Oshonaike blames absence at Top 16 Cup on funds

Six-time Olympian, Nigeria’s Olufunke Oshonaike, has blamed her absence at the 2016 ITTF Africa Top 16 Cup in Sudan on paucity of funds.
The trio of Aruna Quadri, Segun Toriola and Edem Offiong had to sponsor themselves to the tournament after the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF) failed the secure the needed fund for the trip from the National Sports Commission (NSC).
She said from her base in Hamburg, Germany, that she would have loved to be at the tournament but she could not raise the funds to prosecute the trip. She lamented that it is disheartening that athletes had to be using their hard-earned money to represent their fatherland.
“I don’t think this is too good for the country that in the year of the Olympics and we had a competition that would have helped us prepare well, unfortunately we could not get fund from NSC. At several times, we had to sponsor ourselves to competitions and I think this is not too good for us because we also have responsibilities to our family,” she lamented.
For the players competing at the Rio Olympics, Oshonaike tasked NSC to support all athletes to fulfill their dream of making the country proud.