Twitter Nigeria in a rare moment was united on Tuesday, July 23 to laud the omission of Solomon Dalung, the former and controversial Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports from the ministerial nominees' list for the second term of President Muhammadu Buhari. 

Less than 30 minutes after the 43-man list was read out during the senate’s plenary session, Dalung became a trending topic on Twitter Nigeria as thousands celebrated his omission. 

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The celebration didn’t end on Twitter. The following morning, Vanguard Sports led their back page with the headline; ‘Hurray! Dalung is not returning as Sports Minister’. Sportscasters on Lagos radio stations the following morning could not hide their excitement when the topic of Dalung’s omission was being discussed. 

The glee that greeted Dalung’s omission from the ministerial lists tells to a great extent of how much he is disliked by Nigerians. What is surprising however is how everyone in sports, especially in the media, was also amused by it. 

Dalung was far from perfect in his four years in charge of Nigerian sports, but the trained lawyer does not deserve the ridicule that came after his omission. 

Contrary to popular opinion, Dalung didn’t fail in his office as sports minister where his biggest impact was on the lesser-known sports. 

He started his stint as Minister by reviving and transforming several sports federations which revitalized sports like handball, volleyball, cricket, judo, taekwondo, karate and wrestling in Nigeria. 

These sports federations were tasked with organising standard leagues which have kept many athletes busy. 

Under Dalung, the National Sports Festival returned in 2018 for the first time in six years and the trained lawyer also put plans in place for the 2020 edition which will be hosted by Edo State before he left the office. 

He also successfully hosted three National Youth Games which have produced some amazing talents in several sports. 

Adijat Azeez is an example. After emerging from one of the National Youth Games, Azeez has gone on to compete at the National Sports Festival where she won in her category and has also become an African Youth Champion. 

The successes of Nigerian wrestlers in the last four years have also been as a result of Dalung’s investments in these sports. 

In truth, Dalung was the knight in shining armour that these unpopular sports needed in Nigeria. He showed real support to these athletes by constantly hosting them after every competition and making sure he reached out via phone calls when he couldn’t meet them. 

Dalung was also very prudent as a sports minister, making sure there was no frivolousness from any of the sports federations. He had tight control of the dealings of everyone in his ministry, from the Permanent Secretary to Directors and other top officials. 

The extravagant foreign trips of almost everyone of note in the sports ministry and their respective entourage were things of the past under Dalung. 

It is perhaps his desire to control his ministry and all the federations under him that was his biggest undoing. 

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was Dalung’s biggest conundrum and it was his desperate acts to salvage the situation that hurt his legacy as a sports minister. 

There was hostility between him and the Amaju Pinnick-led NFF all through his stint as a minister and this enforced the public perception of him as a trouble maker. He even resorted to joining forces with the Chris Giwa-led rival faction in the NFF and further drew the ire of the media when their antics almost led FIFA to impose a ban on Nigeria. 

Dalung's public image was always smeared as he often drew ridicule with his grammatical bloopers and outrageous statements. When he wasn’t committing grammatical blunder like “the funds spended were properly spended’ he was making himself look inept with comments like when he suggested that Nigeria should opt out of playing at the 2018 FIFA World Cup because the country was cash-strapped.

“The cup that we can win is the African Cup of Nations,” the Minister told Voice of America (VOA) in a November 2016 an interview. 

“There is nothing 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.

“But I am opposed to the World Cup. We don’t agree to it. Conspiracy in the World Cup is too much.”

It was unbelievable for a sports minister of a football-mad country like Nigeria to utter such statement. 

This is where Dalung failed Nigerians. He was a poor brand to represent and speak for Nigerian sports but when it comes to assessing his job, he did that to an acceptable standard.