The athletes, who are all
national champions, are expected to embark on training tour of Germany
this week as part of the build-up to the 2015 all Africa Games and 2016
Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil.
The
2007 All Africa Games gold medallist added: “All arrangements have been
made - accommodation, transportation, feeding in Germany. Also,
arrangement with clubs that would compete with the team had also been
completed.
The Clubs included - Sportschuke Kwaik (Karlsche, Germany),
TKD Creti Club (Tubingen, Germany), Armare Waiblingen Taekwondo Club
(Waiblingen, Germany), and five others had also indicated interest in
the sparring and training sessions with the Nigeria National Taekwondo
Athletes.”
This
trip has been carefully
planned two months ago, between Chika and Taekwondo Verein-Munchingen
eV Club, a club Chika has a 10-year relationship with since Athens 2004.
According to Chika, “I am simply replicating conditions that helped me
succeed in taekwondo by exposing these National champions long before
the 2015 All Africa Games and Rio 2016 Olympics; the aim being to
increase their chances of winning medals at these important games.
The
athletes have been training hard in Abuja for the past three months, and
were very devastated when the news was broken to them,” he said.
According to Chukwumerije, "I do not blame the German Embassy at all. We
should, instead turn our sights on unscrupulous individuals that have
used sports for visa racketeering purposes over the years. They have not
been smart.
All they have succeeded in doing is made the careers of
upcoming athletes more difficult. As the athletes’ representative on
the NTF board, I will table the matter before the board and make sure
that the NTF takes strong measures to restore our credibility before
Embassies in Nigeria. We must expose our athletes after we have
discovered them. If they cannot get visas, how can we expose them?"
He
however, pleaded with the embassy to review their decision. “For this
present situation, I hope the German Embassy will change their minds.
These are good kids that have trained hard, and are all
National
Champions - Segun Olushola, Sunday Onofe, Joy
Ekhator, Hussain Adamu, Mariam Abdullahi.
They are in a good place,
where millions of young people want to be - they are number one in a
sport they love. Their dream is to compete and win medals at
International tournaments, not run away in Europe. I have big plans for
them and other young hardworking talented taekwondo athletes; this visa
denial will hamper those plans severely.”
With huge support from the National Sports Commission (NSC),
Chukwumerije further appealed to the embassy to rescind their stance on
denying the athletes visa.
“The NSC released some funds for trip just last week. I had applied for
these funds. I submitted a
well-package programme targeting the Amber funds that the NSC craved
out for well-packaged programs.
A lot has gone into these preparations,
both from Nigeria and from my partners in Germany. How do they go back
to tell all those clubs that we won't be able to make it again? It is a
fantastic programme, and I hope the Embassy can help to turn this
situation around, for the sake and career of these young sportsmen and
women,” he explained.
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