Sen. John Owan Enoh, Minister of Sports Development, has commended Comptroller-General of Customs Adewale Adeniyi and Daniel Igali, President of Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF) for hosting the wrestling team.
Enoh said this at the reception in honour of athletes and officials of NWF on Saturday in Abuja.
The reception was in recognition of patriotism of the athletes towards the development of the federation .
The minister said the federation was the only and the first to celebrate their athletes, in spite of not winning any medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“I was surprise when I got the invitation from the CG customs and board members of this federation about this reception.
‘It is very uplifting, motivating and assuring way with a positive perspective of encouraging the athletes.
“I thank the CG for this, and I think that Nigerians need to know about this and am glad that the media are here,,” he said.
Enoh said he found people’s negative comments as toxic following the poor performance of the team Nigeria in Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The minister said he had apologised to Nigerians for the poor performance at the Olympics.
“I found out that there are people that are innocently angry, and they have good reasons to be angry.
“I think that good things have started from this section and from this reception we are very proud of you guys,”the minister said.
The minister said that the country once had good performance at international competitions.
“The 2021/2022 AFCON in Cameroon Nigeria did not proceed beyond the group stages,
This year AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire, we played final, we went to African game and we performed beautifully.
“We are still between competitions, the para athletes have been in Germany training ahead of the Paralympics Games.
“I just want to appeal for some little patience, let’s go back to Paris and compete for Para athletes,” the minister said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that six wrestlers which comprises of one male and five female represented Nigeria at the 2024 Olympics. (NAN)
