Sports

Paris 2024: We Want Team Nigeria To Surpass 1996 record-House Committee On Sports

Published

12 months ago

June 7, 2024

Joel Ajayi

The House Committee on Sports has called on the Nigerian Olympic Committee NoC to step up athletes’ preparations to bring a superlative outing in the forthcoming 2024 Olympics in Paris and surpass the Atlanta 1996 feat.

Speaking on Thursday at the National Assembly complex when the Nigerian Olympics Committee appeared before the committee, the House Committee Chairman Hon. Ekene Adam expressed that the reason for the invitation is to know how prepared and how ready the NOC is regarding the forthcoming 2024 Olympics Paris.

“We invited the NOC to know the level of preparedness for the Olympic Games if there is any challenge they are facing, and how we can help them solve it so that Nigerian athletes will have total focus when competing for medals. We want to do everything possible to make sure that Nigeria records the best performance in France.

“We have identified funding as a major challenge and one of the ways to solve the problem is to sponsor a bill where the budget for preparations of athletes for Olympic Games will be captured each year.

“The funds will then be disbursed to the Sports Federations by the Ministry to ease their tasks when chasing qualification tickets in different international competitions across the world.”

However, the Chairman House Committee on Sports, Hon Ekene Adams along with the members of the Committee proposed that a bill be sponsored where funds will be captured in the annual budget of the Sports Ministry and distributed to different Sports Federations for better preparations of Nigerian athletes.

In his comment, the President of the Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC) Engineer Habu Gummel revealed that the committee is not relenting in its effort to ensure team Nigeria performs well come August in Paris.

According to him, we intend to go to Paris and break the jinx of 1996 with the support of everyone.

However, he identified a lack of funds as a major setback why some of the athletes struggle to compete with others in the international championship.

When the House committee asked the NOC if they have received any funds from the ministry regards Preparation for the Paris 2024 Engr. Gumel replied: “we are yet to receive a dime from the sports ministry”

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Sports

A Triumphant Close to the 22nd National Sports Festival

Published

3 days ago

May 29, 2025

The Gleamer

…As organisers promise another spectacle at closing ceremony on Thursday

Joel Ajayi

After 11 days of a true showcase of sporting competition in multiple Sports by some of the country’s top and even promising athletes, the curtain will finally be drawn on what many have described as one of the best ever organised National Sports festivals, when the closing ceremony is held on Thursday at the MKO Sports Arena in Abeokuta.

Whilst the quality of the Games’ opening ceremony is still getting tongues wagging, the entire sporting family and beyond is now anxiously looking forward to what the closing ceremony will look like.

The last 11 days have showcased Ogun state as a true Sporting hub with potential to even do more, with the quality of the facilities built for the games and the enthusiasm of the people who made the various venues their second home in the last few days.

A big testament to this was the history-making crowd that attended the male football final between Ogun state and Kwara State, which the host won by 4-1.

The MKO stadium was filled to full capacity while the crowd outside watching from the big screen reminds one of how much Sports is truly the soul of our togetherness as a country.

From the Alake Sports centre in Ijeja and the Baptist boys high school, to the Obafemi Awolowo square and the Remo stadium both in Ikenne, to the NYSC orientation camp in Shagamu, and the Ilisan town hall in Ilisan, the festival never lacked spectatorship throughout the games.

The Games actually lived up to the pre-tournament hype as both the National Sports Commission, NSC and the Ogun state Government pulled out every administrative capacity to ensure both athletes, officials and the media have an unforgettable experience.

The Gateway Games 2024 had been full of exciting drama and intrigues amongst the states and athletes which led to different new records being set and some old records being shattered.

The festival has also produced for the country some new exciting young talents especially with the shocking performance of the 38th state, the Invited Junior Athletes ( IJA), where they ended up winning some surprised medals to justify the Commission’s establishment of the initiative.

As the Closing ceremony holds on Thursday, the leadership of the National Sports commission, NSC, expresses its profound gratitude to the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Ogun State Government for making sure millions of Nigerian youths see a renewed brighter future in the country through the National Sports Festival.
The NSC Chairman Mallam Shehu Dilko said ” our overwhelming gratitude goes to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu,GCFR, for his personal commitment to the development of Nigerian Sports by giving us every support financially and otherwise for the success of this festival”.

” And the Ogun state Governor, Dapo Abiodun also deserves a huge praise for the feat we all recorded with these games. I can’t thank him enough and posterity will surely remember him for good “.

The NSC Director General who is also the Chairman of the Main organising committee of the games, Hon Bukola Olopade also extended his gratitude to all the technocrats behind the scene that are responsible for the successful organisation of the games.

” From all the members of the Main organising committee to the various sub committees, to members of the local organising committees and all our technical officials in the various sports to the media and our athletes, every success that everyone is talking about concerning these Games belongs to you all”.

” Yes it was not a perfect festival because we acknowledged we had also some challenges but let me assure everyone that some of the challenges are already being worked upon ahead of the next Games holding in Enugu state next year”, he concluded.

The Closing ceremony is expected to bring together top Government functionaries to captain of industries while there will also be the rich cultural display of the state as Ogun state will officially pass the barton of hosting to Enugu state for the 23rd edition of the Games come September 2026.

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