Dalung Takes Nigerian Sports To 2017 With High Hopes

Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung is aiming high in the New Year and he has called on all stakeholders to believe in the vision of taking Nigerian sports to the greatest height as the country enters the New Year in a couple of hours. 

In his goodwill message for the New Year, Barrister Dalung said much will be happening in Nigerian sports in the year 2017, and for the nation and indeed all stakeholders to benefit immensely from this, all hands must be on deck to ensure that the successes are achieved.

He said: “ln the New Year, we are looking at sports with high hopes. We are hopeful that the potentials in sports will be unbundled for the benefit of the teeming youths we have in Nigeria. All hands must be on deck to achieve this while wishing Nigerians a prosperous New Year.”

While looking back at the events of the outgoing Year 2016, the Honourable Minister said that the Government of Muhammadu Buhari is determined to continue with its current drive to sanitize the sports sector to make it more viable and credible to investors,  warning that accountability and transparency will be taken serious in sports administration in 2017.

According to Dalung, the sports sector recorded successes in 2016 which could be improved upon  in the New Year with measures put in place to ensure transparency in sports.

“In 2016, we recorded achievements in the Olympics and Paralympic Games. We have also improved in our football and basketball rankings by FIFA and FIBA.

“With Federal Government’s timely financial intervention, the Super Eagles have been able to start their World Cup campaign on a very strong footing  with two victories recorded so far after two games. We must also thank his Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari for paying special attention to the Super Eagles and Super Falcons despite the current economic situation following the recent payment of all outstanding allowances and bonuses.

“We hosted and discovered new talents from the recently held National Youth Games in Ilorin, Kwara state despite paucity of funds but these could be improved upon with an increased budgetary allocation for sports in 2017.”

Dalung was not happy with the way the leadership of Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, handled the FIFA grant the country received in the outgoing year, saying that despite the successes recorded by football recently, it is unfortunate that the audit report in which the NFF was indicted by FIFA is trying to dent the image of Nigeria and football in general.

“The policy direction of the Ministry is that we will stop at nothing to preserve the image of Nigeria. Nigerians should also know the determination of government on issues of accountability, especially the FIFA audit report, to unravel all issues surrounding the report and all other monies associated with such practices which could bring the image of the country and Nigeria’s sports to disrepute”

Barrister Dalung said that some of the challenges of sports in 2016 had to do with funding, sponsorship, transparency and accountability and called on all sports federations to submit their programs for 2017 within the first week of the year to allow for proper planning.

“All federations including the NFF should avail the Ministry of their programs for the year to enable the government to plan and  scrutinize for intervention appropriately. Failing to do so on time will mean forfeiting contingent arrangements for those programs and federations should not fall back to blackmail the government.