Minister of Youths and Sports, Mr. Solomon Dalung, has blamed the
Federal Government for the late arrival of sports kits meant for Team
Nigeria at the just concluded Rio-Olympics in Brazil.
Dalung, who spoke to journalists, yesterday in Yola, said the funds
that were approved for the Rio Olympics was released four days to the
departure of the athletes to Brazil.
“Late release of funds was responsible for the late arrival of the
sports kits meant for the athletes, we could not pay our contractors on
time and when we finally paid, it took customs in Brazil 10 days to
clear the kits,” he stated.The minister, who was in Yola to solicit funds from Governor Mohammed
Umar Bindow, to enable him organise the coming National Youths Games to
be hosted in Calabar, in November, said that the collapsed of sports in
primary and secondary schools in the country has affected the growth of
sports in Nigeria.
“The only way to reduce unemployment, control crises in the country
and build our national teams is to revive sports at the primary and
secondary schools in the country. This will help not only in controlling
crimes activities, but it will generate jobs for the youths,” he
maintained.
Dalung, who blamed media over poor rating of the performances of
athletes in Rio, said that Team Nigeria made the country proud by
creating a record of being the first African player to appear in the
quarterfinals of table tennis event and in addition, winning a bronze in
the football contest. He said, “You journalists are not fair to Team
Nigeria, our athletes put an impressive performances during the Games in
Rio, but the media painted the picture as if Team Nigeria was the worse
team in Brazil.”
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