By Esther Egbe
Commonwealth and African gold medallist in the women’s long jump, Ese Brume is sad over what she describes as ‘unfair’ treatment to her by the country.
Brume, who won a gold medal for Team Nigeria at the recently concluded Asaba 2018 African Senior Athletics Championship, says she was being pushed to the wall by administrators of athletics in Nigeria, adding that a time would come when she will no longer ‘stomach it.’
“The Asaba 2018 African Senior Athletics Championship was an international event, and every athlete, who represented Team Nigeria was supposed to be given international treatment.
We were told that our daily allowance was $100, which should translate to $700. That was aside the $3,000 each gold medallist was supposed to get.told National Daily.
“It was a rude shock for some of us to receive just N107, 000 as total allowance for the duration of the game. That is rubbish. Some of us had to reject it because we considered it as an insult.”
It was not clear if the money came from the organisers of the championship or the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN).
Another major worry for Ese Brume is the attitude of Nigerian sports administrators to preparation of foreign-based athletes for major championships.
Now that we are done with the African Championship, preparations is supposed to begin ahead of Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games, but Nigeria won’t think in that direction for now.