Nigeria: Jonathan Unwilling to Develop Sports

The Moment (London)

Ajibade Olusesan

13 July 2011

FIERY sports commentator, Reverend Moses Iloh has vehemently criticized the appointment of Yusuf Suleiman as the Minister of Sorts and Chairman of the National Sports Commission.

Suleiman, a former Minister of Transport, was on Monday appointed as new sports minister by President Goodluck Jonathan. The sports minister, who is the former chairman of the governing council of National Teachers Institute, Kaduna is believed not to have managed sports before now, a development Iloh considered as worrisome.

Iloh said the appointment of Suleiman abundantly demonstrated the unwillingness of the government to develop sports in Nigeria. The respected clergy maintained that sports remain a very important ministry and until the Federal Government acknowledges and appreciates the peculiarity of the sports sector, it will remain in the doldrums.

“The appointment of this gentleman means that we want to sustain the status quo; our sports are not going to grow if we continue to have this kind of people as minister.

“One thing that Federal Government fails to know is that sports ministry is very important, more important than even the ministry of works. We have to develop our youths through sports and now they are relegating it to the background,” said the former President of the Nigeria Cycling Federation.

He continued: “If they are looking for something to give to a failed politician they quickly push them to sports, that is not good, we need somebody with genuine interest for sports, somebody who knows what to do, somebody with proven records, who have deep knowledge of sports.”

He, however, urged the new minister to prove critics wrong including himself by putting together programme of development.

“I wish the new minister prove somebody like me wrong through his performance. I want him as a matter of urgency asks all the Sports Federations to give him at least a two-year plan for development. What boxing, cycling, football federations and so on want to achieve in the next two years and provide them with funds and all the support they would need,” he said.

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