By Albert Akota
The Adoption Campaign as initiated by the Minister of Youth and Sports Development Mr. Sunday Dare, has continued to record tremendous successes as more individuals and corporate entities have continued to indicate interest in the Initiative.
In recognition of the fact that athletes’ welfare is paramount if any meaningful success would be recorded and that the Government cannot do it alone, the Minister launched the Campaign last year with Adopt an Athlete as one of its main focuses, to encourage a mutually beneficial private sector partnerships in sports.
An athlete is adopted by an individual and corporate body with the aim of providing support through funding for the athlete’s welfare and training especially towards the preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
This, the Minister believes will in addition to lifting the spirits of the athletes, spur them to give their best performances to register Nigeria’s name on the medal table come Olympics 2020. It could be recalled that team Nigeria has not had any successful outings at international events in recent times.