In a desperate move to ginger the Nigeria Paralympics athletes to redeem the nation’s image at the games , the Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan Enoh has dangled fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) about twenty-four million naira(N24m) to the athletes to win gold at the games.
Silver medalist will get a princely ten thousand dollars (about sixteen million naira only (N16m) while Bronze medalist will take home five thousand dollars (about eight million naira (N8m).
Team Nigeria athletes are currently on a training tour of Germany preparing for the games which which will start next week in Paris.
Nigeria will participate in four sports; athletics, badminton, para-powerlifting and para table tennis.
Speaking on behalf of the Hon. Minister, Suleiman Isah, the Secretary General of the Paralympic Committee of Nigeria (PCN), said, “the minister has promised every gold medal ($15,000), silver medal ($10,000), and bronze ($5,000).
“This will serve as motivation for the athletes, so we expect all the athletes to do well at the games,” Isah said.
“We are ready, Team Nigeria is ready to make the nation proud in Paris. There is no injury nor crisis in camp, so we are good to go.
He, however, called on all Nigerians to support the team.
“We appeal to all Nigerians home and abroad to continue to support us with prayers, we promise we will not let the country down,” Isah said.
Also, the Head Coach, Nasiru Sule said that the atmosphere is calm and conducive with all the athletes ready to explode and compete at the games.
According to the Atlanta Paralympics games bronze medalist in table tennis, he said “The athletes have been training well and vigorously too in order to make the country proud at the games.
“We are in high spirits and battle ready to go. The training has been going well as planned and I will want to thank the Paralympic Committee Nigeria (PCN) leadership for their focus and planning towards the camping exercise and I am optimistic that we are coming home with medals. Though I cannot say precisely how many or which color but with the determination of the athletes in camp, the future is bright for us,” he said.
It would be recalled that Team Nigeria para athletes won ten medals at the last Games held in Tokyo, Japan in 2020.