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Nigerian Athletes Living Like Beggars In Glasgow

July 21, 2014

Since the athletes arrived at the games village in Glasgow, there hasn’t been any meeting with any Nigerian official.

Some of the athletes who will be representing Nigeria at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow are crying over their condition since arriving in Scotland over the weekend.

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Blessing Okagbare

With the Games set to kick off on Wednesday, delegates from the participating countries are already on ground and could be seen on the streets of Glasgow, especially around the games village, rightly fitted with track suits bearing their national colours. This is in contrast to the Nigerian athletes, who confirmed that they have not been supplied with kits and as a result they are dressed in different colours.

Only those participating in the track and field events have kits, from other events they participated in.

Others have no kits says, a senior Nigerian athlete at the Games. “It is embarrassing seeing Nigerian athletes in tatters,” he continued, adding “some are even wearing bathroom slippers."

“The athletics team was lucky to have their own personal kits from previous outings. Nobody has been supplied with kits and no one knows whether there will be any.”

The athlete, who refused to be named, also disclosed that since they arrived at the games village in Glasgow, there hasn’t been any meeting with any Nigerian official.

Issues relating to allowances or even conduct and other logistics that will inform their movements haven’t been discussed with anybody. There isn’t any form of organization at all.

“The morale at the moment is very low and Nigerians are expecting us to show them medals on our return, [but] we have not seen any of our officials and we are not happy with the situation. I don’t know why it has to be Nigeria all the time and it is quite a shame,” the athlete concluded.

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