Chris Maduewesi
Member
#Udo-Obong represented Nigeria at various international events including the #Sydney 2000 #Olympics,where he won a silver medal in the 4x400m relay event,which was subsequently upgraded to a gold medal.
Some Asian countries have been swooping on Nigerian athletes with Samuel Francis (100m) and Femi Ogunode (200m) now representing Qatar, while Kemi Adekoya (400m hurdles) dorns the Bahrainian colours.
These rich Asian countries reportedly entices the #Nigerians with money in order to convince them to swith allegiances.
“With the recent exploits of Kemi Adekoya in the Diamond League in Doha, we are now seeing a new trend of brawn drain…now towards the middle East…and for no educational rewards…though the financial aspects are key but we lose them internationally, too," Udo-obong wrote on his blog, sportswithenee.com
“What bothers me is not the fact that our talented athletes are leaving and representing other countries, but the fact that the current athletics board prefers to invest money looking for foreign talent with Nigerian origins rather than developing the huge reservoir we have back home.”
Udo-Obong also questioned why the Athletics Federation of Nigeria(AFN) would spend much time and resources convincing athletes of Nigerian descent to come an represent the country.
“I think our officials are just looking for easy quick success …that is why they are trying to get any US- born Nigerian to compete for us…hiding from the fact that they are unable to produce homegrown talents.”
“There has been a deliberate neglect of the home-based athletes. This is why there are a lot of defections. Both home-based athletes and coaches have been systematically sidelined.
“So the lure of foreign-born Nigerians is an acceptance of failure. While I do not deny the fact that a Nigerian anywhere should be given the opportunity to compete for Nigeria, we seem to favour one over the other and we spend a lot of money to ‘beg’ these ‘foreign Nigerians’ to compete for us…sometimes even sponsoring their parents to come to Nigeria.
“Sometimes these athletes do not identify with Nigeria. They even feel that they do Nigeria a favour by coming home. They have no desire, no patriotism and tend to be some of the most undisciplined when we travel out for competitions.”