Solomon Dalung
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung in a
latest statement, has infuriated Nigerian sports lovers after claiming
that athletes don’t need too much preparation to excel in competitions.
The man's statement is coming while Nigerians are still trying to
cool their anger over the poor preparation the Team Nigeria athletes had
which resulted in their woeful outing at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games in
Brazil last month.
Speaking yesterday on Brila FM radio monitored in Lagos in the wake
of the sterling performance posted so far by Team Nigeria athletes at
the on-going Paralympic Games also in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Dalung
said the Paralympic athletes also had bad preparations like their able
bodied athletes but are doing better in Brazil.
According to Dalung, “the disabled athletes have shown that all
you need is a winning mentality and not too much preparation, they
train-ed under the same condition with their able bodied counterparts
but they are winning medals now.”
However, Commonwealth champion, Odunayo Adekuruoye also speaking on
the same programme countered the minister, saying that there is no way
an athlete who trained for a month or two could do well or think of
winning a medal as she apologised to her fans for failing them at the
Olympics.
“It is not possible to win a medal with one or two months
training. We had looked forward to good training and hoped to do well at
the Olympics. I want to apologise to Nigerians who had looked up to me
for a medal,” she said.
The publicity-seeking sports minister who had kept sealed lips
following the poor outing at the Rio Olympics jerked back to his usual
self ostensibly because of the performance of the Paralympic athletes
who have garnered a total of nine medals consisting six gold, two silver
and one bronze.
The Minister's statement has angered many Nigerians with many insisting he should be sacked immediately.
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