Nigeria can host Commonwealth Games — Sports minister

The Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan Enoh has said Nigeria has the infrastructure and the facilities to host the Commonwealth Games soon.

Sporting Tribune recalls that Enoh, at the just concluded All African Games (AAG) in Ghana during a consultative meeting convened by the President of the Commonwealth Federation, Chris Jenkins, advocated for the need for an African country to host the Commonwealth Games and expressed sadness over the continent’s absence as hosts since the inception of the Games.

The minister, who was briefing the media on Tuesday at the media centre of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, spoke on the outing of Team Nigeria in Ghana saying since the inception of the present administration and with him in charge of sports administration, sports in the country has experienced and witnessed a new lease of life with the full backing and support of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who has shown great interest in the development of Nigerian sports.

According to the minister, the President has demonstrated uncommon passion for the growth of sports through the creation of a full-fledged Ministry of Sports Development and which has put aside some obstacles which has bedevilled Nigerian sports in the recent past.

“We have the infrastructure and the facilities to host the Commonwealth Games. Infrastructure will never be our problem to host the Games. We hosted the All African Games (AAG) in 2003 and also the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Based on this, I believe with the Commonwealth Games some six years away, Nigeria can host the Games because we have the facilities,” the minister said.

He said though Nigeria did very well in Ghana coming second to Egypt on the medal table, he added that Nigeria is set to work and take a critical look at the sports where Egypt has maintained dominance with the aim to upstage Egypt’s dominance in the nearest future. He said the Ministry is keen on transparency and accountability as far as the welfare of the athletes are concerned. He added that no athletes will be shortchanged and every athlete will get what is due to him or her at the right time.

He, however, revealed that the successes recorded by Team Nigeria during competitions was the setting up of a Ministerial Podium Performance Team headed by Professor Ken Anugwuje of the High-Performance Centre, Port Harcourt which was to handle training load management that left athletes in peak form.

“Nigeria’s heroics and achievements at the Games would not have been possible without the full support of our sport-loving President, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who spared no effort to ensure that our athletes were adequately funded in spite of the paucity of funds and competing national priorities.

“Worthy of mention, also, is the fact that under the Renewed Hope Agenda of the current administration, the accountability and transparency threshold in governance has improved significantly, ushering in, a new era of financial prudence in the management and dispensation of the resources of government.

“On assumption of office, we conducted a situational analysis of the sports sector to better understand the problems and challenges in the sports ecosystem, identifying and aggregating the opportunities by having extensive stakeholders’ engagement meetings. We see sports as a fulcrum to address most of the President’s 8-point agenda; sports for social inclusion, sports for job creation, sports for improved security, sports for reduction of poverty and others.”

President, Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Isaiah Benjamin, earlier in his remarks, commended the minister for Nigeria’s remarkable performances at the AAG.

Sporting Tribune reports that Team Nigeria won 121 medals comprising 47 gold, 33 silver and 41 bronze at the end of the Games. Team Nigeria won the overall best team in athletics with 11 gold, 6 silver and 4 bronze medals. Team Nigeria also emerged as the overall best in boxing with 8 gold medals and two silver.

While Chinecherem Prosper Nnamdi set a new world record in the javelin event at the Games with a throw of 82.80 metres defeating the previous world champion in the process, Omolara Ogunmakinju put up an impressive performance in the 4×4 mixed relay by outrunning her opponent in the final leg of the event to win a gold medal for Nigeria.