Fifteen months is a long time to wait for a promise. President Bola Tinubu has finally paid each member of the Super Falcons the $100,000 reward he pledged after Nigeria's WAFCON victory, settling a debt that had been hanging over the administration since the team's triumph.
The Super Falcons earned the pledge through their performance at the Women Africa Cup of Nations, a tournament where they delivered the kind of result that made the presidential promise feel like the least the country could do. The delay between that moment of national celebration and the actual payout stretched to 15 months, a gap that did not go unnoticed by fans and football observers.
The fulfillment of the pledge will no doubt bring relief to the players, many of whom continued to represent Nigeria on the continental stage while waiting on the government to come through. Whether this signals a broader shift in how Nigerian football administration treats its women's teams remains the real question worth watching.
Originally published by BusinessDay.