Sixty of Nigeria’s most outstanding achievers in sports will be celebrated in sixty-day long ceremony at the Moshood Abiola Stadium, Abuja as part of the country’s 60th Independence anniversary celebrations, Sports Minister Sunday Dare has said.

Dare made the declaration at an event to unveil logos and ambassadors for the revamped National Principals’ Cup in Lagos on Monday.

The minister said the weeks long ceremony will serve to honour sports icons who have served Nigeria with distinction over the years and also inspire young upcoming athletes to strive for greatness.

The minister revealed that while the country has achieved notable feats in various sports fields, the ceremony will be biased towards footballers.

Members of the public will have the opportunity to learn about the feats of and interact with a number of the sports legends who will be physically present at the Velodrome in the stadium, Dare said.

The composition of the final sixty sports icons will be decided by the ministry and some media houses who will select from a long list of submissions from the public.

“Beginning from October 1st we are going to have at the velodrome, sixty sporting icons and most of them will be footballers,” Dare said.

“There are banners we’ll roll from top to bottom at the velodrome, there’ll be running audio commentary talking about each of them, about their feats and what they have won.

“We hope that, that way we can celebrate them but we will bring some of them to the Velodrome so that as you come and visit you’ can see Tarila Okorowanta live, of course you’ll see the Bull he’ll be there, quite a number of them will come to that velodrome so you can interact with them.

“I think that the only way we can inspire our youth is to celebrate those that have served this country so well, our sportsmen and women, to value them and to use them as inspiration for the younger ones.”