This year, the CBN Cup has been rife with lots of disorganization, disagreement, and drama. Last time an article was put out about the disorganization witnessed during the earlier stages, advice was offered on effectively handling the rest of the competition. The advice clearly wasn’t followed, because little did we know that the issues mentioned in the last article were only just the tip of the iceberg in the ever-growing muckpit of problems in this year’s edition of the CBN Cup.
The CBN Cup final was played on Friday, the 31st of January 2025, between Zoology/Archeology/Anthropology and Geology/Physics, resulting in a 1-nil win for the Geology/Physics department. The winners had already made plans with the set 100,000 Naira cash prize, and who can blame them? Since November last year, they had worked for it, giving their all, round after round,. Maybe they should have seen the major signs of disaster during the presentation of medals when there was no difference in the medals given to normal players and those given to the Highest Goalscorer and even the Goalkeeper of the Tournament. Rumours started flying around that the prize money was never 100,000 Naira but 60,000 Naira, much to the surprise and anger of the players involved in the competition. Tempers flared on the informal CBN Cup WhatsApp group, where the CBN Sports Director, Olatunji Akanni Taofeek, was repeatedly tagged to provide explanations; to which he did not reply.
The silence from the organizers continued. Some students threatened to report him [the Sports Director] to the Students Disciplinary Committee; some said it was better to forget the money and move on. Others did not agree with the latter statement because how do they abandon that much money in the hands of fellow 100-level students—money they struggled to pay to participate in the competition? Mind you, participants collectively contributed a sum of 429,000 Naira (17,000 Naira from twelve single departments and 25,000 Naira from nine merged departments).
A student, Chike David, wrote an open letter to the CBN Executives and the Faculty of Science Students’ Association Students’ Representative Council (FASSA SRC) asking why the prize money was reduced from 100,000 Naira to 60,000 Naira and a substantial financial breakdown of expenses spent during the competition.
The first response that was gotten was a circular put out by the FASSA SRC Speaker, listing the cash prizes for the male category as 60,000 Naira for the first position and 40,000 for the runner-up, with 20,000 Naira for the first position in the female category. They urged the students to abide by their final decision. A broadcast message was also put out, which directly addressed Chike David’s open letter; it also further explained some of the decisions made by the sports director and a request for a financial report from the CBN executives.
The long-awaited financial report was released on Thursday, 6th of February 2025, and with its arrival followed a trail of disbelief as players and other students involved in the cup couldn’t believe that the “facts” stated in the report were true. The report showed that money was spent on referees, footballs, graphics, water, first aid, and other things. Several students complained, and for every complaint, the CBN governor, Demilade Giwa-Balogun, didn’t like, the person who complained was evicted from the group chat. Mind you, in all of these, nothing had still been heard from the CBN sports director.
The winners from the female category were awarded 20,000 Naira as a cash prize, even though the money generated from the female category was 21,000 Naira. This raised the question, Where was the money generated to make medals for the female team? Was it 1,000 Naira that was used to handle all the miscellaneous expenses from the female tournament?
In the same report, water was provided for 21 matches totalling 25,000 Naira, but in the group stages each team played two matches totalling 42 matches; not counting the semifinals and the finals.
It was stated in the report that two footballs were gotten at 15,500 Naira each with a delivery fee of 1,000 Naira totalling 32,000 Naira. According to many students from different departments, the footballs gotten by the organizers were nonexistent as they had to source for footballs by themselves. An example is the MBBS team, who provided their ball for each match. So, out of confusion, the players kept demanding to see the two balls that were said to be bought.
First aid provision was another shocking revelation. 14,000 Naira was supposedly spent on first aid, with the sports team claiming it was bought three times because the first got missing, the second was for the FASSA cup and Deans cup, which was not properly explained, and the last for the semifinals and finals. Players would attest otherwise to this, as Mayowa from Mechanical Engineering noted that his keeper was injured and all they did was put spirit and pure water on him; Elakeche from MBBS stated that during the Zoology/Geophysics match, a player from Zoology was injured and all that was done was to pour water on his face. Bobby, the captain of the Renewable Natural Resources (RNR) team, sadly commented that one of his players was injured in the jaw but not one first aider attended to him; rather, it was the faculty health service that attended to him later on while the rest of the players were given glucose. Emmanuel from the statistics department said his team only played one match in which first aid was provided. Tobi from MBBS noted that when one of his players collided heads with an opponent, one of their substitutes brought water that the referee poured on his head. He also recalled seeing a first aid box for one or two matches but couldn’t remember it ever being used. Ijoba from Civil Engineering was the player who said first aid was used once when his goalkeeper had an injury against Electrical Electronics in the second match.
Perhaps the most surprising expenditure in the report was the amount spent on water for the players. A whopping sum of 24,000 Naira was spent on water according to the report. It was stated that 60 bags were bought in total for all the matches. Daniel from Electrical Electronics said that he was surprised that much was spent because he remembered the quarterfinals against Geophysics. He requested water, and Lincoln said that water was for the injured only. Bharnabee of Mechanical Engineering echoed same sentiments, “Water? I don’t know about that. All the water we drank was bought by our coach.“. Tobi from MBBS mentioned they were given a bag of water in the semi-finals and 3rd place match only. He remembered requesting water after the first group stage match, and the Sports Director said it couldn’t be provided. “Apart from the registration money, my department must have spent almost 10,000 Naira on water alone! As we bought 3 bags of water every match and played 6 matches.”. Many other players alluded to the same thing, as they all had to buy or provide water for themselves in every match. This begs the question of where the 24,000 Naira spent on water is.
Questions concerning other aspects of the report are still being asked. The 12,000 Naira spent on graphics was questioned, as fliers were only released during select periods during thetournament. The 65,000 Naira spent on referees was also questioned because on some days the referees didn’t show up at all, and this huge amount could have been used to hire linesmen for all the matches as well. Unfortunately, these questions have no answer, as the Sports Director still hasn’t responded to the tags on the group.
The breakdown does little to explain how a huge sum supposedly disappeared during a tournament. Mayowa from Mechanical Engineering said that he feels the breakdown should be investigated, as it doesn’t make sense to him. For Adefolahan from Physiology, the breakdown makes it more glaring that they squandered money, and the fact that Akanni (the sports director) hasn’t said anything makes it more annoying. Emmanuel from Statistics echoed that the breakdown of the money spent isn’t transparent enough. Bobby from the RNR team said, “I’m very disappointed in the CBN executives and FASSA altogether. Imagine them not allowing the sports director to address us. What they are saying is different from what the sports executives are telling us.”.
This year’s CBN tournament was indeed memorable, but for all the wrong reasons. The powers that be should ensure that this bad precedent doesn’t continue in the next edition of the prestigious cup. Students must also ensure that leaders of this sort, who are unwilling to be accountable, are prevented from assuming any future positions.
Temi
