NOC And Workers Salaries

Barely a forthnight ago, the Secretary-General of Nigeria Olympic Committee, (NOC) Tunde Popoola disclosed that its workers’ salaries were part of the N80m used to purchase broadcast rights for the recently concluded London 2012 Olympic Games.

According to Popoola, the Committee got the sum of N50 million from the National Sports Commission, (NSC) and needed to make up the shortfall to pay for the rights they purchased from South African company, Octagon.

This disclosure came just as Nigerians were struggling to come to terms with the disappointing outing of team Nigeria to the Olympic Games.The use of workers’ salaries by the NOC to secure Olympics broadcast rights is indeed condemnable.

Workers’ welfare especially, payment of salary as and when due ought to be a paramount consideration of every employer. It should not be considered less important to other issues or treated as optional.

The possible consequence of delayed payment, especially for months on the staff of NOC and their dependants can only be imagined. That is why we believe that the action of the NOC big-wigs amounted to misappropriation with wide ranging implications.

Indeed, apart from avoidable incitement of  labour issues, the development has the capacity of eroding staff confidence and loyalty. We demand that the staff be paid at once. They are not responsible for the failure of getting funds for the TV rights.

We understand the inability of staff to even speak up or dare to state publicly the number of months they were being owed. We, also sympathise with them and their dependants over this inhuman treatment, but this should not happen again, anywhere.

NOC’s explanation that it was short of funds, but wanted Nigerians to watch live telecast of the London Games is not in the least acceptable. Sports, especially, at the level of Olympic Games have become huge business that an active private sector in Nigeria can leverage on to make money without compromising the peace of any family.

It is sad that the Olympics which comes up once in four years would come upon the NOC suddenly as an emergency that would require panic actions even the encroachment on the welfare of their staff.

We think it was high time sports was run in Nigeria the way it is done in the developed countries. In such older democracies, good planning and organization by administrators and bodies have attracted the private sector to drive sports as an industry of a kind.

The organisation of the Olympics and FIFA World Cup have turned in mega dollars for the International Olympic Committee, IOC and FIFA, respectively. Indeed, the success stories of the South African Premier League, (SPL) and the English Premier league, (EPL) are but a few examples to admire.

The issue of broadcast rights is, especially, what the private sector should handle. While it is important for Nigerians to watch the Olympics, nobody should compromise the life of any Nigerian for that purpose. The salary of Nigerians that can hardly take anyone home should not be held back on the grounds of the failure of the system.

We, therefore, charge the NOC to wake up and be alive to its responsibility. Every step needed to make itself an attractive brand must be taken without delay. But more importantly, Nigeria and the NOC must know that the time to begin preparations for the next Olympic Games in Rio 2016, is now.