By Esther Egbe
Nigerian Former sprinter, Mary Onyali-Omagbemi,who won the bronze medal in the 4 × 100 m relay at the 1992 Olympic Games and in the 200 m at the 1996 Olympic Games,has observed that developing sporting facilities was synonymous to youths empowerment and development.
The foremer Queen of the tracks told National Daily that if Sports infrastructure were developed the youths will make use of them and discover their talents in sports and as such will become empowered and self reliant.
Onyali called on the Federal and State Governments to intensify actions towards developing sporting facilities in their jurisdiction,adding only when this was achieved that Nigeria will returned to its glorious days in Sports.
She revealed that she feels pained when we continue to sing the song of 1996 Atlanta Olympic which she described as the best ever outing of Nigeria at the world state in sports, saying there was dear need to close the gap.
“It hurts me when we still sing the song of Atlanta 96. The gap is too much, 96 to today is over 20 years. We need to close the gap,” said Mrs. Onyali.
Mrs. Onyali who is the Executive Director, Technical, Nigeria Sports Development Fund (NSDF) Incorporated, said they want to see Nigeria making an impact in the 2020 Olympic.
She explained that NSDF was initiated by nine of them, all ex-internationals who did the country proud in the past, and that the aim was to raise fund to develop athletes that will represent Nigeria in the next Olympic.
According to her, they intend to engage four million Nigerians who will donate just N200 each, which will amount to N900 million, adding that 90 athletes were targeted for the project and each of them will be given N10 million.
She said the project was viable and achievable because N200 is not much for someone to donate in the cause of Sports .