The minister of sports and chairman of the National Sports Commission, Tammy Danagogo, has assured Nigerian athletes to the 2014 Commonwealth Games of a glorious reception and reward by President Goodluck Jonathan for their achievements in Glasgow.
Speaking with journalists before the closing of the games, Danagogo described Nigeria’s participation as an “excellent experience” and hailed the athletes for their efforts.
“It has been an excellent experience. We entered just about seven sports and we have gotten a respectable haul of medals. We have discovered new talents, especially in Ese Brume, in athletics, and other young persons in other sports like weightlifting and wrestling. Our elite athletes like Blessing Okagbare have also distinguished themselves as world class. We have broken and set new records. Boxing which has not won medals for quite some time has now recovered and won medals in this games. We have seen a number of local athletes that we can work with and rely on to emerge world class, going forward. Nigeria is standing tall in the games and other African countries which have not done so well here have taken pride in us. Apart from the unfortunate weight reduction mistake by the young weightlifter, we have represented our country and Africa well and I am very positive that Mr. President, Goodluck Jonathan, will be well pleased to receive the the athletes with more rewards and honour for all the medalists. We have paid the athletes their allowances and winning bonuses but that is not all. That is only from the point of the sports ministry. It is common knowledge that Mr. President loves sports and has established a tradition of rewarding and honouring athletes that bring glory to Nigeria. Not only for the Commonwealth medalists. As a matter of fact, Mr. President has asked after the handball team and other national teams that won laurels in various major international competitions during the year. So, we are re-submitting a memo to this effect, proposing an event for the president to receive and honour them.”
According to the minister, the performance of Nigerian athletes at the games indicate that the sports transformation agenda as articulated in the development programmes of the ministry is on course.
“The Glasgow Games shows that our sports development programme is working. The road map is to develop our grassroots sports to provide us a steady stream of new athletes and maintain established ones. We also have to develop and constantly improve on our mechanisms and strategies to raise the required funds for the training and welfare of athletes, retraining of coaches and development and maintenance of facilities. Deriving from our experience and the lessons we have learnt in this competition here, we may also be bid to host one of these major events but we will immediately bring this experience to bear in the organisation of the coming National Sports Festival in Calabar.”
ON CHIKA AMALAHA DRUG CASE
Danagogo described the weight reduction drug used incident by Chika Amalaha as an unfortunate mistake borne out of naivity but insists that the matter must be investigated and culprits brought to book.
“The Chika Amalaha issue gives me mixed feelings because I saw her perform at the Africa Youth Games in Botswana. She lifted the same weight and they also tested her and the result was negative. I asked her a few questions and she said she was sixteen and in the first year in the university. So, we resolved at the ministry level that we will sponsor her to Europe to develop her game. It is unfortunate that she dabbled into what she did. She looks innocent but must have made a mistake. I understand that she was slightly overweight two weeks before the games. She admitted to me that she used the drug to shed some weight. She was naive, innocent and apparently ignorant but the coaches and officials did not do the right thing. Thankfully, the sanctioning body did not say anything about punishment. They withdrew the gold medal and suspended her from the games. They saw that she is a minor and may not have set out on her own to do what she did. So, who gave her the drugs? We will investigate further back in Nigeria. The coaching crew and anti-doping officials must be probed. We have an anti-doping unit in the sports ministry and if the coach is saying she is not aware the anti-doping unit should be. It is disappointing and embarrassing that the anti-doping unit didn’t know. We will investigate and mete severe punishment to those who may be involved or who didn’t do their job to serve as a deterrent and for the embarrassment. If we go to competition and we don’t win, so be it, but when we win, it must be fair and clean. We have suffered damages to our national image and we cannot afford further battering of our reputation. If we don’t investigate we will not be doing our country any good.”
ON ALLEGED IMPORTED ATHLETES
On the controversy that trailed the inclusion of Mark Jelks, Edwards Mazavous and other hitherto unknown athletes in the Nigerian contingent, the minister revealed that he has engaged the AFN president, Solomon Ogba, on the issue but pointed out that it is a fifty-fifty call between the explanations of the athletics officials and the claims of the protesters but he did not stop them becsuse he did not want to unduly disrupt the arrangements that were on ground for the games before he came in as minister.
“I have told the leadership of the federations about my preference for local coaches and athletes. They can be trained to match their foreign counterparts and become world beaters. I first met the athletes at the offshore camp and I have engaged the president of the AFN on the suspected foreign athletes and he told me they are Nigerians resident abroad and that the arrangement to bring them had been concluded before I came in as minister in March. I do not react to an issue until I have studied it and known the facts and I did not stop them because I didn’t have the complete facts to stop them, more so, I didn’t want to disrupt their the programmes and plans of the federations. But, what this has shown is that our salvation does not lie in these imports. If these imports were the best, America will not allow them to leave. America has the money to pay them to stay and the environment to keep them. We as a ministry have learnt our lessons. Athletics did well in the games and with other sports, all the athletes who gave us medals are local breeds and those who went from local for foreign exposure. It emphasises the need for us to invest more on our local talents.”
