Following their victory over Zambia in the preliminary round of the Women’s African Cup of Nation (WAFCON) football competition, Nigeria’s Super Falcons advanced to the quarterfinals. They defeated the hosts, Morocco, to win the final after overwhelming South Africa in the semi-finals.
It was unbelievable when the Super Falcons, who were behind Morocco by two goals, came back into the second half with the same tenacity that rescued the Flying Eagles from a four-goal deficit to overcome the USSR’s Under-20 squad in the 1989 FIFA World Youth Championship in Saudi Arabia.
Esther Okoronkwo initially got a penalty kick, which she turned into a goal. Then, Folashade Ijamilusi scored the second goal to tie the score. Nigerians, including President Bola Tinubu, erupted in applauding after Jennifer Echegini scored the game-winning third goal.
Nigerians, who were previously split into as many political factions as there are presidential candidates, abruptly reunited as a single country, although a temporary one, as they celebrated defeating Morocco at home. President Tinubu may have overreached himself in compensating the Super Falcons for this reason.
The President presented each player with a tasty $100,000 (N15 million at a N1,500 exchange rate) and a three-bedroom home in Renewed Hope Estate, Abuja, in addition to the national honor of being named an Officer of the Order of the Niger. The players each received N10 million from the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, which was represented by its chairman, Kwara State Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
It goes without saying that team managers received exceptional compensation for leading the group to outstanding performance. Nobody can criticize a grateful country after its team wins a trophy for the tenth time! We applaud the Tinubu-led administration for paying tribute to the Super Falcons in this way.
Nonetheless, it is thought that the N4.4 billion in presents handed by the federal and state governments to 24 players and 11 handlers is excessive considering the nation’s current economic situation. A huge amount of money might have been utilized to address issues like hunger and malnutrition as well as to repair deteriorating infrastructure like hospitals and roadways.
In addition to receiving a part of 33% of the $1 million prize that the winning team received, each player would have received $2,000 at the group stage of the matches, $3,000 at the quarterfinal, $4,000 at the semi-final, and a whopping $5,000 at the final, according to WAFCON rules. Normally, this would be sufficient recompense for each player who gained prominence by virtue of the opportunity the nation offered. We believe that before selecting how much money to give the winning females, the President ought to have waited after awarding them with honors and mansions and asked to be briefed about the compensation from WAFCON.
It begs the question of whether President Tinubu was aware of the required payments prior to the extravagant expenditure on the squad. For a government that wants Nigerians to put up with the tightening of the belt and the high cost of living that come with its economic policies—which eliminated subsidies for power, gasoline, and foreign exchange—it is much worse. When a country is hit with severe socioeconomic problems, such as crippling debt, it should manage its money carefully.
As you may remember, the Federal Government lavished expensive rewards on the Super Eagles, who won silver at the most recent AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire. What would have been the compensation if the winning team had won the event, given that a team that finished second in a competition despite an allegedly subpar performance could receive extravagant rewards?
A unique yet intriguing perspective on the presidential extravaganza is offered by Senator Nenadi Sambo, the former Finance Minister and current National Chairman of the opposition Labour Party. She finds it incomprehensible that the President decided to give the girls and their handlers financial rewards in the form of the dollar, an international currency, rather than the naira, Nigeria’s native currency.
The symbolic elevation of the dollar over our national currency, she says, “is a damning indictment of the administration’s economic mindset,” even though she acknowledges that the President stated that the cash gift would be paid in the naira equivalent of $100,000 to each player and $50,000 to each coach.
The administration, having overseen the naira’s free collapse from an already unstable N500 to almost N1,500 to the dollar, seems to have thrown in the towel, she added. This demonstrates how little this government values and trusts the naira, which is the very representation of our economic independence. Maybe we might anticipate seeing the national budget shortly in dollars, or worse, in a basket of foreign currencies!
Even though it seems too late to undo the President’s and Nigeria Governors’ Forum’s actions, an award pattern ought to exist for future heroes.
