Minister of Youth and Sports Development has called the viral video of Chkwuebuka Enekwechi an attempt to create media frenzy to embarrass Nigeria.
Recall that when he qualified for the men’s shot put final at Tokyo Olympics, Enekwechi had posted a video on Instagram wherein he was seen washing his jersey.
He had also captioned the short footage with, “When you qualify for Olympic Finals, but you have only one jersey”.
The video stirred up negative reactions from Nigerians.
However, in a statement on Monday, Dare said that the ministry received no complaints about the shortage of jerseys for track and field athletes until Enekwechi’s video was posted.
The sports minister also clarified that the ministry is solely responsible for the general wears of the entire Team Nigeria while competition wear is the duty of the sports federations.
He also said that the ministry’s responsibility and that of the 38 National Sporting Federations, NSFs of kitting are well spelt out as the production of general wears for Team Nigeria is always the responsibility of the ministry of youth and sports development. Procurement for the competition wear is the responsibility of the respective federations because of the fact that each sport requires specialized outfits.
He also said that the quantity of competition wears given to each athlete is the decision of the particular federation and no complaints came to his notice until the Tik Tok Video posted by one of the athletes went viral. He also said they immediately stepped in to manage the situation and the federation involved has been directed to provide a detailed explanation about the kit.
Reacting to the incident where the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) disqualified 10 Nigerian track and field athletes for failing to comply with the out-of-competition testing (OCT) requirement,
He stated that as the minister, he must bear some institutional responsibility for the lapse. He said he had depended and expected that each person in the long and often technical chain will perform their role expeditiously and with precision but unfortunately, somewhere along the line, someone failed in their responsibility, and as a minister, he bears responsibility and brunt of the criticism. He said that alone is not enough as he must ensure that such thing doesn’t happen again
He also added that further investigation has been initiated into the matter.
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