Minister for Youth and Sports,
Solomon Dalung, spoke to journalists on critical issues after inspecting
sports facilities in Lagos last week. ’TANA AIYEJINA was there
What’s your impression on the state of the Federal Government’s sports facilities in Lagos?
On assumption of office, there were
complaints about the neglect of sports facilities in Lagos. And I didn’t
consider it as serious as what I have discovered within the few hours I
had gone round right from the Games Village to some of the other
facilities. They are indeed embarrassing. They are embarrassing because
as a young athlete in 1982, I participated in a marathon event in Lagos,
where I won a medal. For me to come to the same place after so many
years and see it like this is a sad story. I think the maintenance
culture of our country has been very poor. We have no good reasons why
the structures are in the state they are. I think there is the need for
us to take a radical decision on what will happen to this structure.
Work was ongoing at the
Games Village in Lagos but was stopped twice for reasons not disclosed.
What is the future of the place, which was once home to some of
Nigeria’s best athletes?
There is a subsisting contract for the
renovation but along the line, there was also an attempt to consider
concessioning it. The idea of concessioning suspended the issue of the
place. I have been briefed by the contractor and the National Sports
Commission Director General. We will take a decision either to adopt
concession or continue with the contract. This would depend on the
information contained in the files, that will determine which one would
be more viable and in the best interest of the country.
The National Stadium
swimming pool has been abandoned for several years. Can you assure
Nigerians that it will be renovated and put to use during your tenure?
The swimming pool is one project that
must be completed between now and the end of the first quarter of this
year. I have told the contractor that the contract must be completed. I
understand the file is on my table for some payment. I have seen the
level of work in the place and I will compare it with the request before
me. I will then make necessary approval to enable him (contractor)
complete the place, so that they can put it to use before the end of the
first quarter.
The main bowl too is in bad
shape with the football pitch and tartan tracks in poor condition. Will
competitive sporting activities take place there again?
The main bowl would be taken (renovated)
alongside the entire facilities in Lagos. I’m going to carefully
examine everything relating to it. These facilities have been neglected
for over 20 years and it’s indeed unfortunate but I think we can still
do better with them. We can restructure them to become modern but let me
review subsisting reports about it before adopting the measures to
renovate the place.
Money has been collected
from motorists at the entrance to the stadium for about four years now.
Have you been told what this money has been used for?
I have frowned at the collection of
money and neglect of the project. There are so much economic activities
going on around the stadium, so many places have been rented and money
is generated. What have we been doing with the money? But from the
briefing I had, the officer in charge said the generated money is paid
into government treasury and the process of getting them to maintain the
facilities follow the same budgetary allocation, which has not been
favourable. Though I am not satisfied, but I need a detailed briefing
because I have more questions to ask on the issue of the areas that are
rented and the revenue generated. We need to look at records and
reconcile whether the records are in agreement with the stories we have
been told.
This is the fourth year,
since the National Sports Festival, a biennial event, was last held. Is
it going to hold this year and is Calabar, the designated host city,
still ready to host the event?
I think I have just been minister in the
last three weeks, so I will not be able to answer why it was suspended
for that period. I think the question should have been for those who
suspended it. I spoke with the Cross River State sports commissioner and
sought to know whether they have lost interest to host the event. He
has given me a date; he will be coming to Abuja to see me on the 12th
(of January) for us to discuss further on their state of preparedness to
host the NSF. He assured me that they have updated most of their
facilities and they are prepared. They have also overcome some of the
challenges that prevented them from hosting it earlier on. So, I think
Calabar will definitely host but when depends on when the council will
meet and approve.
Deaf athletes and wheelchair
basketball players have clamoured for their sports to be included in
the NSF. What are you doing in this regard?
I have received letters from them and I
want to assure them that we will give them the desired attention. I see
no reason why they have not been included. If they have participated and
also won medals, there is no reason why they shouldn’t be included. It
would amount to discrimination. We are going to consider their request
because exclusion is denial of participation, which our constitution
does not support.
Board members of the Nigeria
Taekwondo Federation insisted that they had impeached their president,
George Ashiru, despite an official statement from you saying that the
status quo remains the same…
I’m not a member of the taekwondo
federation, the only status I have there is that they gave me their kit
and each time I want to remember them, I wear it. I indeed do not
subscribe to the internal wrangling in the federation. It’s not only in
taekwondo; there is fighting going on everywhere. But my attitude to
this wrangling is that they are not fighting their leaders; it is me
they are trying to fight. If you visit a man who has been living
peacefully with his wife, and the man gives his wife a slap, he is
telling you that you are not welcome. I think the internal wrangling in
the federation, when I just assumed office, wasn’t fair. They should
have given me time to also listen to their grievances and see how I
address them. But for me to appeal for understanding in all the
federations and people are meeting and writing me that they have removed
their president, all they are telling the world is that they wanted to
use my assumption of office as a platform for them to cause confusion. I
don’t know of any nation going to war and on the eve of battle, you
attack your own battalion. We are going for Olympics this year and
people who love this country would bear anything until we come back
because we must all agree to make the country proud at the Olympics.
Have you received updates from the federations on their preparations for the Olympics?
The last time I received briefing from
the federations, I asked, ‘what is the level of our preparation?’ I was
informed last month that we are 40 per cent prepared. And I said 40 per
cent cannot give us victory, which means we are planning to fail. What I
have decided to do is that this year, especially this month, we want to
mobilise all the federations, to give me updates on their level of
preparations. We have reduced the number of sports to eight, where we
have more potential of winning medals. But there are others who are
still training and hopefully, they will make it. I think the problem
basically is our planning attitude. The Olympics is a four-year event
and we cannot plan seriously on the very day of the event. When I
assumed office last year, I expected that we would be in our final
stages of preparations but I discovered that it was last year that we
started planning for an event less than eight months away. But I think
Nigerians need to co-operate and the federations need to put their
houses in order. Sports is a collective effort of the federations and
the government. But the embarrassment (when Nigeria loses) goes to the
government while the federations have no blame at all but they are the
major actors in any victory. They control and manage the resources. I’m
appealing to the federations to channel their energies from impeachment
into mobilising the athletes for the Olympics. When they come back (from
the Olympics), they can begin to fly impeachment letters from one
federation to the other.
Will athletes who win medals for the country be rewarded by the Federal Government?
The President has approved the reward of
athletes who have made this country proud and haven’t been rewarded.
This includes the 1985 U-17 World Cup-winning team. We have sorted them
out and out of the players and coaching crew, only one person is late.
The President has approved a day, which would be announced in the third
week of this month (January) for the reward of the players and others
who brought glory to us in scrabble, the Paralympics team and the
basketball team.
Some federations took loans to compete in events. Will the sports ministry help these federations pay back such loans?
Government is not the sole financier of
tournaments. All we do is to intervene; we give federations intervention
funds. The federations also have to source for funds too. They have
never given us account of the funds they have sourced for. But they
mount pressure on us to give them the intervention fund; we give them
money and they go and spend. This is the irony of the type of
arrangement we have on the ground. The Federal Government gives a lot of
money to the federations, yet they don’t have a representation there.
They don’t have anybody there and they don’t come back to tell us when
they source for funds from investors. So, we are not taking
responsibility for any debt by any federation. We give them intervention
funds, so if they have gone to borrow money, they can still source for
money from investors to pay back.
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