THE Ministry of Youth and Sports Development on Tuesday
signed a Memorandum Of Understanding with Kisarazu City, Japan for Team Nigeria
to camp in the organic city ahead of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare,
who jointly signed the MoU with the Mayor of Kisarazu City, Yoshikuni Watanabe,
noted that the development tallies with the new direction of early preparation
for tournaments.
He said, "About three weeks ago, Nigeria started in
earnest its Olympic preparations. We had waited for the completion of the Doha
Athletics Championship before starting officially our preparations. We have
less than 9 months and where the pre-games camping will take place is critical
to our preparations for Tokyo 2020.
"I'm glad
that this morning we are able to follow up on initiatives of previous ministers
and ambassadors who have acted rightly on behalf of this country", he
added.
The minister also expressed gratitude to the Mayor for
keeping faith with the proposal initiated under the previous administration,
adding that Nigeria, with the rest of the world looks forward to Tokyo 2020.
Highlighting the importance of the visit, Dare said,
"This meeting offers us an opportunity to formalize the pre-games camping
with the city of Kisarazu. So, even after the MOU, there are still a couple of
issues we have to work on together, but the MOU establishes an understanding
with the City and also the country of Nigeria. I have read the MOU, it is in
good faith and we trust that good faith will pervade the entire period that
that would be engaged.
"We are still coming up with a list of sports that
would be camped in Kisarazu, so we will provide needed information going
forward, and we should perhaps from now on a weekly basis, try to maintain the
feedback so as to be on the same page", he urged.
The Minister praised Japan for the country's preparedness
to host the world, saying though he has not been to Japan, everyone who visited
brought back nice words about the beauty of the country and it's preparedness
to host the Olympics and the world, and that the Ministry looks forward to a
successful pre-games camping and also a very successful Olympics itself.
Mayor Watanabe expressed gratitude to the
Minister for hosting the delegation, adding that his city is proud to identify
with Nigeria because of its football loving nature.
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