Tony Asuquo, a gymnastics coach, on Friday urged the Federal Government to urgently put in place polices which will improve the welfare of athletes and coaches in Nigeria.
Asuquo told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja that the poor treatment of athletes and coaches in the country was due to lack of policies to protect them.
“The Federal Government should make policies that will better the lives of the athletes and the coaches because they are the ones who do the job and bring glory to the country.
“If there were policies in place, we will not have the `show of shame’ we had recently with the Super Falcons. It took the intervention of the Presidency for the champions to be paid their allowances.
“This is not good for us as coaches and athletes. It builds a state of being discouraged and weakens the athlete’s faith in their country.
“The policies will have statements of what will be done for the players and officials in black and white. But, because there are no policies in place, anything can happen and so many funny things have been happening,’’ he said.
Asuquo advised the Federal Government to ensure that those administering sports in the country have a change of attitude to avoid a recurrence of the Falcons’ episode.
“The situation may not improve until policies are put in place and people saddled with the responsibilities do what they ought to do to better sports in Nigeria,’’ he said.
The former U.S.-based athlete said he was looking forward to a time when Nigeria would take part in gymnastics at the Olympics.(NAN)
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