Parasports target 40 gold medals at 2020 Olympics
The Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on disability matters, Dr. Samuel Ankeli, has said Nigeria will be working towards winning at least, 40 gold medals at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Speaking at the inauguration of the Nigeria ParaSports Development Fund (NPSDF) in Abuja yesterday, Dr. Ankeli noted that ParaSports athletes had been rescuing the country in the Olympics in recent years with their remarkable outings but will now up their performance in the coming years.
“We are looking for 40 gold medals from ParaSports [in 2020],” he said. “We have been winning medals before but with this new initiative, we will win more.”
Ankeli noted that the initiative was to muster funds to institutionalise both sports and agricultural development in the disability sector in Nigeria.
“This Governance Board shall have three-year tenure, it is not governmental, it’s private. They shall mobilise and drive the developments but report back to the Board of Trustees of the NSDFI and the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“Five leagues shall be set up, funded and ran by League Management Committees as businesses. By the first anniversary of this Fund, I see no less than one million people directly affected and positively too. We shall be one of the biggest prides to this nation as we have demonstrated in the previous Paralympic games,” he said.
Similarly, the chairman Board of Trustees of the Nigeria Sports Development Fund Inc. (NSDFI), Chief (Dr) Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu says its target is to prepare 90 elite athletes that will win a minimum of 10 medals for Team Nigeria during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Iwuanyanwu, who spoke at the inauguration of a nine-man board of the Fund in Abuja, also challenged the Board to create three million jobs and raise about N25 billion this year in order to change the face of the country’s sport sector, particularly para sports.
He said: “We commenced with the have first of the 36 Community Sports Development centres in Offa, Kwara State. By the time we complete these, no less than one million children will be involved; then we will announce the 90 elite athletes we want to specifically prepare from now for a minimum of 10 medals in Tokyo 2020.
“It has been the dream of those of us who were saddled with the task to do the very first private sector fund raising with which we funded Nigeria’s qualification for the 1994 World Cup, to socially impact on our nation in a manner beyond words.
“Between the Nigeria Sports Development Fund and the Nigeria Para Sports Development Fund, you can deliver no less than N25 billion in the next 12 months. You can create in excess of three million jobs - low, middle management and senior management jobs.
“So, you can see the kind of load we are asking you to carry. The hopes of Nigerian children and youths lie in your hands.”
The chairman of the NPSDF Governance Board, Dr Mike Omotosho, who commended Chief Iwuanyanwu for nurturing the project, noted that the task ahead is enormous.”
“The task ahead is not a small feat, fundraising especially in Nigeria is tough, and this is also happening at a difficult time in our Nation, however, we shall surpass expectation and accomplish our vision.”