President goodluck Jonathan spent almost the whole day yesterday at the Presidential Retreat that generally concluded that the fortunes of sports in Nigeria are dwindling because of sports virtually don't exist again in schools, poor and inadequate facilities and infrastructure, poor funding, poor coaching, lack of competitions and poor sports administration.
Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo Iweala while speaking on funding said that it was a pleasant surprise to her that bad sports administration was voted as the major problem in Nigerian sports.
(http://vml1.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/jonathan5.jpg?9d7bd4) (http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/09/nigerias-unity-is-non-negotiable-jonathan/jonathan5/)President Goodluck Jonathan She said she thought it was poor funding and was almost getting edgy about it until the participants at the retreat voted poor sports management.
Interestingly sports minister Bolaji Abdullahi in his overview of Nigerian sports said there was an emerging new direction and that Nigerians should change from the animosities of the past.
President Jonathan appreciated the contributions from the participants and promised "we will begin to make significant changes in sports."
There was an ovation when he appreciated the points made on school sports and said that "we need to review the creteria for the establishment of primary and secondary schools in Nigeria so that the situation somebody sets up a school in a tight place without play grounds will be a thing of the past."
He also said that emphasis should be on sports development and not only in winning medals in various competitions. President Jonthan spoke eloquently on the need to make sports an industry that will also create jobs.
He said all state governors will pull resources together to give sports new direction in sports.
Earlier in his welcome address he asked the states to set a target of each of them producing an athlete that win medals in the Onlympics and hoped that Nigeria could win five gold medals at the Rio Games
Vanguard Nigeria