By Uzor Odigbo
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr. Sunday Dare, met Thursday with the Ministerial Advisory Committee and Presidents of Sports Federations representing Nigeria at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics games.
The meeting which was held at the media centre of the National Stadium in Abuja, was aimed at preventing a repeat of the last two outings international games among which was the London Olympics in which no medal was recorded.
Setting the agenda for the meeting, the Minister stressed the need for the Ministry and the Federations to maintain a common ground in order for Nigerian athletes to give Nigeria a worthy representation at the Olympics games.
“It is important we meet and have a time frame. We need to be on the same page to prepare for the Olympics. We are going to create a feedback system beyond this meeting and we are going to have a similar meeting down the road to ensure a smooth run at the Olympics.
The Minister then took briefs from the Secretary of the Ministerial Advisory Committee, the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC), and the Paralympic Committee of Nigeria.
Lists of athletes who have qualified for the competition and those that are yet to qualify were made known.
Other items that were deliberated upon are; the budget allocation and accreditation processes for the games. The Minister also briefed the attendees on the stages of mobilization of funds and sponsorship for the event.
It would be recalled that at the last Olympics, only one bronze medal was recorded in football and none from athletics. This the Minister said has necessitated a timely meeting of Federations and continuous feedback to put plans in place for a better outing at the Tokyo Olympics.
