The minister gave the explanation when he was confronted with the fact that N2 billion was used to execute the Paris Olympics 2024, while it was confirmed that the Nigerian government whose team returned without a single medal released the sum of N12 billion to the Ministry of Sports Development for the Olympics.
Nigeria’s Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Enoh, has confirmed that the Nigerian government spent over N8 billion to participate in the recently concluded Paris Olympics 2024 where Team Nigeria returned without any medal.
Enoh said this while speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Wednesday night where he added that the ministry of sports development got exactly the amount it budgeted for the competition.
The minister gave the explanation when he was confronted with the fact that N2 billion was used to execute the Paris Olympics 2024, while it was confirmed that the Nigerian government whose team returned without a single medal released the sum of N12 billion to the Ministry of Sports Development for the Olympics.
Challenged with why he has not resigned from his position as would have been the case in other countries, he said, “You know why this clime is different, I need to explain that N12 billion was not only for the Olympics. It was for the Olympics and Paralympics.
“Paralympics starts on August 28 to September 8. So, the N12 billion is not just for the Olympics. For the Olympics, it was 8-point-something billion (over N8 billion), and for Paralympics, it was about 3-point-something billion (over N3 billion).
“Imagine what that money was, the N2 billion, four years ago. The Olympics and sporting activities are international matters, and you talk about them in the Dollar equivalent.
“I am not saying that N12 billion is not a huge sum, but I’m also calling attention to the fact that N12 billion in 2024 and N2 billion in 2020, imagine the journey of the Nigerian Naira.”
Asked if he meant that the over N8 billion was insufficient, he said, “I’m not going to say it was insufficient because we did a budget which amounted to that and it was provided. I got exactly what I wanted. That is what we budgeted for and we got it.
“But in the last couple of months, even before the Olympics, I have been very vocal in talking about the fact that as a country, what I found us doing in sports is that we fund competitions. We do not fund the training and the preparations for the competitions.”
The minister said that he learnt that countries use at least four years for training and preparations of global competitions, meanwhile, he became Nigeria’s Minister of Sports Development in August 2023, and “I met nothing on ground about the Olympics. It had to take my initiative to summon the Nigerian Olympics Committee to a meeting to find out from them,” what was needed.
There have been an outrage following Team Nigeria’s poor performance at the Paris Olympics where the team returned without winning a single medal at the competition.
The Nigerian government described the country’s team performance as “disaster”.
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