REVEALED: Siasia, NFF, Yemi Idowu & U23 Olympic team journey

YEMI IDOWU TO THE RESCUE

At this point a Nigerian philanthropist, Yemi Idowu who was following the saga which was already on local and foreign media sought to save Nigeria from international embarrassment by making new arrangement to charter another plane for the Under-23 Olympic football team.

Yemi Idowu is the son of the Late Nathaniel Idowu, the extraordinary sports administrator and philanthropist who started professional football league in Nigeria.

Yemi after contacting the sports ministry, decided to spend $300,000 from his personal pockets to provide an Embraer EMB135ER aircraft to fly the 18-man Dream Team and officials from Atlanta to Brazil, but Coach Samson Siasia rejected the plane without stating any reason initially.

After rejecting the plane, the Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung put several phone calls through to Siasia, but the coach of the U-23 team refused to speak to the Minister.

The Minister then called team captain, Mikel Obi and asked about Siasia’s whereabouts, but Mikel said the coach was not around. 

The minister then told Mikel to let Siasia know that he called and will like to speak to him. 

He also told Mikel that if there is any problem he should let him know about it.

It was at this point that stories were twisted that the Minister said Mikel should be in charge of the team and not Siasia. 

After all efforts by the Minister to speak to Siasia failed, Siasia then called the Nigerian Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo and said to him that the team was stranded in Atlanta due to nonpayment of hotel bills and flight to Brazil.

The Vice president immediately called Dalung but could not reach him, then called Information minister, Lai Mohammed and instructed him to reach Dalung on the matter. 

Meanwhile the Vice President also instructed the Accountant General of the Federation and directed him to arrange $474,000 immediately for the Team.

Lai Mohammed later conveyed the Vice President’s message to Dalung, and the Sports minister explained how Siasia avoided his calls and refused to speak to him.

Lai Mohammed then called Siasia and told him that his Minister was trying to speak to him. 

Dalung then called Mikel again and asked him to take his phone to Siasia so he could speak to him.

According to eyewitness reports, Dalung was placed on hold for several minutes before Siasia spoke to him. 

Dalong then asked Siasia why he refused to use the Chartered plane Yemi Idowu paid for, Siasia said ‘the plane was too small and it had no space and the boys were complaining’. 

Dalung then said to him “You are the coach, I have goggled the plane and I think it is good enough why can’t they use it?”

Investigations however revealed that the real reason why Siasia rejected Yemi Idowu’s chartered plane was that the number of the contingent were more than the capacity of the aircraft. 

The Aircraft had a capacity to cater for 25 people but the total numbers of 32 people were waiting in Atlanta.

The Minster then stated that the NOC informed him that the official contingent for the football team plus officials to RIO was 25 that was why Yemi Idowu chartered a 25-seater aircraft.

Unknown to all, the extra seven people were Siasia’s family members.

The minister then called the Vice President and explained everything to him and the VP was very shocked and disappointed. 

The VP was also informed by Dalong that there was a plane ready for the team’s official contingent that was paid for therefore it is not true that they were stranded.

The Vice President then instructed the Accountant General not to release more money and asked the sports ministry to handle the situation. 

When all these were going on NFF president, Amaju Pinnick remained quiet and he was not even talking to Solomon Dalung.

The Sports Minster then called Mikel Obi again and the captain said that the agent has provided them an accommodation and booked a flight for them to travel to RIO.

The story of Delta Airline coming to the rescue of a ‘stranded’ Under-23 team is very false, and it is important for Nigerians to know this.

Noteworthy, Delta Airlines was a co-sponsor of the tournament which the U-23 attended in Atlanta as part of the 20th Anniversary of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, so flying the team out of the camp was not so much a favour as widely publicized.

If there is anyone who truly deserves commendation, it’s that great man Yemi Idowu who like his late father has left his footprints on the sands of time.

Oluwole Isaac writes from Abuja Nigeria.

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