Paralympics gold medalist and world record holder, Obiji Loveline has heaped praises on LEADERSHIP Newspapers Group for identifying with people living with disability and honouring them. Loveline alongside three of her colleagues, Nwokorie Ivory, Yakubu Adesokan and Esther yesterday received LEADERSHIP’s Sports Persons of the year 2012 awards for wiping tears out of the eyes of Nigerians following the disgraceful outing in the London 2012 Olympics and made her proud at the last London 2012 paralympics. Speaking shortly after receiving the award, Loveline said the gesture have helped to boost their morale in order to perform better for the country in sports. “This is the first time I am receiving award from a private organisation and it would now motivate us and other disabled athletes to excel because we now know that any good result would be appreciated not only by the government, but by individuals and private organisations,” she said.
Loveline however appealed to government and corporate organisations to come up with sustainable sports development policy that will enable the country discover more talents that would bring more honours to the country. “Grassroots sports development has been canvassed as the bedrock for revitalising sports in the country and this added motivational policy would be the icing on the cake. I want government and private organisations to invest in sports development especially para-sports so that more athletes will be discovered. The government should create the enabling environment for private sector involvement in sports,’’ she said.w