The Minister of Sports Development, John Owan Enoh, has urged sports stakeholders on the need for Team Nigeria to do well at the 2024 Olympics/Paralympics and African Games.
The 2024 African Games is slated for Ghana in March, while the 2024 Olympics will be held in Paris in June.
The minister gave the charge on Wednesday in Abuja at a ministerial retreat on athletes’ performance at the upcoming Games.
Mr Enoh said there was a need to address the factors responsible for the poor performance of Nigerian athletes at previous international sports competitions.
He highlighted the need to evaluate strategies pertinent to training schedules, athlete and official codes of conduct, anti-doping education, and the pivotal roles of national Sports federations in ensuring podium success for Team Nigeria.
“I would like to commend my resource persons who have been working assiduously behind the scenes towards Nigeria’s preparation and participation to podium success. I have implicit confidence in the capability of the team to make this retreat meaningful,” he said.
Mr Enoh said the ministry would use the retreat to address performance-hindering issues, such as the lack of identifiable processes to improve the performance of athletes.
Others are lack of professionalism from sports administrators, athletes and athletes’ support personnel, funding and late release of funds.
He said the team of resource persons will function as the “ministerial podium performance monitoring team.” NAN
