National Sports Festival: Gold Medalists Get Automatic Employment in Delta State
Delta state government has showered enormous cash gift on its victorious athletes in the just concluded National sports festival with gold medalist bagging one million naira for each gold.
Announcing the cash gifts at a grand reception held in Asaba yesterday, the state Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan said all silver medalists would receive six hundred thousand naira for each silver while bronze medalist would receive four hundred thousand naira for each bronze.
Dr Uduaghan also said that all team members whose team won gold would receive four hundred naira each while team members who won silver would receive N300,000 three hundred naira each.
Amidst ovation the governor announced a reward of fifty thousand naira each for every athlete who participated in the games but did not win any medal.
Dr Uduaghan who also rewarded the coaches handsomely said “Head coaches who won gold receive one million naira each while those who won silver and bronze will receive six hundred thousand naira and two hundred and forty thousand naira respectively”.
He announced automatic employment and scholarship for all gold medalists while selected silver medalists would also enjoy the same gesture.“We are not going to watch our athletes go through frustration. They are our pride and we will continue to reward them adequately to enable them do better. Indeed we are going to produce Olympic gold medalists from among them,” he said.
The governor who said his administration would use sports to create employment for the youths promised to continue to encourage deserving youth athletes with appreciable reward.
The governor who announced that the state would host the forth coming under 17 Africa youth Athletic competition said the event would be used as scouting ground for talents.
Dr Uduaghan disclosed that the state government has embarked on the policy of promoting sports from primary to secondary school and expressed the hope that it would produce the desired result of sustaining the leading position the state is occupying in sports.
In his remarks the Director Grassroots Sports Development and representative of the Minister of sports and Chairman National Sports Commission Alhaji Hassan Yakmout suggested that the nation should only allow athletes who had the body anatomy for a specific sport to participate in the given sports.
Alhaji Hassan said such arrangement will ensure specialization and promote excellence.
He described Delta state as a unique state in sports even as he disclosed that 65 percent of Nigeria athletes who won laurels in All African games were from the state.
The speaker Delta state House of Assembly Hon. Victor Ochi in his speech said the victory of Team Delta in Lagos showed that the Rivers state victory in Port Harcourt was a fluke.
Hon Ochei commended Team Delta for being well behaved and disciplined especially as the team did not record any ugly incident.
Welcoming guests to the ceremony the chairman of the state sports Commission Mr. Amaju Pinnick commended the governor and his wife for boosting the morale of the athletes through visits and prayers.
Mr. Pinnick also commended the governor for giving the state a positive image explaining that the governor’s support presented a conducive atmosphere for the athletes to work hard.