With the failure of Team Nigeria to win any medal at the just concluded London 2012 Olympics, President Goodluck Jonathan is targeting five gold medals from the Rio 2016 Olympic games in Brazil.
The Minister of Sports and Chairman, National Sports Commission, Mr Bolaji Abdullahi, disclosed this to Channels Television on Wednesday, saying “Mr. President believes if we start to work now we can win five gold medals in Rio in 2016.”
Calling for a deliberate but caution action on the overhaul of the sports sector,the Minister noted that we do not need a quick fix action, adding that the sports Ministry is about to outline a plan to get talented kids from across the federation for the forthcoming Common Wealth Games in 2014.
This he opines will be an appropriate build-up to the next Olympics in Brazil 2016.
“If we start to work towards that target, we may or may not meet it, but we must begin now to work towards it and believe it is possible,” Abdullahi said.
“It seems we’re under pressure now; everybody is angry and outraged. But we must resist the temptation for reflex action. We can’t just start doing things because we want people to see that we’re responding to stimuli. That’ll be wrong and won’t be sustainable.”
“What we need to do is to be very deliberate and conscious about what we need to do. There’s not going to be an easy solution, there’s not going to be a quick fix. What we’re talking about (emerged) from many years of decay and collapse. Whatever we do now, we must begin to show result in two years time. That is why it is very good for us that the Commonwealth Games will be coming up in 2014 and we can use that to re-launch for the 2016 Games.
“In Olympic term four years are nothing; we’re actually thinking of an eight-year plan. Some of the countries that did very well in London have already started preparing. We have to start now. We’re considering giving priority to sports that will give us the opportunity to excel and apportion our resources along those lines in short and medium term measures.
