Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
On Friday, October 16, the federal government will honour 60 Nigerian sports icons and personalities that have won laurels for the country and those that have made a meaningful impact on sports development in the last 60 years.
According to the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Mr Sunday Dare, the event is part of activities organised to celebrate Nigeria’s Diamond jubilee.
Speaking while receiving the report of the committee set up to collate the votes by Nigerians for the 60 awardees, he explained that the event was initiated to reward excellence and hard work, noting that the award will be done to honour those who have put the country on the world map.
“Another import of the award is that it will encourage the younger athletes and indeed Nigerians in other fields to always give their best to the country, knowing that their efforts would be appreciated by the country,” Mr Dare stated.
The Minister appealed to other deserving awardees who may not have been voted for in the first edition to remain calm, assuring them that they would also be rewarded in subsequent editions.
“I appreciate the effort the collation committee at arriving at these 60 names because the truth is that there are so many more deserving Nigerians but for the fact that we wanted to restrict the number to 60 to commemorate the Diamond jubilee of our country,” Mr Dare said.
The event, which will hold at the Velodrome of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja on Friday, is expected to be graced by President Muhammadu Buhari, members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) as well some of the awardees and members of their families.
The committee received over 3,500 nominations who were voted through various social media channels, television, radio and other platforms.
