Nigeria's Olympic representatives arrives in slippers, confused attires in Tokyo

Eyebrows have been raised following different attire worn by members of Team Nigeria contingent in Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games despite the announcement of AFA Sports as the country’s official kits supplier, Saturday PUNCH reports.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo had on Monday in Abuja unveiled AFA Sports as the official apparel of Team Nigeria to the Games, a day before their departure to their training camp in Kizarasu, Japan.

However, several videos and pictures showed many officials were wearing different attire and sportswear brands.

Contingents from other countries – including South Africa – who arrived in Japan at the same time with Nigeria were however uniformly kitted.

Pictures of Uganda, Italy and Australia teams arriving for the Olympics also showed them in their official kits.

Italian team

A picture shared by the team after the visit of the Nigerian Ambassador to Japan, Abubakar Moriki, to the team’s camp, showed many of the athletes and officials in different attire, with one of the officials in the picture wearing an Arsenal jersey.

Many other videos shared by Nigerian athletes in Japan also showed them in different sportswear like Nike and Adidas.

In a video which had quarter miler Patience Okon-George, Imaobong Nse Uko and sprinter Grace Nwokocha at the Kizarasu camp, none of them had on the national kits.

Prior to the Tokyo Games, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria and Nigeria Basketball Federation had been enmeshed in kits controversy.

While the Shehu Gusau-led board of the AFN had signed a deal with PUMA to kit Nigerian athletes at major competitions, the sports ministry insisted that Nigerian athletes and officials would not wear the kits at the Olympics.

cameroonian team

The Gusau-led board, which had taken delivery of the PUMA kits are planning on sending them down to the athletes and officials in Tokyo, but the ministry, through the Tonobok Okowa-led board of the AFN, are planning on getting another set of kits for the country.

While the kits that would be used by the track and field athletes have reportedly not been finalised, our correspondent learnt plans were in top gear to send down locally made kits to Tokyo.

This kits issue is a big embarrassment to Nigeria, till now, we have not been able to finalise on our kits. Plans are in top gear to send kits down to Tokyo, but I can assure you that the athletes won’t use PUMA,” an official in the Okowa-led AFN told Saturday PUNCH on the condition of anonymity.

First Vice President of the Gusau-led AFN, Sunday Adeleye, however, warned that if sports minister Sunday Dare insisted on the PUMA kits not being used, it could scare foreign firms from entering into agreements with the country’s sports federations.