As President Muhammadu Buhari finally gave portfolio to his ministers, the Nigerian Athletics Masters (NAM) has congratulated Sunday Dare, who was appointed the Minister of Youth and Sports Development.
The President of NAM, Gloria Obajimi, reacting to the new ministerial appointments on Thursday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, said the association was happy with the calibre of knowledgeable and vibrant achievers that were appointed.
Masters athletics is a class of the sport of athletics for veteran athletes in the track and field events, involving road running and cross country running.
“The President, Executive Board Members and Master athletes of NAM, warmly welcome the newly appointed Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare.
“We appreciate President Buhari for giving the ministry a knowledgeable and vibrant achiever in the area of Information Communication Technology (ICT) for him to bring to bear, his wealth of expertise and experience to sport.
“We look forward to a workable partnership and strategy that will attract corporate funding to supplement federal spending on sports.
“The grassroots are the broad-base pool of talents that must be sustained, this can be achievable working with the state governors and encouraging them to fund the sport councils/commission,”Obajimi told NAN.
She called on the new minister for a workable synergy with the Federal Ministry of Education for the benefit of the teeming youths and the country at large.
She also said the association looked forward to the minister on pulling together all the sport federations and NAM to honour their contributions and achievements.
Obajimi said that there should be categorised system of rewards and incentives for all levels of performances and sport.
She called for support for Nigerians who were interested in vying for elective positions in international sport governing bodies.
The new minister is a veteran journalist who worked in diverse aspects of the media, including electronic and print, and spent decades in multimedia journalism, an experience which spanned for over 25 years.
Dare is replacing the former minister, Solomon Dalung who served under Buhari’s first term administration.He was the executive commissioner, Stakeholder Management, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), an appointment he was nominated for in 2016.
Dare was opportune to be selected as a Freedom Forum Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the School of Journalism, New York University (NYU) in 1998. (NAN)
