Sports disadvantaged by FG’s budgetary attitude, says Dalung

Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung has blamed the sector’s woes on the Federal Government’s budgetary attitude, accusing it of hampering the maintenance of ministry’s infrastructure across the country.

Speaking in Abuja while unveiling plans for the 2018 National Sports Festival, Dalung said: “The past three annual budgets for sports development is not even up to one percent of what the so-called major Ministries got.

The minister revealed that maintaining sports infrastructure required a lot of money, adding, “the enormous capital required in the development of sports and maintenance of the infrastructure necessitated giving the private sector predominant roles in sports development globally.

“In Nigeria, we always wait for the annual budget and the Ministry has been so unfortunate in the past three years. Yet, sports development in Nigeria has been rated as one of the most successful ministries in the past three years.

“Our success is empirical; we can prove it. So, I think the challenge has to do with our budgetary attitude to sports development. That also paints the picture of insincerity of commitment to sports development.”

Shedding more light on the dilapidating infrastructure, Dalung stated: “If you have read the report of the National Bureau of Statistics, it has indicated that there are slow growth in terms of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP), meaning that our national revenues are also reducing, both in oil sector and non-oil sector.

“It has been identified that we are heading towards election year, and there is tension and investors have lost confidence because of uncertainty.