Photo: Sun News Publishing
By: ROMANUS UGWU, Abuja
Date: Wed, 07/18/2012 - 23:06
Minister of Sports and Chairman National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, has promised to reduce the attraction and over concentration on football at the expense of other sports. The honourable minister made the disclosure while speaking about the dramatic qualification of the Nigeria national basketball team, D’Tigers during a handing-over ceremony of nets and balls to Secondary Schools in the FCT by the Nigeria Volleyball Federation (NVBF), expressed joy that Nigerian are now stay await to watch basketball.
According to him: “We will continue to make reference to the achievement of our basketball team, D’Tigers for qualifying for the Olympic events for the first time in the history of this country. We at the Commission take special pride in that. Not because we are going to play basketball in the Olympics, but also because we recognise that it would be a revolution for sports in Nigeria.
“We now saw Nigeria staying awake to watch Nigerian team play basketball. If basketball can be elevated to that level, then every other could also be elevated. So, we will no longer be seen as a football country alone. There would be reduction in the attraction about football. It will now grow alongside other sports to give Nigeria great representation in world tournaments,” he noted.
X-raying his input in the Nigerian sports, the minister said: “The ultimate thing is not whether I’m a lucky minister or whether I have a magic wand. The good thing is the willingness of everybody to work together. We have good intension and we are willing to work with everybody. Most of the thing causing the problem is not technical but basically issues of human relationship.
“I was told that this is the first time we are going to the Olympics without issues between the Commission and the Nigeria Olympic Committee. We have been able to manage the situation to ensure that everybody is on the same page. We know that at the end of the day, the only person that matters is the person who is in charge, which is President Goodluck Jonathan,” he said.
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