Igali Urges Tinubu To Honour All Sporting Heroes, Not Just Team Stars
Olympic gold medallist and former world wrestling champion, Daniel Igali, has called on President Bola Tinubu to extend the wave of recognition currently showered on Nigeria’s national women’s football and basketball teams to other deserving athletes across the country.
In a heartfelt open letter titled “Of Eagles, Falcons, and Forgotten Champions: A Plea for Balance in Nigeria’s Sporting Renaissance,” Igali commended the President for rewarding the Super Falcons and D’Tigress following their recent victories at continental championships.
Each player received $100,000, three-bedroom apartments, and national honours – a gesture Igali described as unprecedented and deeply symbolic.
However, he cautioned against selective celebration, noting that athletes in less spotlighted disciplines like wrestling, weightlifting, athletics, and Paralympic sports often bring home gold but are met with silence from the corridors of power.
“Let not this lament be mistaken for bitterness,” Igali wrote. “What we seek is equity, not equal applause; dignity, not dollar-for-dollar equivalence.”
He highlighted the quiet heroics of Nigerian wrestlers, who have dominated the African stage for years, and weightlifters who recently returned with 10 gold medals from the African Championships yet received no national mention or reward.
“We cannot reward millionaires and neglect the struggling,” Igali warned. “To do so is to put yam in the barn of the well-fed, while the hungry watch from the windowsill.”
While applauding the appointments of sports technocrats like Shehu Dikko and Bukola Olopade into the National Sports Commission, he urged the government to institutionalise fairness in recognition and support for all athletes regardless of discipline or media visibility.
“This is not a critique,” he clarified, “It is an ode… and a gentle drumbeat reminding us to extend that precedent to all corners of the village square. Every sport, every champion, every effort matters.”
Igali’s plea serves as both a celebration of a new dawn in Nigerian sports and a timely reminder that the nation’s sporting glory is built not just by the famous few, but by the quiet excellence of many.
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