FG backs 2015 All African Games

In from Nifemi Daniel…

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the release of the funds for the preparation and prosecution of the 2015 All African Games.

The Director General of the National Sports Commission, Alhassan Yakmut, who revealed this on Monday did not however give the figure released for the continental sports event scheduled to take place in Congo Brazzaville from September 4 to 19.

Yakmut however promised to release the approved figure to the public on Tuesday in line with ‘Change Agenda’ which promotes transparency in governance.

“Mr. President has just approved the funds for the All African Games and I understand we shall be formally informed on Tuesday. As soon as we get the information about the exact figure approved from the budget we submitted, we will make it open to the public because we intend to run a very transparent administration.

”And I think by the time we finish computing all what we have done in the last three months, we are going to say how much has been spent on each item of the projects that we have executed including the federations.

“I am sure that you have noticed that the federations are beginning to feel the public funding scheme especially the ones regarding the All African Games,” Yakmut said.

According to him, apart from the 19 sports that Nigeria will participate in, two other sports namely swimming and gymnastics have been placed on standby in case they have athletes that are exceptionally good to represent the country in these sports.

To ensure that athletes have the best preparations, Yakmut said that the federations that have requested for foreign technical support would have them.

Read also: FIBA bans Nigerian players

“We are taking part in 19 events and two other events that are actually on standby. If we have pockets of athletes that are exceptionally good like gymnastic and swimming, we will carry the on their merit.

“Truth is, we are in global technical business and we cannot reduce ourselves to a situation that no matter how bad our coaches are, we must sustain and retain them.

“What we have done is to support the four federations that have requested that they will need technical back-ups from foreign countries.

“So, wrestling has requested for two back-ups either from Europe, the United States or Canada. Table tennis has also requested for technical support from Sweden, China or Japan. Already, South Korea is supporting us on taekwondo and basketball has already recruited transparently.”

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