The chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC),
Mallam Shehu Dikko, has rejected Peter Obi's portrayal of the Flamingos'
reception at the Abuja airport as an act of political exclusion.
In a statement he signed personally, Dikko said the
Flamingos, Nigeria's U-17 women's team, returned from Morocco as FIFA U-17
Women's World Cup champions, and that their achievement should unite the
country and not be drawn into partisan controversy.
According to Dikko, NSC and NFF officials who
accompanied and received the team reported that they did not see Obi near the
players at the airport. He said the officials told him that two individuals
wearing Obi campaign face caps and other attire asked that Obi be allowed to
meet the players and take photographs with them, an arrangement that would
likely have involved campaign materials.
The players had arrived on an Air Maroc flight at
about 5:30 a.m. and were tired after the journey and a demanding competition,
he said. The officials declined the sudden request in view of the players'
welfare and without any prior notice of an airport reception arrangement.
"Nothing in the account provided by the officials supports the suggestion
that their jobs were at risk," he said.
Dikko noted that Obi said he was at the airport to
board a flight to Enugu, which would ordinarily depart from the domestic
terminal, while the Flamingos arrived through the international terminal.
There, he said, airport officials and passengers celebrated them without
distinction of political or any other affiliation, taking pictures, dancing and
shaking hands with the players. The media covered the moment, he added, and Obi
was never captured near the team or the international wing.
The NSC, he said, takes strong exception to Obi
presenting the episode as political intimidation without first seeking
clarification from the NFF or the Commission. He accused Obi of turning a
request for an unscheduled interaction into "a toxic narrative of
political victimisation" that shifts attention from the players'
achievement. "These young champions should not be drawn into that
controversy and never deserved this from Mr. Obi," he said.
Dikko advised Obi to reflect and offer an unreserved
apology to the players for spoiling their moment of glory, accusing him of
deliberately weaponising a non-issue for political gain through his actions,
subsequent statement and media interviews.
He stressed that the Flamingos are minors with a
dedicated safeguarding official in the technical crew, and that their welfare,
dignity and protection from undue pressure must remain central. This includes
managing access to the players and ensuring that interactions, including
planned photo sessions, are appropriate and within regulations. "Our young
athletes must not be used to suggest allegiance to any political party,"
he said, adding that this applies equally to public officials, political
figures and members of the public.
The players' journey, he said, did not begin at the
World Cup final. For more than seven months they worked through preparation,
training, World Cup qualifiers, the WAFU tournament and the World Cup in
Morocco. He acknowledged Obi's congratulatory messages in the closing stages of
the competition, but said a message at the height of a team's success is not
the same as sustained engagement with its preparation, welfare and development.
He said the NSC would welcome the same public attention from Obi to the work
and sacrifices behind such achievements.
Dikko said any Nigerian, including Obi, who wishes to
meet or host the players should send a formal request to the NFF or NSC so that
suitable arrangements can be made around the team's programme and welfare and
within the rules. As an example of practical support, he said a Nigerian
businessman who sponsored a delegation to Morocco to support the team in the
final donated $50,000 to the team at the pitch right after the match, without
seeking media mention or political capital.
He also addressed Obi's claim that he was similarly
prevented last year from visiting the Super Eagles in the dressing room after
the World Cup qualifier against Zimbabwe on March 25, 2025, in Uyo, calling it
factually incorrect. Dikko said he sat on the same row as Obi and the governors
of Lagos, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom states, among other dignitaries. After the
unfavourable result, he said, the players clearly expressed unwillingness to
receive visitors because they wanted an immediate soul-searching meeting among
themselves, so no dignitary or official, including himself, the governors and
top NFF officials, visited the dressing room. "Therefore, Mr. Obi cannot
claim, more than a year later, that he had somehow been singled out on that
occasion for mistreatment," he said.
He explained that the Uyo match was a FIFA
international governed by strict protocol, including a FIFA-appointed security
official who moderated access to technical areas such as dressing rooms so that
only accredited persons could enter. Anyone else must apply through the
football federation and be pre-cleared, and a breach could result in fines
against the Federation or even a ban on the stadium hosting matches.
"Football is our National Asset that brings
Nigerians together across ethnic, religious and political differences and
indeed breaks all our fault lines. Our national teams belong to every Nigerian.
The Flamingos have earned the country's admiration, and their World Cup victory
should strengthen our unity. It must not become another platform for partisan
division," he said.
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