The year-long preparation of a team of young Nigerians might come unstuck after airline officials last night stopped them from boarding their flight to Panama.
The Nigerian team, made up of five students and two coaches, had qualified to participate in the FIRST Global Challenge (FGC), an annual international robotics competition that brings together teams from over 190 countries to solve global problems using STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics).
The 2025 edition is holding in Panama City, Panama from October 29th to November 1st, 2025.
The team were however prevented from boarding their KLM flight when they arrived at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport Ikeja Sunday night.
The distraught students and their coaches, who were still stuck at the airport in hope the situation is remedied to enable their paritipcation in the competition, are calling on the Federal government to come to their aid.
“We couldn’t find routes that wouldn’t go through a Schengen territory and we couldn’t get the transit visas in time,” one of the coaches, Tirenioluwa Shobande said. “We were denied access to board our flight because of the transit visa issue.”
The five students on the robotics team include: Victor Omogunwa, Chisom Mbah, Chimaobi Edeh,Chukwuemeka Njiofor and Tomiwa Asaolu.
Their two coaches are Tirenioluwa Shobande and Olayinka Ibikunle.
The students were selected from different schools through an interview and tryout process, and then trained by the coaches in the basics of robot building.
“The team has met every Saturday, 9am to 5pm, since the beginning of the year, train to prepare for this opportunity. Now the team has a robot ready to represent Nigeria in competition against other teams representing their countries.
“The FIRST Global Challenge is a platform that puts Nigeria on the world stage for innovation and youth development.
Missing this competition would mean a lost opportunity for these brilliant students who have worked tirelessly to represent Nigeria with pride, ” Shobande said.