By Goodluck Ikiebe
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Sports and Youth Development, Alhaji Ismaila Abubakar, has said that Nigeria felicitates and congratulates the country’s Silver Olympic Medallist, Blessing Oborodudu, who was conferred with wrestler of the month award by the United World Wrestling Bureau.
Alhaji Ismaila, who disclosed this in Abuja stated that, “Nigeria is proud of our athletes, assuring that the Ministry will continue to create an enabling environment for them to excel in their sporting career”.
“We felicitate with our Silver Olympic Medallist, Blessing Oborodudu on this award. We congratulate her and we are proud of her as a nation. As a Ministry, we will continue to support all our athletes to ensure they compete favourably with their counterparts globally so as to record more podium performances for our dear nation,” he said.
The Permanent Secretary used the opportunity to call on all sports loving Nigerians and philanthropists to join hands with the President Asiwaju Bola-Ahmed Tinubu-led Administration by taking advantage of the new Sports Industry Policy to invest in sports with a view to developing the sector for the benefit of our teeming youth.
He explained that with the new policy, sports is no longer a mere re-creation but a business and thus, urged all relevant stakeholders in the industry to invest in the sector for the benefit of our young athletes as well as our economy as that is the practice the world over.
Government, he added, “cannot do it alone.”
Alhaji Ismaila further called on Sporting Federations to ensure they put on their best and technical know-how in order to record more podium appearances in all international competitions for the country.
Recall that after 7 months of layoff due to surgery, the Commonwealth champion, Blessing Oborodudu, returned to her full fitness with a gold medal at the recently concluded African Senior Wrestling championships in Hammamet, Tunisia and was handed a record of 13th title at the African events.
