The federal government and sports administrators in the country have been urged to invest more in grassroots sports development to discover talents and nurture them to stardom.
The founder of Adamimogo Football Club, Prophet Sam Olu Alo, who gave the advice, expressed disappointment over Nigeria’s dismal performance at the just concluded Paris 2024 Olympic Games, saying such will guarantee good outing for the country’s athletes at the future global sporting events.
Olu Alo, who is the Planter of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Adamimogo, Grace of Mercy Prayer Mountain World-wide, said it was disheartening that Team Nigeria returned home without a single medal in spite of over N12 billion released by the federal government for the team participation in the games.
The cleric in a statement signed by his personal assistant, Hon. Deji Ogunbusuyi, commended the Nigerian-German born Shot Putter, Yemisi Ogunleye, for winning a gold medal at the Paris Games.
The sports loving man of God said though Ogunleye represented Germany in the sport fiesta, but available evidence showed that she was born to a Nigerian father of Ekiti descent, which makes her feat worthy of celebrating.
While saluting the athlete for writing her name in gold by her exceptional outing, he said Ogunleye made history by winning the gold medal in the women’s shot put event at the Paris 2024 Olympics which marked Germany’s first gold in the event since 1996.
Olu Alo, who also extended a similar gesture to other Nigerian born athletes who represented other countries at the Olympic Games said their switch of allegiance to other nations exemplified failure of governance in Nigeria.
He said there is the need for sports stakeholders to give a thought to how Nigeria athletes are dumping the country to represent other nations and come to realise that something was surely wrong with the country.
“Our highly talented youths are now switching allegiance to other nations in droves. This should terrify us. It was a bad signal. They were blazing the trail garnering gold medals when Nigeria was without a medal at the global sport fiesta. This was a sorrowful scenario.
“Those who are desirous of having a better nation should know that this signaled a failure of our system and we have to reset our brains and thinking to get it right.
“The time for all of us to rethink is now, so that we can have a future that is far better than what we are experiencing today.
“On behalf of Adamimogo Football Club and Adamimogo FC Supporters and Fans world-wide, I congratulate the Omuo Ekiti born Yemi Ogunleye on this feat and wish her the best in her current and future endeavours.
“We are proud of her achievement and we will continue to identify with her as Ekiti citizens irrespective of any country she represented”, Alo said.
