- Calls for Minister’s Resignation Soars
By Abiola Olawale
In a troubling revelation, Minister of Sports Development John Enoh has disclosed that the Federal Government of Nigeria allocated more than N8 billion towards the support of athletes who partook in the recently concluded 2024 Paris Olympics Games.
The Minister, who spoke with the press on Wednesday, also confirmed that a total of N12 billion was allocated for Team Nigeria’s participation at the 2024 Paris Olympics and the Paralympics, which starts on August 28, 2024.
Enoh also added that the Ministry of Sport got the exact amount they requested.
The Minister clarified that the allocated funds were intended for Team Nigeria’s participation in the Olympics, emphasizing that they were not designated for training and preparations.
According to him, the past administration didn’t provide enough funds for the training of Nigerian athletes, hence the reason for the very poor and unimpressive performance of the country at the just-concluded Paris Olympics.
Challenged with why he has not resigned from his position as would have been the case in other countries, he said: “You know why this clime is different, I need to explain that N12 billion was not only for the Olympics. It was for the Olympics and Paralympics.
“Paralympics starts on August 28 to September 8. So, the N12 billion is not just for the Olympics. For the Olympics, it was 8-point-something billion (over N8 billion), the and for the Paralympics, it was about 3-point-something billion (over N3 billion).
“Imagine what that money was, the N2 billion, four years ago. The Olympics and sporting activities are international matters, and you talk about them in the Dollar equivalent.
“I am not saying that N12 billion is not a huge sum, but I’m also calling attention to the fact that N12 billion in 2024 and N2 billion in 2020, imagine the journey of the Nigerian Naira.
“I’m not going to say it was insufficient because we did a budget which amounted to that and it was provided. I got exactly what I wanted. That is what we budgeted for and we got it.
“But in the last couple of months, even before the Olympics, I have been very vocal in talking about the fact that as a country, what I found us doing in sports is that we fund competitions. We do not fund the training and the preparations for the competitions.”
The minister said he learnt that countries use the first four years for training and preparations for global competitions. However, in his own case, when he became Nigeria’s Minister of Sports Development in August 2023, he “met nothing on the ground about the Olympics. It had to take my initiative to summon the Nigerian Olympics Committee to a meeting to phase out from them what was needed.”
The New Diplomat reports that calls for the resignation of Enoh have begun to emerge from certain quarters in the country as Nigeria failed to register a single medal in the ongoing Paris Olympic Games scheduled to end on Sunday 11 August 2024.
Nigeria sent 88 athletes to compete at the Paris Olympics Games, which was held in France, but none was able to win any medals for the country.
