As part of the activities organized to celebrate Nigeria’s diamond jubilee, the federal government has initiated an event to honour 60 indigenous sport icons and personalities that have won laurels and contributed to the sports development in the last sixty years.
According to the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare, the event which will hold on Friday, 16th October, 2020 at the velodrome of Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, is organized to reward excellence and hard work.
Dare noted, “We initiated this award because of the need to reward our heroes and heroines who have sweated to put the name of Nigeria on the world map. Unfortunately most of these patriots have died, but we are also consoled that many of them are still alive.
“Another important aspect 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”.
“I appreciate the effort the of 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”. Dare stated.
The committee is said to have received over 3,500 nominations voted for through various social media channels, television, radio and other platforms.
Thus, the minister however, appealed to other deserving awardees who may not have been voted for in the first edition to be patient, assuring that they could also be rewarded in subsequent editions.
