Tackling the scourge of age falsification among athletes

By : Gowon Akpodonor

Date: 1 January 2026 7:15am WAT

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Gold medallists Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, Nigeria’s Favour Ofili, Nigeria’s Rosemary Chukwuma and Nigeria’s Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha at the Alexander Stadium, in Birmingham (Photo by Glyn KIRK AFP)

Gold medallists Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, Nigeria’s Favour Ofili, Nigeria’s Rosemary Chukwuma and Nigeria’s Nzubechi Grace Nwokocha at the Alexander Stadium, in Birmingham (Photo by Glyn KIRK AFP)

The January 16, 2026, deadline handed to Nigeria by the World Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) to explain the circumstances surrounding multiple dates of birth for 17 Nigerian athletes may have triggered another round of trouble for the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), the second in two years, GOWON AKPODONOR reports

In countries where sport is seen as a serious business, both governments and individuals treat age falsification as a crime due to the significant danger it poses to society.

Age falsification is a practice where athletes, coaches, or individuals within the system alter their ages to gain an unfair advantage, and in the process prevent younger and qualified individuals from career progression and employment opportunities.

Apart from leading to frustration and high youth unemployment rates, competing in lower age brackets or extending eligibility undermines the fairness, credibility and integrity that sports are meant to embody.

The ripples of such dishonesty stretch far, impacting individual athletes, programmes, and the global reputation of competitive athletics.

From a moral standpoint, age falsification erodes trust within the sporting community; it kills the morale of junior athletes, who train tirelessly only to compete against older folks or those who are more developed physically and mentally. This level of deceit not only denies younger athletes the recognition that they deserve but also creates an uneven playing field that violates the spirit of competition.

Beyond emotional consequences, the long-term damage could hinder the development of talented athletes, who may decide to walk away due to unfair competition.

In well-organised sports societies like the United Kingdom and the United States, severe legal penalties await offenders, including imprisonment and fines, as well as career consequences (loss of job, medals, or permanent bans), among others.

Such serious-minded countries see age falsification as fostering a culture of dishonesty and fraud, as other corrupt acts often move in tandem with it, making the system less efficient and effective.

To them, age falsification undermines trust and accountability within institutions, as it signals a corrupt and unfair system. It tarnishes a nation’s international reputation, leading to global ridicule and sanctions from international bodies like FIFA, World Athletics (WA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Conversely, in Nigeria, age falsification seems to have become a practice among certain individuals and organisations, as they see every competition as a “must-win” event to impress their patrons. Yet, there are some Nigerians who view age falsification as a systemic issue, driven by economic and social pressure from “pay masters”, not minding the results, which include breakdown of integrity, fairness, and efficiency at all levels of society.

The Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), for the second time in two years, has become a centre of global attention, following a December 2, 2025, letter from the World Athletics’ Integrity Unit (AIU) that raised concerns about multiple dates of birth for 17 Nigerian athletes, who competed at the 2025 African Combined U-18/U-20 Athletics Championships in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

In June 2024, the AIU queried the AFN following discrepancies in the ages of four Nigerian athletes, who were preparing for the World U-20 Championships in Lima, Peru.

The AIU said then that it “identified discrepancies regarding the date of birth (DOB) for at least four Nigerian athletes,” noting that “each of these athletes has at least two, and sometimes three or more, different DOBs, which have been used to enter competitions at different times.”

The AIU said: “It was not aware of any reason why these athletes appear to have completely different, multiple DOBs. It is also not clear whether the identification documents submitted by the athletes (such as passports) are true or whether they have been forged or falsified.”

The AIU letter on June 7, 2024, addressed to AFN President Tonobok Okowa and former Secretary Rita Moshindi, was signed by the Head of the Athletics Integrity Unit, Brett Clothier. It gave the AFN until Friday, June 21, 2024, to respond to the query.

Then, the AIU demanded that the AFN submit, among other things, the athletes’ current passport, all previous passports, birth certificates, national ID cards, documents submitted in support of passport applications, medical records, including hospitalisation records, dental records, vaccination records as well as education records, including matriculation records, school end-of-term/year reports and school examination results, among others.

In the current query, the AIU revealed shocking discrepancies, as Juliana Ademola Temitope, listed as born in 2005 in earlier competitions, had her date of birth suddenly changed to 2006 at the African Junior Championships.

Adeola Adenji Muideen appeared with a 2004 birthdate in Lagos, but astonishingly became 2009 elsewhere. Esther Aiffigbo competed in 2025 as a 2006-born athlete, yet her World Athletics profile lists 2002 as her year of birth.

Ibrahim Ajibare has no fewer than four different dates of birth, ranging from 2002 to 2009, while Emmanuel Blessing’s DOB was entered as 2007 at the Juniors, but 2002 at the Asaba Trials.

For the AIU, these definitely are not clerical errors, but deliberate manipulations designed to sneak overage athletes into junior competitions. The AIU has made it clear that such practices undermine the honesty standard of athletics and cast doubt on Nigeria’s integrity in global sport.

The demand by AIU is clear: the AFN must produce verifiable documents such as birth certificates, passports, school records, or medical files to prove the athletes’ true ages.

Anything less will trigger a formal investigation into age manipulation, a violation of the World Athletics Technical Rules and the Integrity Code of Conduct.

As it stands, unless the AFN produces credible, contemporaneous documents by the January 16 deadline, the country will face another round of investigations that may tarnish its athletes’ reputations and damage the country’s image.

Instead of answering the AIU’s direct questions on why athletes have conflicting dates of birth, the AFN elected to sit in judgment over itself by setting up a probe panel made up of some of its board members.

To some stakeholders, that is a conflict of interest.

A former President of the AFN, Olamide George, told The Guardian from his base in the United States of America that the issue of age falsification under the present AFN leadership has long been a troubling shadow over the federation’s integrity.

“The AIU’s introduction of stricter sanctions could represent a turning point in addressing this long-standing challenge,” George said. “For every cheat, there must be a penalty.”

The Ondo State-born sports administrator further said: “After thorough investigation by AIU, it could decide to suspend the affected athletes, ban officials implicated in the fraud, and penalise the federation, to deliver justice while signalling a commitment to reform.”

According to him, the AFN needs advanced biometric solutions or data verification systems to pre-empt tampering with documents like birth certificates.

“But the question is, ‘Is the leadership ready to lead? Is it equipped and prepared for leadership?’ What a shame. These measures put the spotlight not just on athletes, but also on the adults or institutions that enable such practices. After all, the root cause often lies in organised manipulation rather than individual decisions.”

George continued: “On the flip side, a key challenge is how to balance the punishment with fairness. Some athletes may find themselves penalised for actions they didn’t directly control, particularly minors whose documents were altered by parents, coaches, or administrators. This raises broader ethical debates.

“How do we ensure that sanctions deter dishonesty without unfairly punishing victims of a corrupt system? Governments and athletics’ governing bodies will need to walk a fine line between accountability and compassion.

Ultimately, these stringent measures are aimed at restoring confidence in the purity of athletic achievements.

Sanctions alone, however, may not be enough. I, therefore, call on the NSC to reform the AFN because the federation needs systemic reform, including better education, transparency, and more pathways for athletes to rise on merit. Only then can sports truly embody values like honesty, dedication, and perseverance; values worth preserving for future generations.”

“The AFN President, Tonobok Okowa, should be the first to stand accused. He failed to act when the issue first emerged, and his poor judgment in appointments has only deepened the rot.”

Even before setting up a probe panel to investigate the latest age falsification saga, the AFN boss, Okowa, had absolved the federation of blame, but fingered athletes and their coaches in the age-cheating scandal. Speaking on a radio programme, Talk Sports, Okowa insisted that athletes and their coaches are responsible for the infractions. He described the behaviour of some athletes and their coaches as “worrisome.”

“This issue has nothing to do with the AFN. Athletes keep attending different competitions with their coaches, who register them with varying dates of birth. You can see somebody with a date of birth that is just about 13 days different. Is that a typographical error or whatever it is?” he asked.

Okowa explained that the federation, which had perfected its database, was shocked to find out that some athletes entered competitions using different dates of birth that differed from those in its database. “That is just what it is. What reason will a coach have to change the date of birth of an athlete? It is getting worrisome,” he said.

But the president of the Athletics Coaches Association of Nigeria, Solomon Aliu, disagrees with Okowa. He said that coaches should be absolved of the blame because they work with athletes given to them. Aliu, who is also AFN’s Head Coach, described the latest age falsification saga as more of a record-keeping problem.

“Anybody who is blaming age falsification by athletes on coaches’ doorsteps is being untruthful,” Aliu said.

“What I know about crime prevention is to make it difficult for the criminal to commit the crime by putting in place preventative measures. If the AFN Secretariat has a functional database with the relevant information about our athletes from their very first competition, i.e., Date of Birth and other relevant data, athletes or their coaches cannot wake up to change the athletes’ DOB without the Secretariat flagging such an athlete.

“Coaches are not the record keepers of the federation, and as such should not be blamed totally for this mess that we are faced with. I am happy that the NSC is taking the issue of age cheating in our sports seriously. I’m also certain that AFN will wake up to its responsibility to investigate properly and bring to book whoever is involved in this disturbing trend. Until that is done, I won’t accept anybody trying to tarnish the image of our hard-working coaches. We deserve to be patted on the back and not subjected to name-calling. Heads must roll, but let the head of the innocent remain on their necks. Let us all work together in cleaning up our sports, not just of age cheats, but also of dope,” Aliu stated.

To a former Secretary of the Delta State Athletics Association, Monday Akpoyibo, the age falsification scandal in the nation’s athletics became more rampant during the tenure of a former AFN president (names withheld).

“It was during his tenure as AFN president that the issue of age falsification became rampant because of his desire to win at all costs,” Akpoyibo told The Guardian.

“In the days of Adeyemi Wilson and Dan Ngerem, they had zero tolerance for age cheats. If the AFN had a good database of its athletes, there would be no age falsification. As far back as the 1973 National Sports Festival, there were three categories of athletes. We had the U-13, Intermediate class and Men/Women class. This system enabled athletes to grow from one class to another as they mature into the Games. So, it was pretty difficult to cheat since the federations had your data,” Akpoyibo stated.

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