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The National President of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Honour Sirawoo, has nominated Nigeria’s first Olympian to attend five consecutive games, Mary Onyali, for SWAN award during the next Full Council meeting in Port Harcourt, given her sports development initiatives.
Sirawoo also commended the new initiative of the the Nigeria Sports Development Fund Inc (NSDFI) to raise N900million to support 90 athletes from five sports with a N10million annual Olympic grant to save our sports.
Speaking in Abuja, Honour Sirawoo, who signed up personally on a 90-day campaign added that, “we have been monitoring your activities. We are so proud of you and your team working to raise a new generation of stars. We are not just proud of you. We are with you all the way. If there is anywhere you want us to back you, let us know, we shall back you fully.”
“This new Olympic grant initiative is so unique. It is affordable to an average Nigerian including okada riders, market women and all. We urge and pray Nigerians will have the patriotic essence to key and contribute their quota. I am imagining the number of families this initiative will bring up.”
“You would have helped the nation to solve our problem of late preparations. The beneficiaries will feel a higher sense of patriotism to want to work harder. They will want to justify the confidence reposed in them by working so hard. I commend you for this vision and God will help you.”
In her remark, Mary Onyali said, This is a private initiative. It is not government. All we want is 4.5million Nigerians to give us N200 each. Anyone giving us a multiple is just taking us faster to the destination.”
By the first week in August, we want all the 90 athletes to have gotten their grants and intensify their preparations for Tokyo 2020. We hope about one-third of them will get the qualification and at least, another one-third to win at least bronze. That will give us 10 bronze medals which will be an improvement from where we are coming from.”
“For any Nigerian in Tokyo to get a bronze we shall pay out N5m, N7.5m for Silver and N10m for gold. We are giving a committee the task to manage that role for us. They will soon be inaugurated.”
We pray Nigerians will see this as a national call. We have to invest in our athletes. Sports development funding is never and can never be a government project. That is why we are using private initiatives to drive these processes and to achieve it in 90 days.
