Daily Independent Online.
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Friday, August 13, 2004.
Obasanjo warns athletes against doping, indiscipline
By Tony Eluemunor
Bureau Chief, Abuja.
Sending a goodwill message to the Nigerian contingent to the
28th edition of the Athens Olympic Games President Olusegun Obasanjo warned
them to steer clear of untoward attitudes like doping, age falsification and
indiscipline.
He challenged
the athletes to achieve the 10-gold medals target and promised to organize a
befitting reception for them on their return to Nigeria.
He said: “In the quest for laurels and diadems, please
eschew everything untoward---doping, age-falsification and indiscipline. I am
aware that your administrators 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 Uchenna Emedolus; the Mercy Akides; the Rita Nwadikes;
the Linda Ogoguas; and the Julie Negedus, I am sure with the requisite
determination to make history and lift up the name of our country, we can truly
excel”.
Obasanjo said
he had followed with great interest the team’s preparation, and noted
that reports he got on the preparations of the athletes indicate that their
fitness levels were impressive and the morale quite high.
“From
your camping periods in Germany, Cuba and Bulgaria respectively, through the
various tune-up competitions in which you variously participated in Europe and
Africa, I have kept myself abreast of your efforts to make our fatherland
proud”, he stated.
He charged the
contingent to regard the event 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”, noting that he happy that
there was a preponderance of female athletes over the males for the games.
“I am 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 in Nigeria by the First
Bank Female 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 saying,
‘what a man can do, a woman can do better”, he said.
