The generality of Team Lagos athletes have applauded the performances of the Chairman of the state’s Sports Commission, Dr. Kweku Tandoh, over the years since he resumed office in charge of the state’s sports.
The athletes, expressed satisfaction especially in the areas of welfare, prompt payment of salaries, facilities, competitions and the development of sports in the state since the executive chairman, Dr. Kweku Tandoh, assumed office.
The overall captain of Team Lagos, Tunde Mohammed, told our reporter that sports have been doing very well under Dr Tandoh insisting that he (Tandoh) continued where the late Deji Tinubu stopped.
Hear him: “While preparing for last year’s National Sports Festival in Abuja, we were camped for a long time and the athletes’ allowances and bonuses were paid, so we went to the festival in Abuja very happy. Even at the festival venue, there were on the spot cash rewards for athletes who won medals. This further morally boosted Team Lagos athletes to do well. Lagos finished fourth with a total of 146 medals…36 gold, 37 silver and 73 bronze medals, the biggest haul among all the 36 states that participated.”
Continuing Mohammed said: “Team Lagos was given the best accommodation for athletes in Abuja, it was not different for the junior athletes at the National Youth Games in Ilorin. The motivation spurred the athletes on to win the overall second position behind Delta State with 23 gold, 15 silver and 22 bronze medals totaling 60 medals. The Commission does not owe us salaries, the same with our grants. The only thing we are waiting for is our cash reward from the governor for winning medals at the last edition of the Sports Festival in Abuja.”
Mohammed noted that, Dr. Tandoh has performed excellently so far and his greatest attribute is telling the athletes as it is…”he doesn’t hide information and that is what athletes wants.”
The Secretary of the Team Lagos athletes, Oluwatosin Solademi on his part told our reporter that, the administration of Dr Tandoh as Chairman of the Lagos Sports Commission has brought greater development to sports in the state.
“Uptil date he has performed excellently well with the help of the sports-loving Governor Akinwunmi Ambode.
“Sports facilities in Lagos now are better than before, a situation which attracts other states to come to Lagos to train for major competitions.
“For the first time in history, Team Lagos athletes were paid up-to-date at the National Sports Festival in Abuja. If you ask the other athletes they will tell you the same thing that, the best we have got has been under the chairmanship of Dr Tandoh. He doesn’t hide matters concerning athletes’ funds, if there is any mix up, he calls the associations secretaries to clarify. With Dr. Tandoh, Lagos athletes are having a good time and if you ask the athletes to vote for him, he would at least get 80 percent of yes votes.”
It was gathered that, the only people who are complaining about the leadership of chairman are the contract coaches whose contract expired on December 31, 2018. Their anger is that since being out of contract, they have not been getting their monthly grants and salaries.
“Our anger has to do with the yet to be renewed contract. That is why we have been protesting against the chairman. We don’t have money to feed our family. Our contract expired in December 2018 and it is yet to be renewed, we were told the renewal is in the hands of the governor. It was written in our contract that it expires on December 31, 2018, but we were not given any letter telling us that our contract is no longer needed. Be that as it may, the Commission should keep paying us. It was only last week that, we gathered that the chairman is working on a fresh contract for all coaches. If approved, it would take care of the salaries from January to May 2019, the period when we were out of contract since we have been coaching the athletes,” one of the coaches told our reporter.
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