By Uzor Odigbo
Chairman of Gombe State Athletics Association, Hon. Ahmed Shuaibu Gara-Gombe has called for proper Accountability by Team Nigeria for N12 billion spent at the just concluded Paris Olympics Games in Paris.
Gombe said this in response to a question on Channels Television why Team Nigeria failed to get a medal at the Games.
The Sports entrepreneur said the N12 billion voted for the Games by President Bola Tinubu government must be accounted for following the zero-medal outing.
“There must be accountability, the sports Ministry has been a corrupted place as government money is regarded as free funds,” he said.
Gombe added: “That is the reason privately owned companies find it difficult to do business with the Sports Ministry and its agencies.
“The business community wants transparency, accountability and openness in dealing with sports Federations and since these requirements are strange to Nigeria sports officials, they pulled out.”
The Chairman of Gombe State Athletics Association noted that to correct and bring sanity to the sports sector, Nigeria should embrace grassroots sports at the local government level and fund it very well.
“Not all sport requires one year to prepare and develop, for the Minister saying he barely spent one year in office which was inadequate for proper Olympics preparation is a fallacy.
“Minister John Enoh had all the time to get all advice from experts in and outside sports, but chose his unprofessional aides to advise him, a development that resulted in the Paris Olympic Disaster,” Gombe said.
He said the only successful outing in Paris was the performance of D’Tigress. He attributed the stride to the fact that the players and Coach of are from the diaspora and they provided and trained themselves, which was why they performed well at the Olympics.