As President Goodluck Jonathan is expected to officially
launch Rhythm N’ Play, an initiative of NASCOM, on Thursday 6th of June,
2013 in Abuja, efforts would be geared toward
collaborating with stakeholders to achieve this target.
According to its Chairman, Yemi Idowu, the
target is realistic, considering the collaboration with Nigeria School
Sports Federation, NSSF and Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria, YSFON.
“With Rhythm N’ Play, we are targeting two
million students in two years and we are hoping that the Rhythm N’ Play
programme will cover about 60 students per school in at least 50 schools
in each state of the federation on a monthly basis.
"We think it is a
realistic target, which has been set by the Honorable Minister of
Sports/Chairman, National Sports Commission, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi,
when he approved the project. Children of school age are the primary
participants of Rhythm N’ Play and this includes kids within and outside
the formal education system." The campaign is intended to reach
children between the ages of 12 – 17 years and encourage active
participation in regular sporting activity,” he said.
Idowu added: “After the launch, we will go to
work at the state level by getting our ambassadors and stakeholders in
each state to initiate the launching of the programme at the state
level. NASCOM has decided to work through NSSF and YSFON at the state
level. After the launch, we are also going to launch the harmonized
calendar for our stakeholders and we will seek publicity and sponsorship
for all their programmes.”
Idowu said Rhythm N’ Play is an exciting
youth-friendly campaign aimed at enhancing mass youth participation in
sporting activities and age-grade competitions.
“There was need to reposition sports in order to
facilitate the mass participation and early discovery of young sporting
talents at the grassroots.
"At the Presidential Retreat held last year,
NASCOM was identified as a key component of government’s efforts at
developing sports at the grassroots and NASCOM has designed Rhythm N’
Play as the flagship grassroots sports development campaign of the
National Sports Commission (NSC). The campaign will help revolutionize
grassroots sports in Nigeria,” he said.
He explained, “Rhythm N’ Play will rely heavily
on the use of music, celebrities, volunteers, new media and other
elements of pop culture to amplify and realize its objectives. Mr.
President will launch the campaign on June 6, 2013 in Abuja.
For him, the campaign would be integrated into
junior and secondary school sporting activities nationwide with Rhythm
N’ Play Clubs set up in schools nationwide.
Six sports – football,
athletics, ball games, calisthenics, martial arts and racket sports are
the sports that Rhythm N’ Play will use, while the best sporting talents
discovered through the platform of the programme will converge,
fraternize and participate at the National Youth Under 17 Games recently
instituted by the National Sports Commission (NSC).
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