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The Minister of Youths and Sports, Mr. Sunday Dare has commended stakeholders for acting on his suggestion that they should provide succour to ailing ex- Super Falcons goalkeeper, Bidemi Aluko with a donation of three million naira by the Nigeria Football Federation towards taking care of her medical bills for breast cancer treatment.
Mr. Dare, who spoke in Abuja at the weekend, explained that the health insurance component of the Athletes Sustenance Fund, ASF, is being planned to prevent situations where persons that have served in the country have to resort to seeking help to treat illnesses.
He revealed that “I was on the way back from Morocco when Bidemi’s health condition was brought to my attention and I immediately made calls to those who know her and to UCH, where she is receiving treatment, to know the extent of intervention needed before asking that the ministry writes the Nigeria Football Federation to do the needful.
“It is pleasing that they have within the shortest time made the necessary intervention and she is now receiving the necessary treatment. I envisage that NFF’s President, Amaju Pinnick will follow through the commitment made by facilitating the payment of the balance two million Naira since such treatment has to be completed.
“We must however ensure that we build a system whereby formal health insurance takes care of situations like this such that players and athletes do not have to languish before they get money for treatment when they have health challenges. When the Athletes Sustenance Fund we are working on comes on stream, it has health insurance component that will be available to provide healthcare to them he said.
