By Uzor Odigbo
Ex-athlete Sunday Adeleye has reacted to the barrage of criticisms heaped on Sports Minister Senator John Enoh over Nigeria’s misadventures at the just ended Paris Olympic Games.
The former 400m hurdler said in an interview that the Sports Minister after his appointment in August last year hit the ground running, making sure that the programmes of all Sports Federations l were approved for camping and Olympics proper.
“I have watched and also listened to people say things in the Media and I wondered where they are getting there facts from. People talked about N12 billion approved for the Olympics, but we all know that N12 billion is not $12 billion dollars.
“We must get to a stage where funds for Olympic preparations should be appropriated yearly by the National Assembly so that funds would be available yearly for Olympics preparations.
“The Minister in my opinion should not take the blame for zero medals at the Olympics. Sports Federations Chairmen also made our Olympic failure possible. They select Athletes, groom them for international competitions.The Minister’s role is to make funds available, but when the funds are not available what do they want the Minister to do?”
The former Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) technical director insisted that Sen.John Enoh didn’t inherit any fund when he took over at the Ministry, that he had to bend backwards to ensure that funds were available from the government to anchor Olympics preparations.
“It was not the Minister’s fault that funds were released late for Olympics preparations and he had promised to deal with early release of funds moving forward.”
Adeleye, however said, as a former AFN board member, he has been instrumental in encouraging Federation Chairmen get all they wanted from the Ministry.
The Kogi State born sports consultant is, however, about to launch his pet project, lottery for League1 on Thursday. A venture expected to put funds in the pockets of football fans and Nigerians