All is now set to honour 60 Nigerian sports icons and personalities that have won laurels for Nigeria and those that have made meaningful impact on sports development in the last sixty years.

The event is part of activities organised by the Federal government to celebrate Nigeria’s Diamond jubilee .

The Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, while receiving the Report of the Committee set up to collate the votes by Nigerians for the 60 awardees, said the event was initiated to reward excellence and hard work.

“We initiated this award because of the need to reward our heroes and heroines who have sweated to put the name of Nigeria on the world map. Unfortunately most of these patriots have died, but we are also consoled that many of them are still alive.

“Another import of the award is that it will encourage the younger athletes and indeed Nigerians in other fields to always give their best to the country, knowing that their efforts would be appreciated by the country”.

The Minister appealed to other deserving awardees who may not have been voted for in the first edition to be patient, assuring that they could also be rewarded in subsequent editions.

“I appreciate the effort the collation committee at arriving at these 60 names because the truth is that there are so many more deserving Nigerians but for the fact that we wanted to restrict the number to 60 to commemorate the Diamond jubilee of our country”. Dare stated.

The event, which will hold at the Velodrome of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium Abuja on Friday is expected to be graced by President Muhammadu Buhari, members of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) as well some of the awardees and members of their families.

The committee received over 3,500 nominations who were voted for through various social media channels, television, radio and other platforms.

Source: PremiumTimes