Nigeria’s foremost sports facilities expert, Ebi Egbe, has emphasised the vital role that sports can play in promoting peace, fostering community development and preventing youth crime, especially in the Niger Delta.
Egbe, a certified grounds man and FIFA licensed agent, is advocating the need for State governments to set up sports parks across the region as a means of curbing crime like pipeline vandalism, adding that a fraction of what is being paid for securing pipelines can be channelled into developing sports facilities which would yield better results.
Egbe’s company, Monimichelle Sports Facility Construction Limited, has been involved in the construction of some of the best football playing turfs in Nigeria and some West African countries.
No less than 15 stadia in Nigeria have Monimichelle brand stamped on them. They include; Mohammed Dikko Stadium in Katsina, Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Lagos, the Remo Star Stadium in Ikenne, the new Awka Stadium in Anambra State capital in Awka, amongst several others.
Egbe, a former commissioner of sports in Bayelsa State said: “My company is domiciled at the heart of the Niger Delta, Yenagoa to be precise and I see all these pipeline vandalism, youth restiveness in the Niger Delta. The easiest way for us to curb youth restiveness in through sports.
“Every community in the Niger Delta has a football team . We can inculcate swimming, wrestling, canoeing into these communities.
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“All the money we are using to protect the pipelines if the federal government can spend just a quarter of that money to pay for sports parks in grey areas where we have issues with pipelines and you would be shocked that all these things would die overnight.”
“My take is let’s construct sports facilities in the Niger Delta, let’s use sports to curb youth restiveness. Yes, we have tried different approaches to deal with this issue, but they are not working. We have seen places like South Africa use sports in Soweto to curb restiveness. We have seen examples in Colombia, Peru and even Libya where there is a war ongoing. When there is a sports activity, everywhere is calm.”
“Let us construct sports parks in the Niger Delta. Let us make it a must and you will be shocked on how we are going to curb youth restiveness. It is something I know that is going to work in the Niger Delta and I have been preaching this for the last 17 years.
“Identify and pick the areas we have issues, construct sports parks and you are not only going to be solving the youth restiveness problems you are also going to be producing sporting champions. For example, the Samson Siasia Stadium (in Yenagoa), when I constructed the tracked in that stadium, the first athletics meet hosted on that track, the girl that took first is an African champion today.
“This would tell you that we Niger Deltans are talented. When it comes to sports, you cannot push away Niger Deltans.”
In a related development, said it’s a big honour to be part of the Africa Football Business Summit in Kenya where he has been invited as a guest speaker on facility management, adding the event is in line with the vision of his company to eradicate bad pitches in Africa.
“It is a big honour to be recognized by the organizers. It is an opportunity to share my experience with other attendees at the summit. And I am happy people are watching and acknowledging the good work we are doing at Monimichelle,” Egbe said.