Sports minister congratulates  D’Tigers for making history

The Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi, has congratulated the Nigerian male basketball team, D’Tigers, for qualifying for the London 2012 Olympics by grabbing the third spot at the FIBA Olympics qualifier in Caracas, Venezuela.

Abdullahi said the team showed unusual passion, discipline and commitment, which are hallmarks of the Nigerian spirit. His gesture was contained in a letter to the President of the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBF), Tijani Umar.

“With the kind of overwhelming joy that followed this historic achievement across our country, where people stayed awake to follow the match, one cannot but feel that perhaps a revolution is about to happen in Nigerian sports, and this may ultimately be a triumph for basketball,” Abdullahi wrote.

According to him, “the ‘boys’ can be confident that a grateful nation will remember for a long time to come that they, with typical Nigerian grit and determination, have extended the frontiers of our achievements in sports by qualifying our country for the men’s basketball event of the Olympic for the first time ever.”

However, he urged the team not to be lured by its present victory but to focus on the ultimate prize, stating: “The destination is London, and I have no doubt in my mind that with the almighty God on our side and with the same commitment, D’Tigers will triumph in London and your names would be written in gold.”