Sports
Commissioner Urges Leaders To Support Youths Through Sports
The Commissioner for Investment in Niger State, has urged Nigerian leaders to support youths through sports development initiatives in order to ensure a brighter and peaceful future for them.
Jibril told newsmen yesterday in Abuja that every leader in Nigeria needs to engage youths in profitable initiatives which would guarantee them a better future.
Tidesports reports that the commissioner gave this advice on the sidelines of the maiden edition of the “Playing for Peace and Empowerment Initiative (Youth Empowerment Sports)”.
The programme was held in Abuja at the weekend.
“Leaders from all sectors, states, organisations and institutions are to look for various means of engaging our youths.
“We have talented youths across the country who we can support in many areas.
“When we engage our youths in profitable programmes, we will reduce the rate of unemployment and criminal acts in the country,” Jibril said.
The commissioner said one of the impacts of such empowerment programmes was that it would attract direct foreign investments in Nigeria.
“We should be looking at how we can extract our players to play outside the country so that we can get foreign direct investment.
“I’m working directly with my state governor, Sani Bello, to see how we can turn sports into a means of investment and to be a foreign income revenue for the country,” he said.
Jibril congratulated the organiser of the event, Stanley Ugochukwu, for the great efforts put together.
“I’m happy with what he is doing and I will support him in my little way,
“We pray for a better Nigeria and that can only be achieved if we engage and support our youths in good works,” he said.
Coach of the national under-15 football team, Usman Ilerika, while also speaking with newsmen in the same vein, urged rich Nigerians, lovers of football, and philanthropists to assist the youths.
He said this was necessary for the youths to achieve their dreams in football so that they can be useful to the nation.
“You will have a good sleep when you meet the needs of youths in your neighbourhood and in the country,” he said.
The coach said he saw the passion in Ugochukwu 22 years ago when he coached him.
“He was one of the Youth Corps members in the Community Development Service (CDS) which I coached during his NYSC scheme.
“Passion is the number one thing required to make impact in the life of people and achieve success.
“I’m always happy to see them have success in football. A lot of youths have benefitted from what we taught them,” he said.
Tidesports also gathered that the event which was held at the Area 3 football pitch was tagged “Seguir Caminando Empowerment Sports and Awards Ceremony”.
It was in commemoration of Tuesday’s United Nations International Day of Sports for Development.
England captain Harry Kane netted a hat-trick to guide Bayern Munich to an impressive victory against Stuttgart.
Kane’s goals, plus one from Kingsley Coman, helped Bayern end a three-game winless run in all competitions.
They faced a tough task against a Stuttgart side who sat back and limited their chances, leading Vincent Kompany’s side to enter the break frustrated and with the deadlock unbroken.
Bayern eventually found a way past Stuttgart’s steely defence when Kane drilled a low effort into the bottom corner from around 30 yards out after Joshua Kimmich overturned possession.
Former Nigeria goalkeeper, Dosu Joseph, is full of thanks to God after he miraculously survived another life-threatening automobile accident recent at Kara, along the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way, where a heavy-duty truck ran into his SUV.
Narrating his ordeal, the 51-year-old, who guided Nigeria to gold in the Men’s Football Tournament of the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, broke the news in a statement on his social media handles on Friday.
“To God be the glory, another death escaped by Grace and Mercy of God. Me and my friend SM were at Enyo Filling Station after Ojodu Berger bus stop to get fuel on Wednesday, October 2, 2024, around 6 p.m. when this MACK truck fully loaded with iron, with registration number LND 470 XX, left the road and crushed my car beyond repairs. Thank God for life,” he stated.
This is the second time the soft-spoken club proprietor will cheat death by a whisker, having been involved in an accident in 1997 that ended his career at 23 and left his spinal cord in bad shape.
He helped Julius Berger win the Nigeria FA Cup in November 1997 shortly a memorable Olympic outing by keeping a clean sheet in the finals against Katsina United. The following year, he was involved in the auto along Ikorodu Road, Lagos, which not only cut his career short but also left him almost paralysed, ending his spell at Serie A club Reggiana.
The former Nigeria international, who also kept goal for Julius Berger FC, said the case has been reported to Isheri Police Station, Ogun State, where the driver is currently detained and the truck also seized.
According to him, the owner of the truck said he can’t fix the badly damaged SUV until after a year.
Ex – Super Eagles of Nigeria, Okwuchukwu Waobikeze has observed that sports development in Nigeria is going down.
According to him, grassroots sports is very important, without it, the administrators cannot get it right. So everybody should key into grassroots sports development, he said.
Waobikeze said this last Wednesday in an interview with sports journalists shortly after the Port Harcourt All Stars Independence football festival (OCTOBERFEST) at the Port Harcourt club, Rivers State.
He explained that for sports administrators to get it right, grassroots development is key. “They should be organising competition at the grassroots level to fish out the young ones for different sporting activities.
“Grassroots sports is very important so the administrators have to go back to the grassroots.
” Sports Development in Nigeria is going down we need to go back to the basics.
“Look at the just concluded Paris Olympics, Nigeria did not win any medal.
” Our football team did not even qualify for the Olympics. We are going down.
” If they should go back to the grassroots, they will get young ones in the games and talents will be developed.
” I started from school games, to youth games before playing for the national team. Now everybody wants to fly board to play professional football and a lot do not know the basics of the game.
” A lot of people did not know the little things about the game, they just want to play. It is not done so,” Waobikeze stated.
Kiadum Edookor
