The immediate past Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Solomon Dalung has urged his successor in the ministry Sunday Dare to explain to the nation’s female basketball team (D’Tigress) how the 1bn released by President Muhammadu Buhari to the ministry to pay the backlog of arrears owed to them suddenly found its way to the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF)’s Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)’s account.
Dalung who spoke on a sports program on Arise TV monitored by Core Reporters said that the issue at stake has nothing to do with 2017, saying that the girls were adequately appreciated by President Buhari when they made the nation proud. But insisted that the issue started in 2018 when the ministry had issued with budgetary allocation.
“I want to apologize to the girls because the issue started when I was the minister of youth and sports development. But in 2017 when they won the Afrobasket championship I was barely three days in office, and I took them on return to the country to meet with members of the federal executive council on a Wednesday.
“The President appreciated them and their handshake was 1m for each player and seven hundred thousand for each member of the coaching crew. After the meeting, they provided their account details, and money was disbursed to them within 24 hrs.
“The issue we are talking now about came in 2018 when we were trying to raise money for their qualification and preparation for the 2018 World cup. The money National Assembly approved for the ministry budget that year was far below our expectations, we have to fall back to an intervention which I return to the President and he asked me to put on a memo to that effect.
“The federation put on a memo worth 1.5bn for preparation and actual participation in the event, though the memo came late, we were able to raise funds and sustain the team.
“When we came back from the competition, I approach the President again and he approve 1bn, but kept pursuing the funds until when I left office the money was released in 2019 to the ministry.
However, the former comrade minister called on his successor, Sunday Dare instead of pushing the blames to him to come plain and apologize to the girls and explain to them how the 1bn released to the ministry in 2019 suddenly found its way to the account of the federation in CBN.
“The best thing is the ministry to come out plain and apologize to the girls and then explain why the memo that was raised in the name of the ministry of youth and sports development suddenly found its way into the Exco account even in Central bank. because the memo was issued in the name of the ministry.
“When the issue started coming out in 2020 I called the NBBF President and I asked what was happening with the girls’ monies he said the monies have been released to them that they were going to pay them.”
He further noted that, what the girls are asking; is their bonuses, allowances, grants, and what have you because once a team qualifies for a competition it becomes the duty of the federal government so the government is bound to pay them an allowance, match bonuses and so on.
Meanwhile, he said It is also instructive to note that the international federations also makes available grants for the players for their training and participation which is why the girls are asking if these grants have also found its way to the CBN.
