A quiet revolution occurred in a country where men had long dominated sports. Nigerian women increasingly take up the whistle and the clipboard, shattering stereotypes and glass ceilings to become coaches and referees in some of the country’s most popular sports. These trailblazers prove that women have what it takes to nurture, lead, and officiate at the highest levels, from the football fields to the basketball courts.
For the upcoming Olympics, the FIFA Referees Committee has announced 12 match officials from Africa for the forthcoming 2024 Olympics Football Tournaments in Paris. Eighty-nine match officials, with 12 from Africa, were chosen. No Nigerian referees were included among the pool of match officials, as was the case during the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2022 World Cup.
However, these females will represent Nigeria at the 2024 Paris Olympics in a coaching capacity:
Female coaches to look out for at the 2024 Paris Olympics
Rena Wakama
Coach Rena via Youtube
Wakama was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on April 11, 1992. Her parents, Johnson Wakama and Rosana Oba, are natives of Okrika in Rivers State. She studied at Western Carolina University, where she graduated in 2014 and served four years on the institution’s women’s basketball team, the “Catamounts.”
She had a brief playing career before joining the D’Tigress in 2015, right after she graduated from college. Despite being appointed less than a month before the Rwandan tournament, Wakama succeeded in creating history with her brilliant work. Under her leadership, Nigeria’s National Female Basketball Team, D’Tigress, became the second team to win the women’s Afrobasket championship four times after Senegal won four consecutive titles.
Speaking with Nigerian Basketball Federation media on the upcoming Olympics, Wakama shared, “Things have been going well in the camp over the last few days. We’ve had excellent practice sessions, and the girls are in great spirits. The girls are responding well to training and improving daily. That’s what matters.”
Lacena Golding-Clarke
Tobi Amusan and Coach Lacena via SportsMax
Three-time Jamaican Olympian Lacena Golding-Clarke was an assistant coach at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), directing sprints and hurdle events. She also received the Mountain Region Coach of the Year award thrice. She was a professional athlete for ten years, the Commonwealth Games Champion in 2002, and participated in six consecutive World Championships.
Nigerian track and field athlete Tobi Amusan has called Coach Golding-Clarke her ultimate beacon in athletics since 2016. Speaking about Lacena’s impact on her life and career, Amusan said, “She is not just my coach; she is my mother. She is the one that I can run to at the slightest inconvenience. She has kept me grounded from college up till now.”
Maureen Madu
Maureen Madu via Premium Times Nigeria
Maureen Madu is the assistant coach for Nigeria’s female national team, the Super Falcons, and a former international footballer who played midfielder. She has made over 100 appearances for the Nigeria women’s national football team, including four FIFA World Cups. She also competed in the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics.
Madu has been influential in Nigerian women’s football, advocating for equal opportunities on and off the pitch. Dismissing the debate on the inclusion of more home-based players in the Super Falcons squad for the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics, Madu emphasised, “Whether home-based players or professionals, Nigeria is for everybody.”
She stated that
“…the national team should consist of the finest and fittest players, irrespective of their playing base, that Nigeria belongs to everyone, and we need to field our best players to stand a chance.”
The underrepresentation of female coaches and referees in sports tournaments
When analysing the reasons for the underrepresentation of female referees in the sporting community, it is crucial to highlight the barriers preventing women from entering the profession. These obstacles negatively impact the recruitment of women within officiating and urgently need to be addressed if equal representation is ever attained within the profession.
In 2006, an amateur football coach named Mike Newell criticised a female referee and the Football Association by saying, “She should not be here. I know that sounds sexist, but I am sexist. If you start bringing in women, you have big problems”. Sexist attitudes at the professional level are still prevalent amongst people in positions of power at FIFA. The Senior Vice President of the association openly made sexist remarks, stating, “A woman’s place is in the kitchen and not on a football field.”
According to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), only 13% of coaches at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were women, compared to the percentage of female athletes (48%). Using Nigeria as a case study, the coach representation statistics of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) in 2022 reveal that:
- The African Senior Championships in Mauritius and the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, USA, had four male coaches and no female.
- The World U20 Championships in Colombia had three male and one female coach.
- The Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom, had one female among the five coaches.
- The biggest of them, the World Championships, had no female coaches.
These statistics upset Ojokolo-Akpeki, a female coach not invited to the 2020 Olympics, though her athlete, Itsekiri, was one of the sprinters representing Nigeria. She said, “The number one reason many female coaches are not encouraged to stick with this career is the lack of support, and what I mean by support is about the Federation having your back.”
The only woman to have served as AFN’s Head Coach, Amelia Edet, agreed that female coaches must be given adequate opportunity to prove themselves. “There are female coaches that work with the states and are hardworking,” she stated. “After all, the Federation does not have athletes. All the athletes selected to represent the country come from the states and have coaches who discovered and nurtured them to the level they are. The Federation invites some female coaches to camp but drops them when it’s time to travel.”
In a press release to commemorate the 2023 International Women’s Day, World Athletics reaffirmed their commitment to providing more opportunities to empower girls and women worldwide via their #WeGrowAthletics campaign.
Part of the statement reads, “World Athletics pledges to increase the number of female coaches at our World Championships to at least 20% by the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 2025 by encouraging Member Federations to send more female coaches and providing the learning pathway in countries where women are underrepresented at the coaching level.”
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe commented on the initiative:
“Gender equality should no longer be a theoretical discussion in any organisation. We should all act by identifying barriers, reviewing our policies and practices, and creating clear pathways for women to rise, contribute, and participate at all levels.”
Emilia Oyase (Springs and Jump coach) stated that these provisions made by World Athletics have proven to be the saving grace of female athletic coaches in Nigeria. In her words,
“A lot of the time, our Federation acts like they do not trust us or even see the efforts we make, as though only the male coaches are knowledgeable. This is a very tedious job. If not for the fact that World Athletics has a charter that gives us female coaches a quota, we will not be considered for anything.”
Female coaches and referees have been known to bring a unique perspective and diversity to sports tournaments, enriching the overall experience for athletes and spectators. By including more women in these roles, tournaments can benefit from a broader range of viewpoints, leadership styles, and approaches to the game.
This inclusivity fosters a more balanced and equitable environment and sets a positive example for future generations, encouraging more women to pursue sports management and officiating careers. Ultimately, more excellent representation of female coaches and referees in sports tournaments helps to create a more inclusive, dynamic, and inspiring sporting culture for all involved.
