The AFN should have used the home-based quarter milers to apply for the visas early rather than waiting for our athletes coming from the NCAA in America. We all know that there was no way they were going to released early when they were in the middle of competitions for their various universities. AFN should just have used the home-based athletes for the World Relays in Tokyo. If we had applied early, there was no reason to deny our athlete those visas,” observed the Olympian.

He insisted that qualification was certainly going to be a tall order with Nigeria missing the World Relays where the World Athletics was going to pick 14 out of the 16 to compete at the Worlds.

“ It was almost going to be  impossible for any country that did not attend the World Relays to qualify for the World Championship relays. The World Athletics picked the 14 out of 16 and leave room for only two teams to qualify from races. I think Jamaica got one of the ticket while all other who were not among the 14 to now fight for the only one slot remaining. That was one gamble not worth taking by AFN. It didn’t make sense to me.”

Udo-Obong stressed that with Nigeria having two strong 44secs runners in the 400m and five others running low 45secs, “We have never have it this good. The only time we came this close was, I think in the early 1980s. How come the AFN was unable to manage this team for the 4x400m to qualify for the World Championship?” queried the former international athlete.

The Olympic gold medalist refused to buy the arguments that lack of funding prevented the AFN from sending out athletes to top races where could have qualified.

 “I hate to hear all these arguments of the National Sports Commission did not fund the AFN as reason our relay teams failed to qualify for the World Championship. If those running the AFN know the right thing to do, there is no need for them to be waiting for government funding. Why is an individual running the MTN Champs getting funding while the AFN is handicapped? When I was going to run for the AFN presidency, I got a sponsor willing to drop ₦500million for my programme but was not willing to give its money to politicians in the federation. I don’t believe we cannot attract good funding for AFN programmes with the right leadership for the federation. Why  is MTN sponsoring the MTN Champs packaged by an individual like Bambo Akani and the AFN is unable to attract sponsor?”

Udo-Obong said that Nigerian sport is lucky to have the pair of Malam Shehu Dikko and Bukola Olopade as Chairman and Director General of the National Sports Commission because of their backgrounds in sports marketing.

“The guys at the NSC now are brilliant guys who know what marketing is all about. Olopade was the same person that attracted sponsors to the AFN  in the past and I know with the right leadeship at the federation, we do not have to go cap in hands all the time to get funding for events. Our track & field is big enough to attract sponsors.”

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