Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports Solomon Dalung on Monday insisted that there would be no place for government nominees in the forthcoming elections of the national sports federations even as he assured all sports’ stakeholders that a level playing ground will be put in place.
According to a release signed by Nneka Ikem-Anibeze, the Special Assistant to the Minister on media, Dalung gave the assurance while defending the 2017 Budget Proposal held at the National Assembly in Abuja.
“The ministry will be neutral in the forthcoming federations’ election and there will be no federal government nominees. We insist that those with the interest of driving sports without total dependence on government’s funds should go and contest.
“We want to build strong and robust federations and reinvigorate them for better performance. That informed our basis for taking steps to reorganize the federations so that they can be more effective. We admit that we’ve had challenges with the federations over funding.
“Unless discipline is restored in the Federations including prudence and effective management of resources, we will continue to have problems. Government alone is unable to fund sports so we need them to augment whatever they’ll receive from the ministry by raising sponsorship and partnerships with the private sector. If there is no credibility in the federations then the private sector will not invest. That is one of the problems of the federations’ administration.”
Barrister Dalung also stated the need to restore confidence in the forthcoming elections starting with an all inclusive election.