Minister of sports Mr. Sunday Dare seems to be a man in a hurry to reawaken sports and youth development in Nigeria against the tide of past neglect and paucity of funds and negative perception around sports.
Just this week he moved to Asaba, Delta State to welcome the torch of Unity, support the finals of the Delta State Youth Games, visit and decorate Governor Okowa as an Olympic supporter and finally got the governor to adopt six athletes for the Olympics 2020.
He also inspected the Stephen Keshi Stadium ahead of the AFCON match that has now been postponed. He met with the mother of Ese Brume and one of the young talents discovered at the youth games.
The following day, Thursday, he drove to Umbaku- umku in Anambra State to attend the oath-taking of the new batch of national youth corps members and join Governor Willie Obiano to inaugurate the new permanent orientation camp in the state.
He was also joined by the governor and DG NYSC to initiate the hand washing and sanitizing process in the camp.
He returned to Asaba same day for review meetings with some experts in athletics and sports administration ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
On Friday he drove to Benin to inspect the games village and stadium facilities and met with some members of the National Sports Festival LOC. He also held a meeting to review the medical preparations for the sports festival especially to review plans for the containment of the spread of coronavirus. The deputy governor was on hand to assist.
He is in touch with the Health Minister and thanked him for taking the lead in this regard.
He also checked the preparations for the test of the track at the Ogbe Stadium organised by AFN.
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The energy level has increased around youth and sports development in the last few months. Several states have restored and held their hitherto abandoned annual sports festivals and the excitement around the competition in Edo State is fever high.