.Looks
forward to EKO 2012 National Sports Festival
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| Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi having a word with Nigerian football legend Segun Odegbami at the EKO 2012 seminar in Lagos |
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| Chairman, EKO 2012 LOC Marketing subcommittee, Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas chats with a participant at the seminar while LOC secretary-general Dr. Kweku Tandoh watches |
Minister of Sports and Chairman, National Sports
Commission (NSC), Bolaji Abdullahi has denied blocking the Nigeria Premier
League (NPL) from resuming.
Speaking during an address he delivered at the
one-day seminar, organized by the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of Eko 2012
on Thursday at the MUSON Centre in Lagos, Abdullahi said that contrary to
popular belief that he was behind the directive that effectively saw the
indefinite postponement of the NPL board’s congress and the league earlier
scheduled to start on December 1, he was not.
He said: “I did not suspend the League. I only said
that there were issues to be addressed and directed that they should be by the
Nigeria Football Federation. This became necessary as a result of the
management problems, corruption and misuse of sponsors’ funds facing the
League.
“Sports thrive on integrity. If there is none, then
there should not be continuation of such a sport.”
He expressed confidence in the ability of the
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to get to the root of the matter in due time
and stressed that the League will soon resume.
“I am confident that the NFF will do the right
thing to ensure that things are brought under control in due time. I know that
the clubs have been waiting for the league to start, but it will happen soon.
It is just like closing a university. It will eventually be reopened,” he told
the press in a brief media chat afterwards.
Meanwhile, the minister has commended Lagos State
for its commitment to sports development and said he looks forward to the beginning
of the 18th National Sports Festival tagged Eko 2012 on November 27.
"I want to commend the government of Lagos
state for abiding with the commitment to the development of sports in Nigeria.
A couple of other states are also demonstrating similar gesture fashioned"
To ensure that the biannual National Sports Festival (NSF)
achieve its aims, Abdullahi said that the commission would review athletes’
eligibility for the games.
He lauded the
efforts made so far by Lagos State to host a befitting festival, while charging
other states to embrace grassroots sports development for the country to
produce new crops of world stars in sports.
“We will soon commence the review of eligibility of athletes
for the festival and because the games is a biannual event, we will also be
organising U-17 Youth Games before the next festival so that athletes
discovered at the games can be integrated into the main festival,” he said.
He however, charged states to complement NSC’s efforts by
developing sports at grassroots level especially by constructing sports
facilities in local councils across the state.
Delivering a paper on the topic: “Raising the Profile of
Sports in Nigeria Through Mutual Understanding and Collaboration, NSC’s
Director, Alhassan Yakmut said it became necessary for all the stakeholders to
work together for sports to thrive in the country.
Specifically, Yakmut lamented the incessant rancour bedeviling
sports in the country, while the setting up of parallel bodies has done more
harm that helping to develop sports.
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