FG Summons National Conference on Sports Education

Olawale Ajimotokan and Joshua Onyebara in Abuja

The Federal Ministries of Sports, Education and National Orientation Agency (NOA) will convoke the first National Conference on Sports Education in Nigeria between November 19 and 23.

The summit to hold at the National Stadium in Abuja is to find lasting solutions to the challenges of schools sports and general grassroots sports development.

Chairman of the Nigerian Sports Summit, Philip Femi Aziegbe, announced at a press briefing yesterday in Abuja that the aims and objectives of the conference are to complement existing efforts on legislative and policy formulations toward improving and stimulating geometric upgrade of sports in schools.

He said that the conference is focused at mobilising resources for the Public Private Partnership collaboration to motivate and drive investments to effectively support sports and education and increase participation in secular sports from the grassroots to the national and international levels.

Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo is expected to be the special guest of honour at the conference to be hosted by Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung while Minister of Education, Malam Adamu Adamu, is the co-convener of the summit.

Aziegbe disclosed that the national and state legislature, state governors, all 774 LGAs, MDAs, research institutes, tertiary institutions, sports associations, military and para-military agencies, operators of public and private schools, corporate organisations and All Nigerian Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) are among those to participate at the summit.

“We will tell ourselves the naked truth and create a roadmap for sports. The conference is to diagonise the challenges and focus on the pathways of advancing sports. It will address the new investment platforms and relationship to support school sports and other sports institutions. It will create wider windows for increasing talents discovery, youth participation and sustaining active capacity building in sports as well as using sports to build our quest for peace, unity and progress of our society,” Aziegbe said.

He added that they will forward the reports to the sports and education ministries and NOA to ensure that the recommendations are implemented.

The project National Consultant, A.K. Peters, stressed that they have projected a 10-year rolling plan for the project after which assessment will be made every two years to enable them determine the amount of ground they have covered.