… Coach statement blown out of proportion, says Sports Minister

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Barr Solomon Dalung has appeared before the relevant House Committees of the National Assembly to defend his Ministry’s N75, 476,387,061.00  2016 budget made up of N70, 816,387,061 Recurrent and N4, 660,000.00 Capital Expenditures respectively.

The N75 billion budget covers the fiscal allocations of the main Ministry and those of Parastatals under it namely – the Citizenship & Leadership Training Center (CLTC), National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and Nigeria Institute of Sports (NIS).

Of the total, the Ministry plans to spend the lion share of N68, 834,864,638.00 on the NYSC and N1, 768,599,945.00 on sports.

Exchanging views with members of the House Committee on Sports chaired by Hon. Goni Bukar, Dalung announced that 78 athletes with high hopes of winning medals for the country have already qualified for Rio so far, and assured that the Federal Government would do the needful to ensure the country attains a fruitful outing at the forthcoming Olympic Games.