Obasanjo Advises Team Nigeria on Image
From Josephine Lohor in Abuja
President Olusegun Obasanjo has asked members of the Nigerian contingent to the 28th edition of the Olympic Games in Athens-Greece to use the event to showcase the good image of Nigeria.
In a goodwill message to Team Nigeria, the President stated that since the event was "easily the largest convergence of sportsmen and women in the World, it presents yet another opportunity for you all to be good ambassadors of our fatherland."
"Together, we must deploy the games as a potent public relations and a veritable international image management podium, where the world will come to further appreciate our goodness as a people. In the quest for laurels and diadems, please eschew everything untoward, doping, age-falsification and indiscipline," he added.
President Obasanjo, who noted that he had over the last few months followed with keen interest preparations of the Nigerian contingent for the Olympics, said that he was "particularly happy that the female athletes are living true to my prediction earlier this year."
"While receiving the Africa Female Club Champions trophy won for the first time for Nigeria by the First Bank Basketball team, I predicted that 2004 will be the year for women. It is instructive that there is a preponderance of female athletes over the males at the 2004 Olympics and our girls are poised to validate the old sayings: what a man can do a woman can do better,"
President Obasanjo recalled his telephone conversation with Team Nigeria some weeks ago and the follow-up visit of the Minister of Sports and Social Develop-ment, Colonel Musa Muhammed (rtd) to the team in their camp in Stuttgart-Germany, and confirmed that the team's "fitness levels are impressive and your morale quite high. I understand there is a unanimity of purpose in the team to triumph."
He also wished the team "a most memorable Olympics" and noted that he was aware that the Team Nigeria's "administrator's have set a task of 10 gold medals for you at Athens. Who says this is not attainable? With the calibre of tested sportsmen and women the Mary Onyali-Omagbemis, the Deji Alius, the Olu Fasugbas, the Endurance Ojokolos, the Rita Nwadikes, the Uche Emedolus, the Mercy Akides, etc I am sure with the requisite determination to make history and lift up the name of our country, we can truly excel."
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