11 February 2005
Lagos — Alhaji Abdulkarim Amu, Chairman, Technical Committee of the Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN) has called on Federal, State and Local Governments in the country to dedicate a per cent of their revenues to sports development.
Amu, who was speaking during the presentation of cash awards by Dan Ngerem president of AFN to athletes that represented the country at the Athens Olympics in Lagos last Tuesday added that the country should invest in the youths through sports.
According to Amu since no state in the country received less than N1.2b monthly, just as no local government got less than N500m for the same period, they should be able to devote just a per centage of the amount toward development of the youths through sports.
Amu, urged the three tiers of governments in the country to endeavour to do something for the youth to enable them train adequately for international competitions in a bid to win more laurels for the country,.
He said he was delighted to have had Nigeria in the final of all four relay events at the Games.
"The performance of our relay teams at the Athens Games were fantastic as the time differences between the gold medalists and the bronze medalists were close.
"They were in camp for just three months and they matched the world. If they had been out for 10 months, they would have surpassed the world mark," he noted.
Dan Ngerem, then, lamented that athletics was not being accorded its pride of place in the country.
"Although the countdown to the Athens Olympics, I kept pleading with government to give Deji Aliu and Uchenna Emedolu grants of 2500 dollars each to enable them meet their immediate training needs and nobody gave it any serious consideration," he pointed out.
Ngerem added that the board developed a 10-year development plan, designed to take the athletics to 2014, when the country hoped to win the bid to host the Commonhealth Games.
"We have also synthesized a Youth Development Initiative under which sponsors would be able to give money directly to the athletes.
"These are some of the initiatives the present AFN Board has introduced for those coming after us to look into," he added.
About N1,539,999.00 was disbursed to 25 athletes and six officials by the AFN President, in fulfillment of a pledge made to the athletes that represented the country at the Athens Games.
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