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| Victorious Super Falcons in Cameroun |
Nigeria women continued their sit-in protest five days on after failing to get their Africa Women’s Cup of Nations bonuses despite sports minister Solomon Dalung’s assurance, Sportames.com can confirm.
The Sport Minister Solomon Dalung held a meeting with the players and Coaching crew, pleading that process to secure their entitlement was still on but his plea looked to have yielded no success as the new African queens insisted they will only quit their Abuja hotel until they were paid.
Florence Omagbemi’s ladies had endured long ill-treatment from the nation’s football body since getting a paltry 10,000 Naira ($50) each after qualifying for Cameroon 2016 in April. Till date, the team is yet to get bonuses of edging past Senegal over two legs as well as All African Games campaign last year in Congo alongside camp allowances except for 500,000 naira received before South Africa clash with coaches been paid 400,000 naira.
The poor treatment to women teams is fast becoming a trend in Nigeria after the U17s and U20s were decamped with token N10,000 and N30,000 following their early exits from the Jordan 2016 Fifa u17 Women’s World Cup and Papua New Guinea 2016 U20 Women’s World Cup respectively. Confirming the continued protest, a Super Falcons player who spoke on anonymity told Sportflames.com that “We are not ready to leave the hotel. We have heard enough promises but all we want is for our entitlement to be paid.”
Another player insists their protest is not only about their unpaid bonuses but the unfair treatment and poor attention to the women’s game in the country. “We are not fighting for ourselves because of money, but for the future of women’s football in Nigeria”
According to NFF, the players are entitled to a $3,000 each for a win and $1,500 for a draw in the group stages, while victory in the semi-finals gives them another $4,000.
They will get another $5,000 each for humbling Cameroon in the continental showpiece final meaning each player will pocket $16, 500 and owed up to $25,000 each from outstanding debt.
Omagbemi’s side crushed Mali 6-0 but was held 1-1 by Ghana before 4-0 hammering of Kenya and went on to secure a 1-0 victory over South Africa and the hosts in the semi-final and final respectively. In the same vein, coach Omagbemi who plans to burial her father who died back in June is yet to receive a dime since appointed interim coach in February.
Owing to ongoing protest, some key players and officials could face a potential ban from national team due to their roles in the national embarrassment brought the NFF.
Though the world continues to clamour for better treatment of the new African queens, the NFF insists they can only pay the Super Falcons when they access funds from the federal government. Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has also petitioned the UN Working Group on the issues of discrimination against women in law and in practice requesting the body to “use its mandates and position to urgently ask the Nigerian government and the Nigerian Football Federation to end the discriminatory and unfair treatment of the players of the Super Falcons of Nigeria.
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We can be so inconsiderate in this country, how can this girls work so hard, what if they lost so we would not pay them at all
God help our so called leaders, they are just such wicked ppl