Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, has called on Sports managers to have a rethink over the poor outing of the country’s Athletes in the just concluded Rio Olympics Games and restrategise for the next tournament slated for Tokyo in 2020 and other International competitions.
Governor Emmanuel bared his mind at Ibom International Airport where he interacted with Government House Correspondents on arrival from official engagement outside the state.
He described as shocking the inability of the country to fill Athletes in all the competitions and win gold or silver medals in the olympic games, pointing out that the only medal brought home was a bronze in a football competition by the Super Eagles whereas other smaller countries bagged several gold and silver medals and wandered why Nigeria with over 160 million population could only boast of a bronze medal.
“But what surprises me is how countries like Jamaica was able to win medals and filled Athletes in almost all the sports event but Nigerian contingent which arrived late for the games could only clinched a bronze medal through football in the competition,” Governor Emmanuel stated.
He called on Sports developers to go back to the drawing board to enable the country excell in future Sports tournament.
The Governor however hinted that given the huge investment in the development of Sports Academy in the ten Federal Constituencies of the State where the younger generation are trained in various field of Sports, Akwa Ibom within the next seven years will boast of talents who would rake in medals for the state and country in future competitions.
“We won’t wait for any body. We’ll make sure we produce future champions. Give us 7 years we’ll be ready to take on any competition”, he said.
Naija Echo 