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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