Sports Lovers in Nigeria have called for the immediate sack of Oyo-born Sports minister, Sunday Dare over the preventable and disgraceful disqualification of ten Nigerian athletes at the ongoing 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The 10 athletes were reportedly disqualified for failing to meet the National Anti-Doping Federation’s minimum testing standards under Rule 15.
Fans brought up how Sunday Dare fired Sunday Adeleye, the previous Technical Director of the Nigerian Athletics Federation, for enrolling two elite Nigerian athletes, Blessing Okagbare and Divine Oduduru, in the “wrong” categories for the World Athletics Championships in Doha in September 2020.
During the championships, Okagbare and Oduduru faced disqualification for not partaking in the men’s and women’s 100m race.
One fan; Abiola Fakoyede said, “No thanks to our Minister of sports and his ministry. Next time appoint professionals to manage our sports ministries and not politicians who are good at not following rules
“The minister should resign with immediate effect,” Awotunya Aderemi added.
Tunde Stephen also said, “Their handlers and the Minister of Sports should have done the needful by now and that is to resign.”
Ajanson Peter lamented that “We should not have wasted our time to go in the first place. This is a total disgrace, I am shocked that simple testing requirement, we couldn’t meet up to.
“What were they expecting, for the IOC to allow them to compete after not meeting the minimum standard for testing? They must be jokers.
“Table tennis, we didn’t pass the three rounds in both male and female categories. Football, we didn’t qualify. Basketball, we have lost two matches. Taekwondo, we didn’t qualify.
“Our only hope was in athletics, even this one too, we couldn’t do the right thing to enable us to compete. Our sports ministry is in total shamble.”
“Sunday Dare must go,” Babanginda Kubura posted while reacting to the news of the athletes’ disqualification on Facebook.
Olawale Adigun requested that “When is Nigeria’s Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, and Athletics Federation of Nigeria President going to resign after this national disgrace.”
On Twitter, KPK @kpumpin0007 said, “Sunday Dare should be receiving his sack letter this morning.”
William @_SirWilliam_ wondered if “Sunday Dare will still have a job after this.”
@InnieNuell said, “It’s bad. Shameful! And to make it worse when these men make atrocious mistakes nobody is sacking them, nobody is coming for their heads.”
@Abu “Buhari, it is getting too late to sack Sunday Dare,” another fan, identified as Abu, posted.
