Controversy Trails Nigerian Government Rewards for Super Falcons’ WAFCON Win

In Abuja, they were received by a delegation of Nigerian leaders led by President Bola Tinubu. At the celebratory event, which featured performances by singers Flavour, Teni, and Timi Dakolo, the president conferred national honors of the Order of the Niger (OON) on the players and magnanimously announced gifts of $100,000 and three-bedroom apartments to each player. Coaches and members of the technical team will also receive $50,000.

Additionally, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum announced that it would contribute an extra N360 million ($235,000) to the prize fund, which will be distributed among the 24 players and nearly a dozen technical staff members.

As recently as the just-concluded WAFCON, the team was being owed match allowances and bonuses despite sterling performances that saw them concede just one goal going into Saturday’s final. Just a day before playing Morocco, the National Sports Commission chairman, Shehu Dikko, told the press that the president had issued directives for the payment of allowances and match bonuses owed to the team.

The gifts announced by Tinubu should ideally smooth things over, but the Nigerian government is known for not fulfilling its promises to athletes promptly. Just last month, some members of the men’s football team that won AFCON in 1994 received the houses promised to them over three decades ago. It took 25 years for Nigeria’s first Olympic gold medallist, Chioma Ajunwa, to receive the house promised to her by the government for her feat.

These precedents suggest that in many years to come, we may hear that this year’s WAFCON winners have yet to receive the prizes promised to them.

Public opinion on the gift is divided, with many criticizing the $100,000 as excessively lavish for a country struggling with a severe cost-of-living crisis. X user @lollypeezle called it “wasteful spending,” citing protests by former police officers and soldiers sharing their ordeal with poor food rations. The sentiment has garnered a lot of support, with many spotlighting the horrendous state of social facilities in the country, including poor healthcare and an ongoing insecurity crisis.

“It’s not like we’re even rich, just living on borrowed funds,” X user @Logiebo wrote in a reply to @lollypeezle’s post.

Last week, Nigeria’s senate approved an elaborate borrowing plan to plug shortfalls in the 2025 budget, headlined by a $21.1 billion direct loan. The approval also includes loans of 4 billion euros ($4.7 billion), 15 billion yen ($102 million), a $65 million grant, and domestic borrowing through government bonds worth about $2 billion. This continues the current government’s trend of rampant borrowing, with the Tinubu administration already borrowing more than its four predecessors combined in just over two years.

Onanuga’s false equivalence has been repeatedly pointed out, with many questioning why teachers, soldiers, and other essential civil workers are at the lower end of the remuneration spectrum. For added context, Nigeria’s minimum wage of N70,000 ($45) barely covers the cost of a 50kg (110 lb) bag of rice, which makes awarding approximately $3 million to the Super Falcons and their technical staff seem excessive.

For many, it’s not that the WAFCON winners don’t deserve to be celebrated and offered financial rewards for their feat; it’s that the amount, especially within the context of Nigeria’s economic crisis, continues the trend of fiscal irresponsibility by the current government.