By Hananeel Jackson
Israeli based Nigeria Handball Star, Isoken Nosa-Odia has attributed the poor performance of team Nigeria in major competition to lack of welfare and poor nutrition of players .
Nosa-Odia gave the hint when she featured on Radio Nigeria’s Creek FM Sports Blast in Yenagoa at the weekend.
She alleged that athletes were instructed by top officials of the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports not to grant interviews to journalists at the 2019 African Games camp, in a bid to cover the ills that was going on.
According to her, though monies were approved for the African Games athletes were short changed by some officials in the ministry of Youths and Sports Development.
She further stressed that athletes were also poorly feed with a sachet of Milk and four slices of bread as breakfast in Morocco.
The Hapeol Kiryat-Ono of Israel player explained that in during the 2011 edition in Maputo , Mozambique, athletes were paid $100 per a day for twenty one days while in 2015 in Brazzaville, Congo the amount increased to $150 for twenty one days.
She regretted that despite the reduction in the number of athletes and days in the 2019 African Games in Morocco they could only manage fairly used shoes of three thousand naira and five thousand naira.
While commending the current leadership of the Nigeria Handball Federation for securing a sponsorship deal for the Handball Premier league Nosa-Odia called on the government and corporate organisations to invest the development of Handball in the country.
She advised journalists in the country to discharge their duties professionally and rescue them from the shackles of bad administrators.
Isoken Nosa-Odia however suggested to the federal government to separate the Ministry of Youth from the Ministry of Sports Development for proper attention to be accorded to sports.
