Nigeria Sport Is In A State of Jeopardy

Sports in Nigeria is in a state of jeopardy, following the recent comment made by the Minister of Sports Barrister Solomon Dalung, about the paralympic team in Rio de Janeiro in which he stated that "Athletes don't need training to win medals". The Minister's comment clearly shows that he has no plans for sports development in Nigeria, and also a clear indication that he lacks the technical know-how to manage the Ministry called Sports. Solomon Dalung who has no pedigree as far as Sports is concerned, had made series of comments in the past during the preparations for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics. His comments were no doubt aimed at killing and frustrating the winning mentality of the athletes, and further alienating the Olympic football team, which eventually won Nigeria's only medal at the Games. Experts have over time stated that for a team to be successful, there has to be at least a four-year plan that would give room for training, re-training, exposure, provision and use of modern equipment and employment of appropriate backroom staff that would help athletes actualize their goals. Unfortunately, this seems not to be in the plan of a man who is seated in a position where such necessary decisions are to be made, as he is myopic and views it differently. It will be recalled, that the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics happens to be the first time in Nigeria history, where the match past costume arrived two days to the end of the Games, and the first time that our football team will arrive six hours to their first match a record which is only associated to Dalung's regime. Obviously, there would be no four-year plan for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, following the comment made by the Minister who strongly feels that two or three months is enough to enable an Olympic team achieve success during the games.