Four days to the commencement of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Championships in China, there are doubts that Nigeria will be present at the global tournament due to lack of funds.
Only last week, Nigeria failed to take part in the ITTF African Junior Championship following the inability of the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) to secure funds from the National Sports Commission (NSC).
Despite efforts by the Wahid Oshodi led NTTF board to return Nigeria to the zenith of the sport in Africa, there has not be commensurate backing from the NSC and this has become a source of worry to table tennis buffs.
In February the NTTF had informed the NSC about the country’s participation in the championship but up till now there has not been any concrete assurance or approval from the NSC that the team would feature in the competition.
Also the singular effort of Aruna Quadri to put Nigeria on the world map by winning the ITTF Star Player of the year has not received any formal support from the commission.
However, Nigerian players have also been considered as title contenders at the global championship holding in Suzhou, China but the recent development may prevent the team from taking part in the event.
Effort by NTTF to secure fund from NSC has been frustrated by the office of Federation and Elite Athlete Department (FEAD) headed by Khalid Gidado.
It was learned that NTTF has written to the commission in February to be part of the competition with all the necessary documents provided by the federation backing up the country’s participation in the championship while the Director General (DG), Gbenga Elegbeleye has also given his verbal approval but the inability of FEAD to make the file available to the DG for final approval has stalled the release of fund.
This development has made it impossible for the federation to get the fund on time to travel to Suzhou in China for the competition.
Also the federation has also made effort to secure a one-week training camp for the team and this has received the nodding of the Chinese Table Tennis Association but the fund to get the flight ticket for the team may have stopped the team from flying to China last week.
Also the federation intends to use the tournament to tune up the team for the African Cup in Cameroun as well as the All Africa Games in Congo Brazzaville but this development may halt the federation’s plan.
It will be recalled that Nigeria failed to make it to the last ITTF African Junior Championships held in Mauritius over paucity of fund. A development the Africa Table Tennis Federation (ATTF) believes would affect the giant stride made by NTTF in the last two years.
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