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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