BY BEN NWACHUKWU, ABUJA
Nigeria’s long jumper, Ese Brume, was full of tears of joy on Wednesday as she acknowledged the receipt of part of her National Sports Commission’s athletes grant to prepare for the forthcoming Olympic Games.
Brume who got injured in a car crash recently had told the Director General of the Commission, Bukola Olopade in a telephone chat that all she needed from the Commission was a financial assistance to purchase a new car she would be using to go for her practices to enable her rediscover herself and continue doing the country proud by winning more medals.
Speaking during the “Adopt an Athlete Training Grant Initiative to support Ese Brume” after the car crash, the DG of the NSC said, “We are working behind the scene to determine the cadres of how to support each elite athletes with $30,000 yearly. The point is that Ese has started receiving her own training grant which is part of the $30,000 to help her train and it is the same to almost 108 athletes that are potential podium athletes. Some will get $5000, some in Naira for our homebase athletes.
“Since the Chairman Malam Shehu Dikko and later myself came on board, the emphasis has always been on how to change the trajectory of sports and create corporate structure that drives the sports economy.
“We must start with the welfare of the athletes who mattered the most in terms of podium placement. We want to start off the preparation, efficiently and effectively, with the training grants for the athletes.
Olopade who lamented the horrible situation of the athletes that represented the country in the past said, “Training grants have been so abused many years in the past where sports men and women are expected to benefit from it.
“We have resolved that starting now, we will give out the training grants to the athletes long before the Commonwealth Games, Olympics and the World Championship happening this year. The preparation for the 2028 Olympics started on Tuesday with the meeting with the sports federation
“We want to start this strategic approach with arguably the most decorated sports athlete Nigeria has ever had, Ese Brume.
Unfortunately, Brume had a ghastly accident but God saved her life with some minor injuries around the ankle. I am very grateful to say that our superstar is alive and she is getting better.
Disclosing what transpired in their telephone chat, Olopade said, “When I asked her what I can tell the Chairman of the Commission what we can do, she proudly said that all she needs is the support to buy a car from whatever training grant to enable her move around to train and win the world championship. It touched me”.
Olopade said the Chairman who has spent so much from his pocket endorsed the request.
He noted that since the Commission discovered a very ingenious way of raising a lot of money within the system through donations, they decided to explore the strategy by approaching some of the Commission’s sponsors that started donating to a fund specifically dedicated for grassroots development, elite development and federations.
He said, “We consulted and resolved that Ese Brume will be the first to shake their hands. We are here today to celebrate patriotic Nigerians and generous Nigerians who understand President’s vision, that of the Chairman and the directorate in terms of energizing our children, girls and boys, men and women so that in the next future, the athletes will have no excuse to say that they are not catered for. We are starting with Brume the disbursement of the training grants scheduled for February next year.”
