By Ben Agande, Abuja
There would be no official federal government delegation to the London Olympics next month, Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi disclosed yesterday.
According to Abdullahi,  the  move which has been approved by President Goodluck Jonathan was aimed at saving cost and preventing  the athletes from being distracted.

He said the practice where such  events are converted to jamborees for government officials must be stopped.

”What I can assure you for a start, there is not going to be any official Nigerian delegation to this Olympics. So this is the first time in a long while that I know that you will not have an official Nigerian delegation to the Olympics, a global delegation like this.

”I want to also add that it is not always the case that there is anything wrong in officials being more than the athletes, for example you have only one boxer, that boxer must have a physiotherapist, a doctor, a coach, and even a psychologist in some cases. If you look at the American contingent, it is almost  like the contingents of many of the countries put together. What we are doing is that we are taking all reasonable measures to ensure that every single person that is going to the Olympics has a business in the Olympics.

Of course Olympics is a public event and if you find a state governor in London, it doesn’t mean that we are sponsoring him to be there, so he has the wherewithal to go by himself to go and watch  the Olympics.