Sports is all forms of usually competitive physical activity through casual or organized participation which is aimed to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing entertainment to participants, and in some cases, spectators.
As war against corruption, and the desire to improve security and power generation are some of President Buhari’s top priorities, sports development too is also very essential as most of Nigerian youths have chosen to make living out of it, apart from the leisure of its entertainment and fun.
It is not that Nigerians lack ideas or policies to follow on sports but that various governments have found it more convenient to give time, energy and money to providing electricity, security and job creation than paying just a little attention to sports.
The president must however note that sports form a very critical sector in the life of the nation. Those who actively engage in sports are the youths who are the future of the nation. Sports today is more than just a pastime, it is a multi-billion dollar industry which can offer employment to millions of our youths.
The sports sector deserves the best brains, professionals that can turn the fortunes of our sports around. Sports is practical and results are the determining factor that influence team selection, appointments. The president must therefore avoid considerations other than excellence in making appointments to the sector.
The president must allow companies producing sports wears to come and set up in the country. He should make a law that will encourage local firms to set up manufacturing companies across the country. This will help in job creation and unemployed youths would be taken off the streets when the President implements the national sports policy where every local government is asked to develop sports facilities. With such facilities, people can go out in the evening for training, exercise and relaxation.
It is not building luxurious or big stadia in state capitals that matters. It is more to do with minimum facilities that can provide the comfort to the citizens in every nook and cranny of the federation. We have seen how jumbo stadia in some towns have been abandoned for lack of proper maintenance. In fact, the National Stadium in Abuja is a classical example, it took almost a year to renovate for impending match as a result of lack of maintenance. But if every local government builds standard sports facilities, in few years, Nigeria would be producing world champions especially in football.
Furthermore, sport facilities will help reduce recycling of athletes. You can see in a country of over 170 million people, you still find a player celebrating over 100 caps, which means he must have played for more than 12 years. It is because the facilities are not there for the youths to develop their talents. In addition, we should develop youth academies. Sport has gone digital, you cannot do it manually, It is developing rapidly.
It must be restated that sports development can be utilised to project our country positively among comity of nations. It can support and help in physical fitness and health improvement. It can be utilised as veritable tools to actively engage the youths rather than allowing them to take into bad habits. To ensure that Nigeria is recognised globally in championships like the All African Games, Commonwealth Games and the Olympics, it must improve its sports facilities and encourage private sectors to invest in the projects. The sports institutions too must be professionalised.
In conclusion, I must restate that both youths and sports cannot be separated. The government must also eradicate corruption in the sports sector and ensure that appointments for chief executives and trainers are based on merit so that our sports teams would be among the best in the world.
Muazzam Garo Sule Mass Communication Department Baze University, Abuja
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