7th December, 2012
The Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) has urged the National Sports Commission (NSC) to focus on building an athletes’ database from the ongoing 18th National Sports Festival in Lagos.
The NOC Secretary-General Tunde Popoola said that a comprehensive bio-data of the athletes would aid the NSC in organising sports development programmes.
Popoola said the database of all the athletes that were competing at the festival, tagged ‘Eko 2012’ would help to rebrand Nigeria’s sports, especially at the international level.
“The main problem we have is lack of credible programmes and data. If we have a comprehensive data of our athletes, we will be able to know our prospects.
“We need to have a strong database. Keeping records on them then becomes the responsibility of the government,’’ he said.
Popoola added that it was the duty of the NSC to build such a database on which the NOC would ensure that the athletes were followed up in all aspects.
The secretary-general said that to achieve that, there must be a bond between the NOC and the NSC.
According to him, the arrangement would enable the NSC to know the prospects of the athletes discovered and pave a way for them to be integrated into the commission’s Elite Athlete’s Programme.