It is like a tradition that after every Olympics Games, Nigeria will certainly get a gold medal in Swimming! We definitely swim in one scandal or the other. This time around, the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) got a gold medal in the mismanagement of the $100,000 meant to prepare the nation’s athletes for the London 2012 Olympics.
As the nation reels in the acute pain of missing out of the medals table again in the Olympics, it is authoritative that the nation may have been short changed again with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) fund meant for her members to prepare for the just concluded Games in London.
It is also authoritative that the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) headed by Engineer Sani Ndanusa got the sum of $100,000 to prepare the nation’s athletes for the London Games.
Sports TRAIL checks revealed that the Federations in the Olympics (Athletics, Weightlifting, Boxing, Taekwondo, Wrestling, Slalom-Canoe, Basketball) did not officially get a dime from the funds.
The question then is, which Federations then got the money. Or is it that the money meant for preparation of the athletes will be made available to the concerned Federations after the Games?
An independent check on the N2.3billion released to the National Sports Commission (NSC) by the Federal Government was meant for the preparation of the athletes both in-shore and out-shore for the Games.
Therefore, where is the money paid by the IOC for more than six months to the NOC? Was the NSC or the Federal Government aware that such monies were released to the NOC by the IOC?
An e-mail was sent to the President of the NOC, Sani Ndanusa on Sunday 22nd July at 15:24 hours Nigerian time. The mail reads: “Good day sir, there is a story I am working on which I will seek your clarification on. This has to do with the monies that the IOC normally gives members for the preparation of her athletes for the Olympics. We had two conflicting figures of $100,000 and another, BP250,000. How much did the NOC got.
(2) If you may oblige sir, what did your member Federations got?
(3) Is it true that no Federation got any dime from this money. The allegation is that N100,000 was paid into personal accounts of some Federation Presidents and not to the Federations.
(4) Is it also true that the staffers of the NOC have not collected their pay in the last three months?
I will appreciate your response to these issues.
Wish you a successful outing in the London Olympics.”
As we went to press, no single reply came our way.
The IOC distributes over 90% of its revenues to organisations throughout the Olympic Movement to support the staging of the Olympic Games and to promote the worldwide development of sport. The IOC retains less than 10% of its revenue for the operational and administrative costs of governing the Olympic Movement.
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Source – National Trail newspaper
