Lagos Holds Seminar For Sports Officers

In an effort to re-engineer sports development in Lagos and enhance performance of its sports officers, the Lagos State Sports Council organised a two-day seminar held at the board room of the council, Rowe Park, Yaba. 

The seminar organised in conjunction with the Office of the Lagos State Head of Service, Public Service Office (PSO) was to remind the sports officers on the rudiments of administration and the basics of civil service rules, working etiquettes, discipline among others. 

 

Speaking at the seminar, Director of Sports, Lagos State Sports Council, Dr. Kweku Adedayo Tandoh, said the refresher induction course is to better equip staff to continue to carry out their duties without infringing or breaching rules. 

 

Tandoh explained that the sports officers are better exposed and more guided through different trainings and seminars in the last one year and this has improved their handling of various sports associations they deal with.

 

"You realise that the sports officers are our major tool in re-engineering sports in Lagos state. The more we train them, the more we expose them in term of administration, the better the output we'll get. The officers are the one who work with the local governments and they are also our secretaries of sports associations, therefore it is imperative that  we continue to train and retrain them to make the work easier for them. At the end of the day we are able to get more out of them because many of them are now better equipped and in that light, they are able to bring much more to the table in terms of their performance. 

 

I can categorically say that in the last one year or thereabout, the performance of many of our sports officers has really improved and this is telling in the handling of various sports associations," said Tandoh. 

 

Sports development policy in Lagos state is in continuum in the last 16 years and with the new administration of Governor-elect, Akinwunmi Ambode, the Director of sports said there wouldn't be any deviation in the development plan while expecting the incoming government to build on the achievements of the outgoing administration and even take it further. 

 

He said "The incoming government is a continuum, It’s a government that preach continuity for the policies of Lagos state that has been working for the past 16 years, so we don't envisage much deviation from what we have been doing. We expect that the new government will build upon what is already on ground and even take it to a greater heights.  We are ready to continue to work with the development plan that is in place".

 

Dr Tandoh served as the  Secretary General of the Local Organising Committee, LOC for the last National Sports Festival, the "Eko 2012 Games" and he is optimistic that postponed 19th National sports festival "Paradise Games" which should have been held last year in Cross Rivers state will hold later this year following the successful conclusion of the National elections. 

 

"I believe very soon we will hear from the National Sports Commission, NSC who are the custodian of the festival regarding the new date but I'm quite optimistic that the festival will still hold sometime this year" said Tandoh.