Hobbled on home turf

NIGERIA: SPORTSWOMEN DOMINATE AGAIN BUT PAY REMAINS AN ISSUE

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Nigerian women dominate sports on the continent; they're facing off not just against top talent abroad, but a domestic atmosphere of mismanagement and pay disparities—and even the risk of repression for speaking out.

Nigeria is fresh off a win at the finals of Women's AfroBasket, their fifth consecutive championship at the continent's top hardwood tournament, while last month the Super Falcons clinched their 10th Women's Africa Cup of Nations (Wafcon) football title.

The football team's successes in particular have come in the face of pay disparities compared to their male counterparts—when they get paid at all.

The women receive a training camp allowance, but the bulk of their pay comes from per-match bonuses, which vary depending on the team's results.

Both the women's basketball and football teams have been plagued by late or unpaid match bonuses for years, despite their records as arguably the best teams on the continent.

But when the Super Falcons landed in Abuja after their 3-2 Wafcon victory over host Morocco last month, none of the players answered questions shouted by an AFP reporter in the press scrum about whether they would ask the president, who was welcoming them at his villa, about being paid the same as the men's team.