By Jimmy
Nigeria’s Minister of Sports Development, John Enoh, has promised to always put the best interests of Nigerian athletes, both home and abroad-based, first.
Enoh is not happy that Italian Serie A club, Napoli, decided to mock Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen via their official TikTok page.
Osimhen was left disappointed that his club decided to mock him for missing a penalty against Bologna on Sunday by calling him coconut in a TikTok video.
SEE: Racism Club: Nigerians slam Napoli for mocking Osimhen’s penalty miss on TikTok
In reaction to the development, the Nigerian striker deleted every picture related to Napoli on his Instagram page. He also snubbed some of his teammates when he arrived at the team’s hotel ahead of the club’s league game against Udinese.
Also, Osimhen’s agent, Roberto Calenda, has threatened to sue Napoli over the TikTok post even though the videos have been deleted. The Italian champions also issued a statement to insist they didn’t intend to mock their “treasure”, although nowhere in their statement did they apologize to Osimhen.
On his part, Nigeria’s minister of sports took to his official X account on Thursday, to frown at how Napoli chose to treat Victor Osimhen who helped them to win the Scudetto for the first time in 33 years last season.
The minister used his series of posts on X to reveal the efforts his office is making against the maltreatment of Nigerian athletes. This also includes Tobi Amusan, whom the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) is dragging for allegedly failing a drug test even though the World Athletics’ disciplinary committee had declared her innocent.
READ: Osimhen won’t renew with Napoli, set to leave as soon as possible
“Over the past weekend, the news coming out of Napoli concerning Super Eagles player — Victor Osimhen saddened me greatly. The travails of Tobi Amusan have been no less so — the reason I made efforts to reach her directly last week”, the minister wrote.
“My office is trying to reach Victor Osimhen directly as well to understand first-hand the issues. We are committed to establishing the facts of the matter. Meanwhile, I am in touch with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, and the Nigerian Ambassador to the Republic of Italy, Ambassador Mfawa Abam.
“Together, we are employing diplomatic avenues with Italy for a more proper approach to looking into the matter as it is.
He added, “Under the present administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, we are committed to ensuring our sportsmen and women are accorded the respect they deserve and are not exposed to any injustice.
“Upon assumption of office, I made it abundantly clear, in words and deeds, that the welfare of our athletes, be they home-based or international-based, would be our topmost priority as we create the environment that enables and ensures their continued success.”
