Dalung says no sports federation is autonomous

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung has said there is no iota of truth in claims by some sports federations in the country that they are autonomous as he said in truth they can’t survive without government funding.

Speaking during his visit to Daily Trust headquarters on Monday, the minister said those who are parading themselves as presidents of autonomous federations were lying to Nigerians.

“The federations are not autonomous and anybody misleading Nigerians is not being fair to himself. The sports ministry funds the federations.

“If I call a meeting today of presidents of federations, the ministry is responsible for their flight tickets, accommodation and even local running from the airport to their hotel rooms. In addition, I pay them honorarium.

“Once government withdraws, no federation can sustain itself. They can’t. So you cannot eat your cake and have it. What do we do as government that becomes interference is that we make sure that if you say these are your rules, you follow the rules,” he said.

Dalung who used the basketball federation as an example said it is one of the boards that is benefitting immensely from government yet claiming to be autonomous.

He said “Basketball collects a lot of money from government but is talking about autonomy. There is no sports federation in Nigeria that is autonomous. There is none. There is none.

“When we went to Rio, the federal government paid for the tickets of all the players, the presidents and secretaries of federations including basketball. We paid for his hotel for 15 days in Rio and we gave him estacode.

“Can he still claim that he is autonomous? When he wants to cause confusion, then he will be calling for autonomy.”

The minister also disclosed that a year after the 2016 Rio Olympics, the federations were yet to refund to government the money spent for them to participate in the games.

“When we went to Rio, all the Olympics federations were funded by government. There is this tradition, if government pays for ticket, accommodation and insurance of athletes, IOC will refund the money to government.

“2016 Rio Olympics refunds from IOC have been made till date as I am talking, they have not refunded the money to government,” he said.

Photo: Getty Images Blessing Okagbare of Nigeria (L) crosses the line to win gold ahead of silver medalist Veronica Campbell-Brown of Jamaica (R) in the Women's 100m final at Hampden Park during the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games on July 28, 2014 in Glasgow.