The Minster of Youth and Sports Barrister Solomon Dalung has congratulated the newly elected board of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) after a successful elective congress and charged them to look at areas which have been abandoned like training of coaches and referees in other to return Nigeria’s sports sector to its rightful position.
In a congratulatory message made available to The Point, Dalung hailed the delegates for conducting peaceful and credible elections and choosing leaders with passion for sports.
“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.”
The Minister had earlier in an opening remark at the NOC Annual General Meeting held at the Government House, Yola, urged state governments to contribute more to sports development by giving a percentage of their security vote to sports.
Dalung also used the occasion to thank Presidents of National Sports Federations and state Directors of Sports for their active role in ensuring a successful National Sports Festival in Abuja last
year.
