The Association of Nigerian Women in Sports (NAWIS) has celebrated Nigeria Para Para Athletes for their great performance at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics games.
In a press release by the President of NAWIS, Professor Florence Adeyanju who was also a former President of Nigeria Paralympic Committee, lauded the para powerlifting, Para Athletics and Para Table Tennis team for putting smiles on the faces of Nigerians.
Professor Adeyanju stated that the Para Athletes always come to rescue of the country whenever there are shortage of medals at the Olympic proper.
She said
"Bose Omolayo, Folashade Oluwafemiayo and Latifat Tijani announced to the world that Nigeria is still a power house in the Para Powerlifting event. They always rescue the country whenever all hope are lost after every Olympics".
Professor Adeyanju said NAWIS is proud of their representative, Dr Joy Mayaki who put down her wealth of experience in piloting the affairs of the Federation as Technical Director.
She said, "We are proud of our Representative on the Board of Para Power Lifting Federation Dr Joy Mayaki, what a great way to celebrate your new status".
Nigeria won 3 gold (Bose Omolayo, Folashade Oluwafemiayo and Latifat Tijani), 1 Silver (Loveline Obiji) and 2 bronze medal (Lucy Ejike and Ibrahim Olaitan) all from women.
Meanwhile, Flora Ugunnwa won gold medal in the javelin, Njideaka Iyiazi won bronze medal in the women F57 Shot Put and Lauretta Onye won bronze medal in the shot put
Team Nigeria finished 33rd position on the medals table of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games with a total number of ten medals won which include four gold, 1 silver and five bronze.
Team Nigeria have finished in the 33rd position on the medals table of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games and 4th in Africa.
With a total number of ten medals won which include four gold, a silver and five bronze, Team Nigeria were the 4th best African team behind Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.
Represented by only 22 athletes, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics had one of Team Nigeria's smallest contingents to an international competition and yet her ten medals were just two short of twelve, her record number of medals won at a Paralympic Games.
According to Team Nigeria's Chef de Mission, Mr. Peter Nelson who is also the Director of Planning, Monitoring and Information in the Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports Development, the athletes did Nigeria proud, considering their number.
"It is awesome and quite remarkable what we have achieved at this Paralympic Games," Nelson remarked.
"We want to use this medium to appreciate the Honourable Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Sunday Dare, for his enormous support, in making sure that Team Nigeria recorded huge successes. Our dreams and plans came to reality.
"Also, i want to thank the Permanent Secretary, Mr Nebolisa Anako, for his giant strides too, in making sure that everything went to plan.
"In all, I give glory to God and specially appreciate the athletes, who are the gladiators, not forgetting their coaches and support staff. They all made it possible for the Nigerian anthem to be heard ten good times at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games," the Chef de Mission concluded.
In just over two years in office, Nigeria sports minister Sunday Akin Dare has broken many performance records and is looking more like a man on the pedestrian to more successes.
History will remember him as one man who defied the odds to excel where his predecessors failed.
At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Team Nigeria won 3 Silver and 2 Bronze medals to finish 57th on the overall medals table. Between 2008 and 2016, Nigeria has performed woefully at the games but in 2020, Dare led team Nigeria to two Silver and One Bronze medal to help erase the sad memories of the last 13years.
It is very important to state here, that the outbreak of the Corona Virus Pandemic negatively affected team Nigeria's preparation for the games as most of the sporting Federations couldn't travel out in good time, to commence preparation ahead of the games, however, they athletes and the ministry were able to put behind them these setbacks to make history in Tokyo
Dare and his team were able to motivate the team, morally and financially ahead of the games. That perhaps explains the reason why the 'gallant team Nigeria defied all the odds to excel beyond all expectations.
In less than 6 weeks, the Sports Ministry under the able leadership of Sunday Dare have also gone ahead to silence it's critics with a sterling performance at the Under 20 World championship in Kenya.
Nigeria’s U-20 track and field athletes have made at the biennial World Athletics U20 championships after finishing third on the overall medals table with an unprecedented haul of four gold and three bronze medals.
The highest Nigeria has achieved on the medals table prior to the just-ended event in Kenya, was her seventh-placed finish at the third edition of the championships in 1990 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, where they won two gold, two silver and two bronze medals.
The four gold medals won at the just ended championships in Nairobi, Kenya is the highest Nigeria has won, two more than the country has ever won in any edition of the championships.
Nigeria’s 4x400m mixed relay team began the unprecedented haul with its historic, championships record-setting performance (3:19.70CR) on the opening day of the championships.
To cap it all, Team Nigeria's contingent to the Paralympic games have continued to perform wonders.
With four gold, one silver and three bronze medals, Nigeria maintains 3rd spot in Africa and 32nd on the overall medals table.
These laudable achievements only goes to show that the dedication and passion the Sports Ministry under the leadership of Sunday Dare is putting into achieving success at all levels of sports is gradually yielding dividends. So far, Nigeria has won over 20 medals from 3 global sporting events and have also succeeded in breaking existing records at all levels.
It will be recalled that the sports Ministry under Sunday Dare, set up the Athletes Welfare scheme, which is the first of it's kind in the history of sports administration in Nigeria. This programme is designed to help retired and tired Nigeria athletes with financial grants. That singular move, has further made present Nigerian athletes to have confidence in the ministry and has increased their level of dedication and patriotism to National service.
Beyond that, the ministry also provided scholarship for four young Nigeria athletes to study in the United States of America.
According to Nigeria sports minister Sunday Dare, the intention is to encourage budding talents to add education to sports.
It is also important to state here that the minister have always emphasized on equal attention to youth and sports development. Unlike his predecessors who concentrated more on the sports sector, Dare has done excellently well in the youth ministry. Some of his notable achievements include
1. Training over 100,000 youths in diverse digital skills under the IBM, Google and Microsoft programs.
2. The ministry supported 6,000 youth entrepreneurs and SMES with direct soft loans under the National youth investment fund program.
3. The ministry also offered work internships to over 5,000 youths, under the WEP initiative
4. The sports Ministry under the leadership of Sunday Dare developed and implemented a Private Public Partnership model for sports, under the 'Adopt an Athlete' initiative that has delivered over 4million dollars or close to 2billion naira to sports and youth development. Under this initiative, the ministry was able to secure direct financial support for about 22 Nigerian athletes to support their training for the Olympics and the Under 20 World championship
In the area of infrastructure renovation, the ministry is almost at the final stage of renovation work at the Moshood Abiola international Stadium in Abuja, while work at the National stadium in Lagos is also at a good pace.
Let's not also forget that it is under the leadership of Sunday Dare, that the Daura stadium in Katsina state got total renovation.
In just over two years, Sunday Dare has left tongues wagging as Athletes, officials and key stakeholders who once questioned his choice as sports minister when he was first appointed, are now singing his praises to the heavens, hoping that in four years, he would have taken Nigeria sports to that enviable height we all have always dreamt of.
Youth and Sports Development Minister Sunday Dare and the Special Assistant on Sports to President Buhari, Daniel Amokachi led the rousing welcome for the first batch of Paralympians who returned home from Tokyo, Japan.
The athletes, mainly the power lifters, arrived in Lagos Thursday afternoon aboard an Ethiopian Airline flight to the warm welcome of the Minister, Daniel Amokachi, as well as an appreciable number of journalists and supporters.
At the short reception held at the Muritala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, Sunday Dare and Daniel Amokachi praised the athletes for giving their best and doing the nation proud.
The Sports Minister would also commend them for competing fairly and holding their own against some of the best Paralympians in the world.
Dare said: "You have done us proud. The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is happy with you. Nigerians are happy with you and all we can say now to all of you is 'thank you'.
"It is not just about the colour of medals around your necks. Whether you have a medal round your necks or not. You have demonstrated that you have great abilities inspite of your challenges.
"You should also be happy and proud of yourselves. You broke records, set some new world records, received standing ovations many times and held your own against the best and kept your heads up," Dare concluded.
Lhttps://www.today.ng/news/nigeria/185884/saraki-tasks-mtn-sports-development-nigeria