Dalung goofs again, says, “funds spended were properly spended”

Nigeria’s Youth and Sports Development Minister, Barr. Solomon Dalung, seems to be a man on the loose with serial blunders to his credit. The latest addition to his basket of shameful remarks is what he was captured saying in response to queries raised by House of Representatives Committee on Sports.

While meeting with the committee in Abuja to explain how his ministry spent their 2016 budget allocation, he was caught on tape saying, “The funds spended were properly spended”. The grammatical blunder has since become a subject of discourse on social media.

The Minister, in all his engagements with national teams, is perhaps yet to make a single uncontroversial remark since his appointment by the President Buhari-led administration in October 2015.

In August 2016, Dalung was reported to have visited the Atlanta, USA camp of the U-23 Eagles preparing for the Rio Olympics and frowned at coach Samson Siasia’s resort to the media to complain about the difficulties the team were facing. The Minister, for reasons only him can explain, instructed the team’s captain, John Mikel Obi to “take over and restore sanity.”After that was settled, the team was on the verge of missing the opening match against Japan as they were stranded in Atlanta before a bailout came from Delta Airlines, which airlifted them to Brazil on credit.
When asked why the team have been left stranded, Dalung said, “Who took them there? What are they there for? Because they are under 23 and they went to the US. Now they are having problems, does that become our business?”

During the November international break, while Russia 2018 World Cup qualifiers were being played across continents, our dear Sports Minister released another bombshell that caused us to take another look at our future. He said, “The cup that we (Nigeria) can win is the African Cup of Nations. There is nothing again that will take us to another man’s balcony in the name of the World Cup. We already have the Commonwealth Games and the Olympics. For these, we can attend such meets.”

As if that was not enough, while Super Falcons protested over their unpaid entitlements after winning the African Women Cup of Nations in Cameroon, Dalung commented thus on the situation, “Don’t forget that nobody even knew the team will emerge victorious. If we were confident they will emerge victorious, all the federation would have done is to plan for process of participation and entitlement.”

Dalung’s serial blunders have made him a subject of many who want him sacked by President Buhari for the alleged embarrassments he represents.