President Jonathan rewards paralympic athletes with millions of naira, national honours

It was a beautiful evening for the Nigerian Paralympic athletes at the Presidential Villa in Abuja when a banquette was organized to mark their victory at the just concluded Paralympics game held in London. Also honoured were the Falconets who were the last four at the just concluded under 20 women championship.
In appreciation of their effort, the federal government had generously rewarded them with some amount of money. While each player of the Falconet will be given N1 million, their coaches will receive N1.5 million as rewards for their effort.
Relatively, the Paralympics’ athletes were also rewarded according to their individual effort at the Paralympics. Gold medalists are hopeful of 5m naira; silver medalists will be given N3 million, while bronze winners would smile with 2m naira each. The president had also announced that those who were not able to win any medal would be given a token of N500, 000
The president at the event assured Nigerians of his commitment towards the development of sports, stating that the National Sports retreat will soon commence, just for the nation to address some of the key things that are inimical to the development of sports in the country.
Commending the Paralympic Athletes and the Falconets, the President said
“You have done well and we are indeed grateful,”
Jonathan had called on sports officials to wake up from their slumber and take Nigerian sports to another level, stating that Nigerian performance at the last Olympics was embarrassing and must not be allowed to re-occur again. “We must restore the glorious days of our sports,” he said.
The Minister of Sports, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said the event was a memorable one. He had lauded the effort of both the Falconets and the athletes. He said that even though, the Falconets did not return home with a medal, they had won the hearts of many Nigerians because of their effort.
Commending the Paralympic Athletes, he said the only favour the country could do for them, as the greatest honour was to commence an immediate preparation towards 2016 Paralympics.