The Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung has been in the news lately due to his ridiculous responses to questions asked him by journalists. Below are his controversial statements that has got Nigerians irate.
1.) One would expect a sports minister to know the Under-23 dream team had travelled to USA for Rio 2016 preparation when he was asked why the team was stranded but read his response below;
“I don’t know about the trip to the US and if they are suffering that is the business of those who sponsored them, not my business”
2.) While addressing newsmen on why the U-23 dream team was yet to leave for the Rio 2016 Olympics after the team concluded preparation in USA. See the quote below;
“Our U-23 team is suffering in the United States of Nigeria.”
3.) In an interview with the Voice of America, he showed his silly statements know no bounds as he implied that there was no need for the country to keep playing qualifiers for Russia 2018 world cup because the Super Eagles would never win it.
“That competition stinks of corruption; Nigeria is too poor to waste money on it and Nigeria would never win the trophy”.
“The cup that we can win is the African Cup of Nations. There is nothing again that will take us to another man’s balcony in the name of the World Cup. We already have the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics. For these, we can attend such meets. But I am opposed to the World Cup. We don’t agree to it. Conspiracy in the World Cup is too much.”
4.) He once said our sports athletes don’t need to train before winning medals, he cited the example of the paralympics team that won more medals than the Nigerian team that participated in Rio 2016.
“the disabled athletes have shown that all you need is a winning penalty and not too much preparation, they trained under the same condition with their able-bodied counterparts but they are winning medals now”
5.) This just happens to be his latest gaffe as he said the victorious Super Falcons at the just concluded African Women’s Nations Cup tournament have not been paid their bonuses and allowances because the sports ministry and Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) were not prepared for the team’s success
“Don’t forget that nobody even knew the team would emerge victorious,”
“If we were confident they would emerge victorious, all the federation would have done was to plan for the process of participation and entitlement.”
