Governor Rotimi Amaechi devoted time and resources to ensure Nigeria qualified for the last World Cup in South Africa. That was one way he contributed to Nigeria’s football. He was chairman of Presidential Task Force then.
Cross River State currently hosts the Eagles and the National U-17 team in Calabar and Governor Liyel Imoke has been very supportive.
He spends resources to camp these teams and host the various qualifiers. Kano and Kaduna States have equally played similar roles as their contributions to sports in the country.
Executive Chairman of Delta State Sports Commission, Amaju Pinnick said yesterday that the people and government of these states should all be commended for the assistance they have rendered to national football.
He said that it was in the same vein that Delta State opted to host a sports summit in Abuja to chart a new direction for sports development in Nigeria. The event comes up on October 30 at the Hilton Hotel.
The summit, he said, was the idea of Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan who was scandalised by the failure of the Nigerian contingent to the London Olympic Games and felt that Delta could complement the efforts of the sports ministry and the National Sports Commission in developing sports in Nigeria.
Amaju put his words this way: We want to sustain the momentum of change in our sports direction because it’s no longer news that sports is a great unifying factor in Africa and if well organised can be a huge foreign exchange earner. The good thing is that we have the potentials to be a great sports country.
How can these potentials be tapped for the good of the country? That’s the question the summit will intend to answer. Nobody should feel slighted or intimidated by the noble efforts of His Excellency, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan.
We are not indicting anybody but trying to complement the efforts of the sports ministry. Delta State is encouraged to do this because of their leadership position in sports in Nigeria especially in the past 12 years.
Out of the six National Sports Festivals held in these years Delta has won four, providing and grooming athletes for the country and making visible impact in all national competitions. It is not, therefore, out of place for such a state to also want to provide this quality summit that might herald the much deserved change in our sports.
Governor Uduaghan has been pivotal to the success of Delta in sports and he has special relationship with our elite athletes and he does a lot to motivate them.
But he feels that for Nigeria to be outstanding in sports there has to be mass participation from the grassroots to the elite level and wants the summit to come up with a report that can make this possible.
I think that everybody should rally around him on this. We are all witnesses to what Governor Rotimi Amaechi did for the Task Force on World Cup, even chattering a plane for their runs.
Today, Cross River State hosts two national teams just like Kano and Kaduna States have also hosted teams. The summit is Delta’s contribution to sports Development in Nigeria and should be supported by all.”
CULLED: Vanguard
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