Sports minister, Barrister Solomon Dalung has charged the new executive board of Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) to ensure they start work immediately to put things right in the sector.
Dalung said he was happy to inaugurate the NOC’s new executive, which sports247.ng noted is laced with many new faces, but the minister insists it is not enough for them to just hold lofty positions without complementary work.
He also charged the ‘new’ NOC to look at areas which have been abandoned, like training of coaches and referees, in order to return Nigeria’s sports sector to its rightful position.
Dalung stated: “I congratulate you on the successful conduct of elections into the NOC board.
“The next step is to look at the development of manpower and technical hands. We need to train more coaches and update them with modern techniques of coaching.
“The NOC must develop a partnership and also source for funds to ensure that we increase the number of coaches we have in Nigeria and ensure that they compete favorably with their counterparts in other countries.
“They should also ensure the training of referees, umpires and judges because of their role in global sports.
“Most times, Nigerian referees and umpires are left out of the scheme of officiating at international competitions and that affects our result and performance outside the shores of Nigeria.”
