By Nigeria’s Sport Minister, Solomon Dalung has exonerated the current administration from the embarrassing performance of Team Nigeria at the just concluded Olympics. The country was only able to return home with a broze medal won by an inspired U-23 side despite being owed bonuses and were even left stranded hours to the commencement of the competition.
Explaining what caused the national shame, Solomon Dalung who has been called out by Nigerians over the Olympics explained that the last administration was to be blamed for the country sport woes.
In a recent interview with a national daily, Dalung said N3Billion meant for the High Performance Centre was stolen during the last administration.
He said, “I am aware that up to N3bn was approved for the High Performance Centre long before we came but it is a mystery how that money was used. I just could not understand how such a thing could happen.
“The money was not just to equip the centre but was also meant to cover the salaries of the experts we brought in to work with the athletes but they found a way to spend the money. They wiped everything such that we are now paying the experts from our overheard cost rather than the money actually meant for that. It is as bad as that, I mean what we met on ground. So you can see how long this problem started.
“It could have been a lot much better. So this is why we have to struggle with funding when it should not be.”
He however did not say if the stolen funds was also responsible for the non-payment of coach Siasia’s salaries for the past 5 months.
