By Joe Apu
Secretary General of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, Banji Oladapo has called on the various sports federations in the country to commence preparations immediately for the next Olympic Games tagged Par- is 2004.
Speaking at the Sports Centre Awareness Forum Lecture and Awards held on Saturday, October 2, 2021 at the Banex Hotel in Lagos, Oladapo noted that most federations take for granted qualification events that they are to take advantage off and wait until it is late.
“While Nigerians always look forward to seeing her athletes winning medals at major events like the Olympic Games, most federations don’t take advantage of qualification events immediately after the Games. They leave it till late waiting for the Africa Games to begin preparations.
“There have been situations when the countries hosting the qualifiers see Nigeria as a threat and would not want to be denied by the presence of a country that will obstruct their progress to the Games.”
While commending Nigerian Olympians for their sacrifices over the years, he called on national federations to take special interests in the area of doping issues so as to forestall the incidents that saw the disqualification of some Nigerian athletes as was the case in Tokyo 2020.
Oladapo, also called on the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development to adopt a new system of payment of training allowances to athletes over a space of four years instead of waiting a few months to major events.