The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), will grace the presentation of awards to 60 Nigerian sports icons in celebration of the country’s 60th independence anniversary on Friday October 16.

The media department of the Ministry of Youth and Sports Development disclosed this in a press statement made available on Tuesday.

The award, which will hold at the Velodrome of the Moshood Abiola National Stadium, Abuja, is put together by the sports minister, Sunday Dare.

While receiving the report from the committee set up to collate the votes by Nigerians for the 60 awardees, Dare said, “We initiated this award because of the need to reward our heroes and heroines who have sweated to put the name of Nigeria on the world map. Unfortunately, most of these patriots have died, but we are also consoled that many of them are still alive.

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“Another importance of the award is that it will encourage the younger athletes and indeed Nigerians in other fields to always give their best to the country, knowing that their efforts will be appreciated by the country.”

The Minister also appealed to other deserving awardees that were not voted for the awards.

 “I appreciate the efforts of the collation committee at arriving at these 60 names because the truth is that there are so many more deserving Nigerians, but we restricted the number to 60 to commemorate the Diamond jubilee of our country.”