- As Mikel supports Dream Team with $30,000
The camp of Team Nigeria athletes to the Rio Olympic Games in Brazil, received a morale boost yesterday with the heart-warming news that each of them would receive a token of N250,000 (about $785) from the Union Bank of Nigeria Plc.
According to the Special Adviser, Media to the Sports Minister, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, each member of Team Nigeria and Paralympic athletes will get the money credited to their accounts as soon as they forward their account details to the Nigeria Olympic Committee.
If the athletes are unable to send their account details, the money will be credited to Visa or Master cards with the names of the athletes on it.
The Minister of Youth and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung has congratulated the official bankers of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc, for doling out the money to each athlete participating at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio.
According to NOC Secretary- General, Tunde Popoola, Union Bank also pledged N5million to the NOC as support for logistics and other administrative bills.
Dalung thanked Union Bank for coming in to assist and boost the morale of the athletes at a time the country was faced with financial set backs.
He said that this single effort by the bank would once more lift the spirit of the athletes ahead of the games, which starts on August 5, 2016.
The Minister called on other private and corporate organisations to take a cue from Union Bank as government could no longer solely fund sports.
“When we invest in our youths and sports, we are investing in the future but when we don’t help our youths through sports or other skills acquisition, we are preparing for a harvest of criminals in future. So, I’m pleading with other corporate bodies to come forward as it is never late to help our youths especially now that athletes were faced with so much hardship due to the state of the country’s economy,” Dalung said.
Athletes are expected to start leaving for Rio today. The basketball team leaves on August 3 after playing a game in Houston on August 2 while the football team will start moving from Atlanta on July 29, 2016.
In the same vein, in Atlanta, USA, Team Nigeria captain, John Mikel Obi, rescued Dream Team squad with a $30,000 donation.
Mikel was moved when he arrived the Under-23 camp and saw that they were actually in need of resources to lift their spirit.
National Under-23 Coach, Samson Siasia, had appealed to the Nigerian Government and Sports Ministry to pay him the five months outstanding salary and allowances owed coaches and players before the August 4 match against Japan in the Rio Olympic Games football event.
Embattled Siasia cried out from the team training camp in Atlanta, that he was depressed and disappointed with the way the team had been unfairly treated by football authorities.
