By Victor Enyinnaya on July 1, 2016

As countries intensify their preparations to harvest quality medals at this year’s Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil, more scandals have continued to trail the camps of Nigerian athletes.

Investigation that spanned several months revealed the desperate measures the home based athletes have resorted to, in order to realise their dreams at the most prestigious congregation of sports men and women in the world.

A dependable source, who is a chieftain of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) further stressed that the situation is so bad that these athletes have no other alternative than to resort to begging for money to meet up their training schedules for the Rio Games.

According to him, “the situation is so bad that such has never been witnessed before; and I can divulge some information to you if you insist on specific names. Olubunmi (pseudonym) called me for money and he’s not the only one. Many have gone into diverse means to raise money. This is what I know, after all the Sports Minister made it open and clear that there is no money to prepare athletes for the Games,” he explained.

“He’s a foremost and senior athlete but see the level he has fallen to just meet up with his training schedule. These guys are not relenting in their spirited bid to ensure they compete favourably with their counterparts in Rio, Brazil. However, the country is again going the very gloomy and improvised way which we have always done things.”

He further said that he would not be amazed if Nigerian athletes were left out of the Games.

It would be recalled that the sports ministry officials led by the Minister, Solomon Dalung have been arguing over the disbursement of N2.9 billion released by President Muhammadu Buhari for the qualifiers and preparations for the games.

“I am still at a loss why there’s so much quarrel over that money. The Minister ought to have gotten hold of the file by now even though the President approved the money before he came into office. There should be clear records on how the money was spent. But it is unfortunate that the way they are handling that expenditure has so infuriated Buhari that he is not ready to listen to anybody concerning the Olympics. I won’t be astonished if they don’t have the cash to take part in the games ultimately. The Olympics will begin August 5,” he adds.

It would further be recalled that just last week, former sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullah said in a paper at the international conference of  African Sports Management Association in Abuja that, “It is noteworthy that none of these remarkable achievements (Atlanta ’96 etc) were a result of deliberately designed system or template. They were owed more to luck and the rugged determination of individual athletes than any articulate framework of process and outcome. The issues that led to our fantastic failure in Seoul were the same issues that led to our failure in London and almost definitely, Rio later this year.”

•Photo shows Team Nigeria athletics team.

Source Daily Sports

Posted July 1, 2016

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