In an apparent departure from past wasteful spendings, President Goodluck Jonathan has banned official delegation to the 2012 Olympics in London.
Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, disclosed this on Wednesday at the end of the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan today.
Bolaji said:
"This is to ensure that we have value for what are doing. Any governor or top government officials outside of the participating teams seen at the London Olympics will certainly not have travelled on federal government ticket.
“What I can assure you for a start is that there is not going to be any official Nigerian delegation to this Olympic. So this is the first time in a long while that I know that you will not have an official Nigerian delegation to the Olympics, a global event like this.
"I want to also add that it is not always the case that there is anything wrong in officials being more than the athletes, for example you have only one boxer, that boxer must have a physiotherapist, a doctor, a coach, and even a psychologist in some cases.
" If you look at the American contingent, it is almost like the contingents of many of the countries put together. What we are doing is that we are taking all reasonable measures to ensure that every single person that is going to the Olympics have a business in the Olympics. Of course Olympics is a public event and if you find a state governor in London, it doesn't mean that we are sponsoring him to be there, so he has the wherewithal to go by himself to go and watch the Olympics.
"But what I can assure you is that there is no official Nigerian delegation to the Olympics and that itself is a major one in ensuring that we have value for what we are doing," the minister concluded.
By the way, Nigeria at the African Athletics Championships recorded impressive results and set three new African records. Courtesy, Abdullahi's briefing of the FEC.
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