By Goodluck Ikiebe
The Federal Government
has received the report of the Independent Committee set up to review the complaints about the Medal Table at the recently concluded 21st National Sports Festival, tagged ‘Delta 2022’, after an initial review was done.
The Honourable Minister of Sports and Youth Development, Mr Sunday Dare, who received the report in Abuja on Friday stated that the Committee was set up to among others, determine the shortfalls in the computation of the Medal table as well as establish the exact and correct result with a view to putting an end to the complaints surrounding it.
Dare, who expressed dismay over the level of insinuations and allegations going round attacking the Ministry, its staff and the integrity of the Festival, noted that “there is no system anywhere in the world that is perfect, when issues are raised, the system should be allowed to respond to it accordingly”
He explained that the National Sports Festival is borne by the Ministry and as such, if something is wrong with it, the Ministry should be allowed to fix it.
“No one can run the Ministry for us, NSF is borne by the Sports Ministry, if something is wrong with it, we will fix it, we will not be blackmailed into doing it”, Dare added.
The Minister restated that ensuring the successful organisation of the biennial National Sports Festival is part of the Ministry’s mandate, thus, it is fully committed to ensuring that every challenge that will work against the goal is tackled headlong.
Dare described the NSF as the Nigerian Olympics and called on those culpable to desist from such acts as the Ministry will take all the administrative steps necessary to ensure that the Festival maintains its credibility, both at the local and international levels.
While appreciating the Committee for bringing its technical knowhow to bear towards the realization of the mandate, the Minister stated that the Ministry will ensure that the anomalies surrounding the Medal table is fixed accurately, based on the Committee’s recommendation and released to the public as the final result.
“We will fix the Medal Table based on the report submitted and release it to the public accordingly”, he assured.
In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Ismaila Abubakar, stated that the Ministry set up the Independent Committee, made up of experts, who had managed the Technical arm of previous Festivals to submit a comprehensive report that will assist the Ministry in addressing the various complaints raised at the end of the competition.
He added that the Ministry will ensure the implementation of the Committee’s recommendation, not only to guide against future occurrence but to continue to build the confidence of the nation’s teeming youths in Sports.
Also speaking, the Chairman of the Committee, Brig. Gen. Emmanuel Okaro (Rtd), thanked the Management of the Ministry as well as President Muhammadu Buhari in particular for finding them worthy to serve in the capacity.
Delta State, which hosted the sports festival emerged top on the medals table.
