Nigeria and China disagree over Nigeria’s withdrawal from athletics world relay 2025 . As world body denies wrong doing
By Abdulgafar Oladimeji
Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN and Chinese authorities are engaged in war of word over the withdrawal of Nigerian athletics from taking part in the 2025 Athletics World Relay event hosted in China.
The Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN in a statement issued last Friday AFN had alleged that the actions by the Chinese embassy in Nigeria was responsible for its decision to withdraw the country for taking part in the global event.
The federation announced that “ With deep regret, we, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, announce our withdrawal from the World Relays following unacceptable visa delays by Chinese authorities.
Adding that “despite our diligent efforts processing documentation since February, our athletes have faced numerous obstacles , ranging from embassy embarrassment to last minute visa issuance that made competition attendance physically impossible.
“The impact has been severe: wasted training preparations, significant financial losses, lost qualification opportunities, and devastating psychological effects on our athletes who were ready to represent Nigeria with pride.
“Chinese authorities frustrated our participation by claiming they didn’t have contact with their own Embassy in Washington and Abuja, also providing incorrect invitation letters and changing the application portal twice!
AFN led by Tony Okowa further that “Their requirement for a special “Verification Letter of Invitation” was poorly communicated and inconsistently applied while they demanded police reports and even Bank statements from all participating athletes, coaches and officials.
“We stand by our decision to withdraw as it became clear our team wouldn’t receive fair treatment or opportunity to compete.
“We thank our athletes for their dedication and resilience through this challenging situation.”
Tony Okowa is quoted saying “We call on World Athletics to review host country selection criteria to ensure future competitions are held in nations with visa processes that truly support global participation.”
AFN has averred that it would proceed to seek for compensation for losses suffered due to the alleged actions of the Chinese authorities.
The Director-General of the National Sports Commission, Bukola Olopade has said that Nigeria had complied with laid down visa application regulations.
World Athletics commenting on the matter said “Visa entry criteria differ from country to country. The Local Organising Committee for World Athletics Relays Guangzhou 25 has always been very clear with all stakeholders regarding the specific requirements to acquire a VISA in time for the competition and have been extremely collaborative throughout the process,”
WA added that “No early indication from AFN and, in fact, a number of AFN athletes and officials received visas. For any member federation who identifies problems, both the LOC and World Athletics work closely with them to address the issues. This is a well established process which has been in place for many years.”
The Chinese authorities in Nigeria said they are committed towards settling the rift. The Cultural Counsellor at the Chinese embassy, Yang Jiaxing explained that, Nigeria submitted the applications for visa very late, causing limited time constrain for the visas to be processed.
Yang is quoted to have further said that “We normally require a minimum of five working days to process and inspect visa applications,” he explained. “Unfortunately, due to the May Day holiday from 1-5 May, we lost valuable processing time.”
“We released the visas at 5:10 p.m., and their flight was at around 9 p.m. I think, or earlier,” he said. “The time was extremely tight, but we did everything we could to fast-track the process.”
“As a bureau, we need five days, but we shortened the inspection time to try our best to help. If the documents had arrived before the May Day holiday, the situation would have been different,”
Yang said. “I don’t want to blame anyone,” he stated. “The total time was just too short. Everyone tried their best, including our embassy staff and the Nigerian officials.”
Nigerians have continued to express their anger over what many described as one of the unfortunate incidents that have continued to hinder sports development and promotion, expressing their dismay over usual shoddy preparations by Nigerian sports administrators to the frequent maltreatments been suffered by Nigerian delegation now usually at the mercy of the embassies of host countries, who now thrive in denying Nigerian athletes and supporting staff visas to travel to attend major sports events in their home countries.
The World Relay athletics 2025 is hosted in China on 10th to 11 th May 2025.
