Nigeria’s athletics community is still in full debates and blames trading following reports over the weekend that record-breaking sprinter, Favour Ofili, has switched her sporting nationality to Turkey. This is coming just three months before the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo which should automatically takes her out of Team Nigerian. The 22-year-old Delta State-born athlete, who holds the world record in the 150m with a time of 15.85 seconds, is now reportedly in line to earn as much as $500,000 signing-on fee to compete under the Turkish flag.
The Team Nigeria sprinter opted to join Turkey along with four elite athletes from Jamaica are said to have been guaranteed huge signing-on-on fees, good monthly allowance and huge bonuses if they win medals at major games and championships.
Ofili and the Jamaicans will each receive huge $500,000 signing bonus, $30,000,00 monthly allowance, and potential $1 million medal bonuses which will be received in the form of 22-karat gold coins valued at that amount
The one handicap for Ofili is that she may not be eligible to compete for Turkey until the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
The debate continues if Ofili’s decision was driven by financial incentives or frustration over the years from the Nigeria Athletics. The Nigerian public opinion is appears largely in support of the lady runner. The sprinter’s name disappeared from the 100m event at the Paris 2024 Olympics despite having met the qualifying standard. The same athlete was completely left of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics along with some other Nigerian athletes.
Extrasportnigeria 
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