In a desperate attempt to cover up fresh corruption
allegation, the Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, has
issued out a statement.
The Minister, declared that the Sports Ministry,
neither misappropriated nor misapplied budgets
approved by the Federal Government for Nigerian
sports, as it was reported in the media.
Recall, that a report had recently exposed how the
Sports Ministry is riddled with corruption, under the
watchful eyes of Dalung.
Reacting to the allegation, the Sports Minister, said
the report was false and only a calculated attempt
by the writer to discredit him as the Minister of
Sports, after working so hard to positively change
the fortunes of the country’s sports.
“I wonder where the Reporter got the
figures quoted from. Even in the Olympic
year 2016, which was concentrated on, we
did not get up to a Billion. If we have as
much as N18 billion, then there would be a
complete turn around and total funding of
Nigerian sports, better than what it used to
be since independence in 1960. There was
no single truth in that report”, Dalung said.
He added: “During the year under review, we paid
money to athletes before, and during international
competitions, took care of numerous approved
sports programmes with the budget, including some
that we handled on emergency. There were clear
indications on how we spent money.”
Dalung stressed that some of the challenges of
sports in 2016 had to do with funding, sponsorship,
transparency and accountability and he called on all
sports federations to submit their programmes for
2017, within the first week of the year, to allow for
proper planning.
“All federations, including the NFF, should
avail the Ministry of their programmes for
the year, to enable the government to plan
and scrutinize for intervention
appropriately.
“Failing to do so on time, will mean forfeiting
contingent arrangements for those programmes,
and federations should not fall back to blackmail the
government,” Dalung warned.
To buttress the Sport Minister’s position, his Special
Adviser on Media, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, also said
there was no truth in the published report, as her
boss, the Sports Minister, only resumed office 13
months ago and so far, all the monies released to
the Ministry in 2016, is just a little over N4 billion.
“This has been grossly inadequate to do all
the planned programmes of the Sports
Ministry.
“And while the Ministry is ravaged with
dearth of funds, the Honourable Minister
has been improvising and ensuring that
none of the 38 national sports federations
suffers.
“The report also touched on the
nonprovision of funds for various Team
Nigeria sports that participated in the 2016
Olympics, but the reporter failed to tell
Nigerians that the initially delayed funds
were eventually paid to the various
federations, five days before the opening
ceremony of the Rio Olympics, when the N2
billion special presidential intervention fund
was finally released by the Federal
Government.
“The sports sector recorded successes in
2016, which could be improved upon in the
New Year with measures put in place to
ensure transparency in sports.
“In 2016, we recorded achievements in the
Olympics and Paralympic Games. We have
also improved in our football and basketball
rankings by FIFA and FIBA respectively.
“With Federal Government’s timely financial
intervention, the Super Eagles have been
able to start their World Cup campaign on a
very strong footing with two victories
recorded so far after two games.
“We must also thank his Excellency,
President Muhammadu Buhari, for paying
special attention to the Super Eagles and
the Super Falcons, despite the current
economic situation, following the recent
payment of all outstanding allowances and
bonuses.
“We hosted and discovered new talents
from the National Youth Games in Ilorin,
Kwara State, despite paucity of fund, but
these could be improved upon with an
increased budgetary allocation for sports in
2017.”
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