Daily Independent Online.
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Friday, June 11, 2004.
Getting another second chance
By Nnamdi Okosieme
Reporter,
Covers & Investigation, Lagos
Nigerian sprinter, Mercy Nku, typifies the
widely held belief that a substantial mixture of talent and hubris has
explosive consequences. In the last two years Nku has had many brushes with the
sports authorities that have left her in the lurch on occasions.
In 2002 at the Manchester Commonwealth
Games she did not participate in the women’s 100 metres event because of
injury. But the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) accused her of bad faith,
charging that she deliberately failed to disclose her injury to them to enable
her collect the $4000, covering training grant and other allowances from the
federation. Nku denied the charge and argued that she was prepared to run until
doctors advised her that doing so may end her career. It took quite a while for
relations between both parties to normalise.
Last August, however, the thaw in relations
was ruptured as Nku and a few other female athletes drew the ire of the AFN and
Sports Ministry officials for failing to participate in the final of the
women’s 100 metres relay at the athletics world championship which held
that month in Paris. That action cost Nigeria a possible medal in the event. A
thoroughly displeased AFN promptly slammed a ban on Nku and her errant colleagues.
Media reports on the boycott by the athletes revealed that the decision to
boycott the women’s race and that of the men had been collectively taken
by nearly all the athletes in Paris but at the last minute the men and a few
women chickened out. Nku, stubborn and resolute, had remained faithful to the
agreement and paid for it. News was later to filter that Nku’s standoff
with the AFN stemmed from what she considered favouritism on the part of the
AFN. Nku claimed the AFN gave former African 100 metres champion $20,000 to
assist her in defraying costs incurred in settling medical bills in the USA,
while the same federation accused her of feigning injury at the Commonwealth
Games in 2002. Although the AFN denied giving Mary Onyali the amount, Onyali
admitted she had made a request for financial assistance from the federation.
The fall-out of the Paris ban was that Nku
was unable to defend the 100 metres title which she won in 1999 at the All
Africa Games in Johannesburg, South Africa. This was despite the fact that the
AFN stated that the erring Paris athletes had been pardoned. Thus while Uduak
Ekah, Emem Edem and Chinedu Odozor, the other affected athletes, competed at the
All African Games last October in Abuja, Nku watched from the sidelines. She
alleged conspiracy by some of her colleagues and AFN officials to keep her out.
“ They claim that I did not report to
camp on time after the ban was lifted. That is not true. I got there early like
everyone else. In fact, the athletics events had not commenced when I reported
in Abuja but the AFN said I arrived late. I think some people did not want me
to be part of the games,” Nku had told Daily Independent last October
shortly after the final of the women’s 100 metres at the All Africa
Games.
After missing out on the All Africa Games she faced the
prospect of missing out on the big one - the Olympics. Fortunately, her
pedigree intervened. Nigerians had seen sufficiently the sprinter’s
performance in the past and in the current season to know she would be an asset
to the country in Athens. Intense pressure was mounted on both the AFN and the
Sports Ministry to pardon the beleaguered star. The pressure paid off as
Patrick Ekeji, the director of sports development in the Sports Ministry
announced that Nku would be part of the Nigerian contingent to Athens.
