|
|
Nigeria: Lawmakers Declare NSC Illegal - Want Minister, Adamu to Resign Over Olympics
 |
 |
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Vanguard (Lagos)
14 May 2008
Posted to the web 14 May 2008
Tordue Salem
Abuja
Just three months to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Members of the House of Representatives have adviced the Minister of Sports, Abdurahman Hassan Gimba and the Director- General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Dr. Amos Adamu to resign their appointments for late and poor preparation of athletes for the upcoming Games.
Rep. Igo Aguma (Rivers PDP), and other Members of the Bello Suleiman-led Committee took turns yesterday to blast Gimba and Adamu, while they declared the National Sports Commission illegal.
According to the Committee, "The National Sports Commission as it stands today is illegal, because we did not make any law to establish it. And it is obvious that the Hon. Minister of Sports has not come to terms with the illegality which he is presiding over.
"If he had come to terms with it, he would come to the National Assembly to solidify or legalise it. When we were working on the National Sports Commission Bill brought to us by the Executive, we kept on receiving signals from the Minister that they wanted us to withdraw the Bill and present a fresh one. And that would be prolonging illegality.
"There is no Organogram in that Ministry of Sports, everything is based on ad hoc. From the Olympic document they have given us here, it shows (the Ministry) is bound to fail. For Example there was no budget or item that came to us on Under 17 National Team.
"So the Minister and his DG, National Sports Commission should go back and prioritise what they want, because we in the Committee took pains to ensure that the vote for Capital projects in the 2008 budget for the Ministry, was moved to recurrent, to ensure that the allowances of athletes participating in the games are taken care of, and yet there is nothing to show for it.
"So in terms of preparation, I make bold to say that the ministry has failed. You should be honourable to say that you have failed to perform and say we hereby resign. This is what this Committee expects to hear."
The Chairman of the Committee in a strongly worded statement at the beginning of the Committee's interaction with the Ministry and its Sports Commission, said "No less a personality than the President is expecting the Country to return from the Olympics with not less than 8 gold medals, and we do not expect excuses from the Sports Ministry."
He added that the Committee on its own side had done the best it could to make sure preparations for the Olympics were adequately done.
The Minister of Sports, Mr. Gimba in his submission, told the Committee that his ministry was yet to access the N1.7billion meant for the Olympic games coming up in August.
He however assured the Committee that the Ministry would do its best to make sure the athletes returned home after the Olympics with at least 8 gold medals, but his efforts to persuade the House on why the Ministry was late in preparing the athletes were strongly rebuffed.
Director General of NSC, Dr. Adamu in his response buttressed that "It is important to note that in participating in Olympics, adequate arrangements and preparations must be made. It takes quite a long time to participate in Olympic Games, it takes about a minimum of 3 years to prepare.
We are not even talking about the problems, the processes leading to the production of these products (athletes)", adding that "there is no way you can produce a good product, if you were not adequately funded".
On the issue of whether athletes were owed allowances, Adamu told the Committee that most of the athletes' complaints bothered on the disparity in the allowances paid different countries participating at the Games.
He said though in some cases some of the athletes were paid as high as US$100 per day on the camp ground, they (athletes) demanded for more depending on what their counterparts in other countries were receiving.
|
For now, there's no budget for the Olympics and that has stalled Nigeria's preparations. The lawmakers see this as a failure on the side of the ministry.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
