Minister of Sports Barrister Solomon Dalung
has blasted journalists who write
unconfirmed, unverified and defamatory
stories about him, urging them to desist
from such acts. Dalung, on a Facebook post
titled 'Quote me Right' denied granting an
interview to Brila FM where he was reported
by some media houses to have said Athletes
don't need much training to succeed at the
Olympics and challenged sports writers to
quote him right...
"The last interview I granted was at the flag-
off of the NCC Tennis league at the Abuja
National Stadium. I was asked to compare
the performance of Nigerian athletes at the
just concluded Olympics and the ongoing
Paralympics and I said that the performance
of Nigerian athletes at the Paralympic
Games has established the fact that apart
from the right training there was also need
for the determination to excel.
' He wrote on
his Official Facebook page
'I said that they all trained under the same
conditions like the Olympic athletes. That,
apart from not having adequate
preparations, what then can we attribute to
the performance of the Paralympic athletes
who have done so well at the Games'
'That, if their argument was lack of good
training, the Paralympic athletes went
through the same.
In fact they trained here in
Nigeria and I asked what was the secret?'
This was what I said to the journalists who
were at the stadium for the tennis event" .
According to the Minister, defamatory stories
were capable of bringing people to public
ridicule .
"We need to go back and do a proper X-Ray
of the two circumstances to be able to make
the best of of a bad bargain because the
poor preparation was created due to paucity
of funds, but the Paralympic athletes are
making Nigerians proud here in Rio".
"The current economic recession has a
relationship with the manner public affairs
was managed in the past.
We are not making
any excuses for our inadequacies but we will
definitely place the yearnings and aspirations
of our people dutifully as our priority.
The
absence of strong institutions has been our
national predicament which has affected
negatively, policy sustainability.
We appeal
for more tolerance and your understanding
as we embark on a quick repositioning of
things for the benefit of all"
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