Governor Abubakar Sani Bello of Niger state has been urged to adopt the game of hockey as the state's sports pet project.
Youth
and Sports Minister Barrister Solomon Dalung made the appeal at the
weekend during the final of the Hockey Federation's Super League between
Niger Flickers and Police Machines held at the Abuja National Stadium.
Barrister Dalung implored other state governments to invest in any sport of their choice to reduce restiveness in their states.
"Your
excellency, I want to passionately appeal to you and various state
governments to develop interest in sports. The young people are the
agitative constituency. The young people are restive but once you create
an enabling environment for them, there will be no more security
challenges. The best we can do is to deploy resources to sports
development and engage these young people to be great champions, then
there will be stability in this country.
"Today,
wrestling is like a personal possession of Bayelsa state. Their state
government has deployed resources to Wrestling. No matter how many times
you organize a wrestling championship, Bayelsa will win because they
have invested in it. If Niger state has been winning in hockey, what
will stop us from going to Niger as the home of hockey. I therefore
implore your excellency, to deploy resources to building of
infrastructure in Niger state, support the hockey team, open up the
space and give football a very good challenge.
"I look forward to when hockey will be competing shoulder to shoulder with basketball and football."
The
Minister also congratulated the new board of the Nigeria Hockey
Federation and charged them to embark on a wide search of membership
for the hockey federation.
"There
is so much for Nigeria to make in sports and government alone cannot
drive sports to success. The private sector is a cardinal and key
partner in sports development. We will create the enabling environment
to ensure that the so-called autonomy is made perfect. Federations will
be autonomous and they will source for funds and sponsorship, organize
their competitions while government will continue to support with
grants".
Barrister
Dalung added that after the inauguration, the newly elected federations
will henceforth make public their books of accounts so that any
interested investor will be guaranteed transparency and accountability.
