Committee Hails Largesse To Paralympians

The Nigeria Paralympic Committee (NPC) has praised President Goodluck Jonathan for the national honours and the monetary gifts to members of the paralympic team to the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

The six gold medalists were given N5 million each and national honours of Member, Order of the Niger (MON).

The five silver medalists received N3 million, while the two bronze medalists bagged N2 million each for their outstanding performance at the Games.

Those who participated but could not win medals were also given N500,000 each.

The Committee’s Secretary-General, Dr Frank Thorpe, said that the gesture by the president was encouraging.

He said the fact that the committee would be invited to participate in a national retreat to appraise Nigeria’s participation in the Olympics Games would be a departure from past practice.

“The President has shown that he is a man of the people, of grassroots. When he hosted us (Paralympians) in 2010, I was there and when he was coming in I was trying to clear the disabled athletes to move so that he can pass, but he said ‘no! no! don’t touch them; I will find my way’. It is good to have character.

“And that single act he did always pushed me to work hard; it’s not easy working with these people; but for a president to show compassion, it shows understanding and that gives us the strength to continue.

“The whole programme was highly elating and I was very happy; all the athletes and officials were very elated. The monetary aspect was there; but beyond that; the recognition.

He said during the programme that he was going to have a retreat that would involve all stakeholders. That has never been done before. So, I think we are charting a new path.

“All these ‘fire brigade approach’ we’ve been doing has not worked well. We have done well, but other countries are preparing seriously for Rio Olympics; so we shouldn’t be left behind.”

Thorpe appealed to all stakeholders to ensure early preparations for international competitions to enable the country’s representatives to perform well as other countries.