A former president,
Athletic Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Dan Ngerem, has attributed Nigeria’s poor performance in sports to inadequate preparation.
Ngerem told newsmen in Lagos that the country only budgets for the welfare of athletes at major competitions without adequately preparing them for the competitions.
“Nigeria always repeat the same mistake in preparing for major competitions like the Commonwealth Games.
The Games are scheduled to kick off on July 23 and end on August 3 in Glasgow, Scotland.
“Nigeria has continued to make the same fundamental mistake and that is, we budget billions for competitions but do not budget money for preparations.
“The Commonwealth Games is not far away and I have not seen a consistent strategy and preparation for the Games.
“It has been the federated units that have been doing their own thing trying to raise money, but that should not be the case because Nigeria budgeted millions for the Games,” he said.
The former AFN president said that apart from the welfare of athletes, the nation should make available funds for strategy, international relations and for public relations in terms of sports
He said the ideal was for preparations for competitions of such magnitude like the Commonwealth Games and Olympics to commence immediately after the end of one.
“Preparations for the Commonwealth Games should start immediately after the end of one.
“Indeed, for the more serious countries there is an eight year period to prepare an athlete but what do you find in Nigeria a fundamental waiting in the wings for government budget.
“ Personally, I will advocate that half of the money budgeted for the Games should be used for preparations for the next Commonwealth Games,” Ngerem said.
He said that incessant change of administrators was also to blame for the failure to maintain a sports policy.