Gora urges national sports commission to revamp grassroots sports

October 02, 2012 16:42

Minister Of Youth Development, Alhaji Bolaji Abdullahi,,

Audio attached

NAN-S-12

Gora

Lagos, Oct. 2, 2012 (NAN) Elias Gora, member of Nigeria’s 2012 London Olympic Planning Committee, on Tuesday called on the National Sports Commission (NSC) to revamp grassroots sports development.

He also enjoined the para-military institutions to also help to restore grassroots sports.

Gora, who made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, said there should be a process in place to replace the aging athletes.

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``When we have a very serious dearth of athletes, what I mean by that is, we do not have younger athletes to replace older athletes who have aged.

``And the reason for that is not far-fetched my dear, first, every one of us who was an athlete of repute, both at national and international levels, was from school sports.

``The Federal Ministry of Education is not involved in any sports development, the National Sports Commission has department known as grassroots sports development.

``I am not too sure; and I mean I am not too sure they are actually performing the role of grassroots sports development.’’

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Gora, however, urged the Federal Ministry of Education to encourage students to choose sports as vocation in a bid to help to create a large pool from where to source athletes for international competitions.

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``Again, for them to achieve that they need all concerned and I mean all concerned stakeholders, who are those stakeholders.

``The sports commission should not be blamed for the failure of our performance at the international sports engagements.

``They need the ministry of education, the institutional sports, that is, the universities, they need organisations like the police, the army, and the para-military.

``They used to constitute in the development of athletes that represented this country, what are their roles today?

``The local government, the states, very few states are involved in actual sports development.

``The sports commission does not produce athletes; it is the responsibility of local governments, sports committee, the states’ sports councils and their associations and the National Sports Federations. ''If these layers of sports development are not performing their duties, it becomes impossible for the national sports commission to do that, so we need each other, this is the crux of the matter.

``But again and again, as I have said times without number, there is need for collaboration between the National Sports Commission and the Ministry of Education.’’

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Gora told NAN that grassroots sports development should be a collective effort, and should not be left to the sports commission alone. (NAN)

OAF/TON/MSAD

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