In what seem like a force of attack on the Ministry of Youths and Sports, Solomon Dalung, major Sports Administrators in Nigeria, have blamed the Sports Ministry, for failure of sports in Nigeria, especially the poor outing at the 2016 Olympics.
The Administrators, described the Minister in charge of Youths and Sports, as incompetent, and corrupt, when he met with members of the House of Representatives, on Tuesday.
Recall, that the Minister of Youths and Sports, earlier slammed the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, for not involving the Ministry in its financial needs, especially in payments of allowances and salaries to the different female National Teams, which includes players and officials.
Speaking at the public hearing by the Honourable Goni Lawal-led House Committee on Sports, President of the Nigerian Basketball Federation, NBBF, Tijani Umar, said the poor preparations for major sporting competitions culminated in Nigerian athletes being, “the most ill-treated contingent to the Rio Olympics, in terms of welfare”.
Umar, who could not hide his frustrations with officials of the Sports Ministry, said they intentionally refused to support basketball technically, and financially, which has forced the federation to be indebted to hotels, and airlines, to the tune of N11 million.
Olympic Gold Medalist and President of the Nigerian Wrestling Federation, Daniel Igali, who lamented that there “was too much greed” in the Sports Ministry, recounted that the shabby treatment of athletes since his active days, was what pushed him to dump Nigeria for Canada, with many more like him being pushed to take the plunge.
Igali, who told the Committee that he was yet to be refunded the N3.5 million he used to buy a mat for wrestlers to train, warned that Nigerian athletes are treated like servants of the Ministry, even as Presidents of federations are expected to beg for what is due them.
“There is a lot of greed, too much greed in the system. If we don’t rectify a lot of things in our sports infrastructure and system, then we are doomed,” he stated.
Another aggrieved Administrator, the President of the Handball Federation, Yusuf Dauda, called for far reaching interventions from the National Assembly, and the Federal Government, saying there has been too much talk, and no action.
“I cannot thank you members of this Committee for today’s meeting, because we spoke about these issues being raised here during the defence for the 2016 budget. The Permanent-Secretary of the Ministry, is now called, ‘no money’.“If all the Ministry can keep telling federations is, ‘no money’, then let’s scrap the Ministry, and bring back the National Sports Commission, which is better and professionally prepared to run sports,” Dauda said.
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