Minister of
Youths and Sports, Sunday
Minister of
Youths and Sports, Sunday Akin Dare
“Make a Different” Sport Minister Urges Olympic
Committee
Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Sunday Dare
has urged the Nigerian Olympic Committee (NOC) to ensure management
of resources and do things differently if the Nigerian contingents
to Tokyo 2020 Olympics must make a mark.
The Hon. Minister admitted that though there are funding
challenges, but that he has intervened on early release of fund to
enable federations commence early preparations for the Olympics. He
stated that beyond funding, there is need to come out with workable
plan, and that responsibility will be assigned and monitored.
‘’There will be enforcement of discipline on the athletes and also
the officials entrusted to work with the athletes.
The Minister stated this during a courtesy visit to his
office by the newly elected Exco members of the Nigerian Olympic
Committee in Abuja, recently.
According to the Minister, ‘’most countries going to the
Olympic already have answers; they can correctly predict the number
of medals they are expecting from the Olympic Games, they
make those predictions because they know the level and state of
their preparedness’’. He added that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic is about
consistency, discipline, commitment and national pride on the part
of the athletes and their coaches.
“I am a minimalists, it’s better to go to the Olympic with few
athletes and federations to achieve result than going with many
without achieving result”. He urged Federations to put away
sentiments in the discovery of athletes and adopt the best
practices obtainable around the world.
The Minister noted that the focus on sports development will be
more on grassroot, stressing that the Ministry under his
supervision will make the Athletes Sustainace Fund independent.
The Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr Olusade Adesola
presented the newly elected Exco members of the Nigeria
Olympic Committee to the Honourable Minister even as he
congratulated the new Exco for a successful election. He
enjoined the Exco members to sustain the trajectory and embrace a
well structured programme that will move the nation’s sports
development forward.
Earlier in his remarks, the President of the Nigeria
Olympic Committee and Leader of the delegation of the newly elected
Exco members of the NOC, Engr. Habu Gumel, commended the Honourable
Minister for his proactive steps within few weeks in office to
chart a way forward for the development of Sports in Nigeria.
Gumel assured the Minister that NOC is passionately committed to
the delivery of values to stakeholders, especially in the area of
capacity building to support the National Federation’s
administration and technical structures.
He stated that ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, the NOC,
with the support of the International Olympic Committee and
Association of National Olympic Committee of Africa (ANOCA) secured
international training scholarship for about 23 Nigerian elite
athletes, adding that 14 Nigerian athletes are currently benefiting
from Olympic preparation scholarships ahead of Tokyo 2020 Olympic
Games.
Engr.. Gumel further stated that the NOC is equally
working in synergy with some international partners, who have
provided technical training for 500 Nigerian Coaches in different
Olympic Sport Federation in the last decade, adding that NOC is
equally committed to the training of Sport Administrators and
Managers through the National Sport Administration courses and the
Advance Sports Management programmes.
The NOC President assured the Minister that all hands has
been on deck for the preparations to Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games,
promising that the federations will come out strong in the
subsequent qualifiers.
The meeting had in attendance, Permanent Secretary of the
Ministry, Mr Olusade Adesola, Directors of the Ministry, and NOC
Exco members including African Queen of Track, Chief Mary Onyali
Omagbemi.
Olatunji John
Principal Information Officer
For: Director, Press