For months now the world has almost been on a standstill with the outbreak of Coronavirus which was later described as a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, WHO.
The pandemic as at the time of writing this as affected over 3.8 million people in the world and has killed over 267,000 people in the world.
The Consequences
With the pandemic spreading like wildfire, sporting activities had to be stopped to help in the fight against the virus.
In Nigeria, sporting activities have also been suspended indefinitely with the virus affecting more than 3,500 and killing over 100.
The postponement of the NPFL and the major sporting event of the year in the country, the National sports festival have rendered locally based sports personals a little bit handicapped in catering for their daily needs as most make a fortune from participating in these events.
The Reaction
After much complains and requests, the sports ministry finally came up with an initiative to help athletes in this period.
According to the ministry, a good number of athletes will get 50,000 palliatives to help them in the period.
In hours of this palliative’s distribution, there have been reports that some athletes are complaining of not getting a share.
Palliative definition?
Relieving pain without dealing with the cause of the condition
What is the palliative we are talking about?
The initiative was named the Athletes Relief Fund, ARF by the sports ministry. Headed by the ministry’s permanent secretary. The ministry says it is a private initiative based on the PPP model- Remember this was a result of requests and complains. Three batches of payment were based on the criteria which came from the committee after they made their own research.
According to the ministry, this is not AFN’s money or Olympic money or NOC’s money.
The ARF is a 10 million naira fund targeted at 200 athletes with over 170 already listed to benefit and these athletes would be paid directly from the CBN.
My stand!
Just like we have seen all over the world, where big earning sportsmen come around to help the low earning sportsmen, I expect this to be an inspiration for Nigeria top Athletes.
In Tennis, the WTA, the ATP and four majors (Australian Open, US Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon) in the tennis world came together with donations from top tennis players like Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and a few of other stars have contributed to help the below top 100 tennis players.
In football, top players are taking pay-cuts to ensure non-playing staff get paid.
The least we expect from our ‘top athletes’ if they can not donate for a palliative is to support the ministry and athletes in this Corona virus-driven time.
The conclusion
With Covid-19 still threatening the world like a career-ending injury, every athlete deserves to get a palliative as a means of support. However remembering that all fingers are not equal and the fact that the low earners are more vulnerable in this period, all hands should join together with a practice of social distancing to assist the vulnerable.
