Former Youth and Sports Development Minister Solomon Dalung has shown the bad outing of the Nigerian Super Hawks to the ongoing World Cup qualifiers.
Dalung spoke on a visit to Emir of the Palace in Ilorin, Kwara, attributed the team’s struggles to poor sports management and administrative inefficiency.
The national team faces increasing pressure after the national team has performed poorly in the qualifiers.
“The Super Hawks have suffered a huge loss in the World Cup qualifiers over the past six years since I left the office.
“Nigeria’s only qualification was in 2018, and since then we’ve been eligible for a game in history and since then, Nigeria hasn’t been able to enter the World Cup.”
“From the current campaign approach, the match against Rwanda I hope Nigeria will get back on track and move on, but the last game against Zimbabwe has shattered the hope of the Super Hawks flying the Nigerian flag in the next World Cup.”
He added: “Excellent things happened besides taking risks.”
The former minister identified the department’s lack of leadership commitments and stressed the need for urgent reforms in Nigerian football
“The issue of sports is the lack of leadership over the Sports Administration.
“You think, as a sports minister, you have to redefine what you intend to achieve. It’s the responsibility of the whole thing that we don’t have a firm leadership to lead in the right direction.
“The contribution to this is that we have so many policy and leadership changes. Before that, there was a sports department, but now it has been dissolved and handed over to the National Sports Commission, which is more like a sport of technology and therefore, not driving the political will of sports there.
“The gap created by the abolition of the Sports Ministry is one of the main factors. Even if we have the best coach in the world, he needs political will to inspire players, mobilize Nigerians and drag us to victory, which is missing in the current setup.
He lamented: “It is a pity that our hopes are shattered because Zimbabwe’s losses have brought us back to who we are.”
