Date Published: 07/29/10

Our Falconets playing for Peanuts by Nnamdi Okosieme

Nigeria is participating in the FIFA Women's World Cup currently taking place in Germany. It is her fifth appearance since 2002 when she appeared in the maiden edition in Canada. Aside that debut appearance where she failed to advance into the knock-out stages, she has made it to the quarter-final of every other edition.

As is the norm when footballers are on national duty, they are paid daily camp allowances and matches bonuses. For the ladies in Germany, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), which squandered one billion naira on the Super Eagles at the just ended World Cup in South Africa, does not think they are worth spending money on.

For the tackles and injuries the young Nigerian women have been receiving in Germany since they played their opening game against England last Wednesday, the Falconets get a paltry $500, that is if they win the match. For a draw, it is half that amount. So, basically, for all their effort in the 1-1 draw against England, our young girls were paid just $250.

Unfair treatment
The Super Eagles, by contrast were promised a whopping $30,000 match bonus for any match they won at the World Cup.

The difference between what the senior men's national team players are entitled to is not only astronomical, it is also indicative of the attitude of the football federation towards female players.

This is the position of Henrietta Ukaigwe, a journalist and President of the Female Football Interest Group (FFIG), a non-governmental organisation set up to advance the interest of female players. "It is so blatantly unfair. To pay the girls that little for the efforts they put into making Nigeria look good on the international scene is something that borders on injustice. There is no justification at all when you consider that at the World Cup that just ended in South Africa, the Super Eagles were promised as much as $30,000 if they won a match. We all saw how the Eagles performed at the tournament."As for the women's U-20 team, they have always shown commitment to (the) national cause. In the last three editions, they have always made the quarter-final, yet nobody cares about them. If we spent a quarter of what we lavish on the eagles on these girls, I assure you we will win the World Cup," Ukaigwe said.

Not a new thing
The discrimination in terms of allowances is only an aspect of the general scant regard paid to issues involving women in football, and is certainly not restricted to the Falconets.

The senior national women's team, the Super Falcons, hardly fare better. The best the players who have made it to every edition of the senior women's World Cup since its inception have received in terms of match-winning bonus, has been $700. Even in terms of other related matters like accommodation of players, the Falcons always get second-class treatment.

While members of the Super Eagles are quartered in five-star hotels, our senior women's national team players are often kept in less than befitting accommodation.

"That is the lot of female footballers. We have an uncaring football federation, which treats us as if we are not human beings. They always neglect us and pay all the attention to the men. I remember in 2002 when we were preparing for the African Women's Championship, they kept us in the dilapidated hostels of the National Institute of Sports in Lagos," says a former member of the Falcons, who pleaded that her name be kept out of print.

"It was a horrible experience for most of us. We could not believe that players who were on national duty could be treated that way. Apart from mosquitoes, which feasted regularly us, we had to go for long periods without power supply.

All this was in addition to the terrible food we were served. In the midst of our own suffering, we could not help feeling pity for our foreign-based colleagues who came all the way from America to serve their fatherland. It was an experience one cannot wish on her enemies," she said.

From Prisca to Blessing
Horrible as it may be, it was nothing compared to the treatment meted to Prisca Emeafu, a former member of the team. Emeafu was the Falcons' assistant captain, who at the 1999 World Cup in the United States of America, had proved to be one of the team's best players.

The following year, as the Falcons prepared for the Sydney Olympic Games, they were camped at the Obasanjo Farms in Ota. One morning, armed robbers broke into their camp and Emeafu and her team mates scampered for safety. As she jumped from the first floor of the hotel, she landed badly, with a metal object piercing her ankle.

That injury ended her football career. At the time of the injury, officials of the ministry of sports and the Nigeria Football Association, as the NFF was then known, promised to do everything in their power to make her comfortable. They even promised to get her employed in the ministry.

In the end, it proved to be empty talk. The best they could do for the young lady was to offer her a job as a chaperone with the Falcons. It did not matter to them that, through their carelessness in not adequately protecting her while she was in their care, they had ended her career. Tired of waiting for them to fulfil their promise, Emeafu explored other alternatives. Through the help of some former colleagues in the team and some kind individuals who provided funds, she made her way to the United States where she presently resides.

Years after abandoning Emeafu, the Nigerian football administrators is still proving adept at mistreating young Nigerian ladies who answer the national call.

In 2006, Blessing Akusiobi, an orphan and the eldest of three siblings, found herself relishing national assignment in Russia, venue of that year's FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup. At the tournament, she was one of the stalwarts in the Falconets' defence, as she helped repel attacks on the Nigerian goal.

In Nigeria's quarter-final match against Brazil, the game was tied at 1-1 when, with 10 minutes remaining, Akusiobi tore a ligament in her knee. She was taken out and moments later, Brazil scored. Nigeria lost the match and Akusiobi's troubles began. After an assessment had been done of her injury, doctors in Nigeria suggested she be flown abroad for surgery.

Rather than move with precision, the NFA stalled, eventually feigning ignorance of injury to the young lady even though it had been televised live to the whole world, and the then Secretary of the NFA who led the girls to the tournament, had witnessed it firsthand. It took nearly two years, precisely in April 2008, before Akusiobi was taken out of Nigeria for surgery.

By then it was too late; the damage had been done and a fledgling career had been cut short. Today, Akusiobi, without parents and having two younger siblings to cater for, is walking the streets seeking help from kindly Nigerians. She is often seen hanging around the National Stadium, asking for handouts.

On their own
With the uncaring attitude of our football administrators, the young ladies currently on national duty may appear to be on their own. With a measly $500 as reward for victory and $250 for a draw for the players, most of whom come from poor homes, Nigeria is certainly not encouraging its teeming youth to be ready to die for it if need be.