By Morakinyo Abodunrin
Minister for Youth and Sports Development Sunday Dare has yet reiterated that the public-private-partnership is the best panacea for the development and growth of Nigerian sports.
Dare said it was against this background that the ministry has adopted several initiatives with notable individuals and Corporate Nigeria in order to ensure welfare of athletes as well as uplift of near- moribund sporting facilities across the country,
Speaking recently in Lagos, Dare said sports in Nigeria would not be the same again with the on-going synergy between the public and private enterprises.
“ We believe in a holistic sports development which is a total departure when you only fund sporting competitions; and you stop at that and wait for the next Olympics, FIFA World Cup, Commonwealth Games or the All Africa Games ,” explained Dare. “But as important as those matters are, they do not equate to sports development.
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“But we came in clearly with the vision at developing a template that speaks to sports development and not just to infrastructures but also the athletes as well as speak to the entire gamut of the country has to do at developing sports.”
Explaining further, Dare said the ministry had to benchmark its operations by adopting the best practices from sports successful countries across the world, adding the ministry is determined more than ever to implement some of its well-laid policies.
“ Because of the paucity of funds, we came up with the ‘adopt initiative ‘ which was launched about a year ago and this is three flavours: ‘ Adopt-An-Athlete’; ‘ Adopt-A-Pitch’ and ‘Adopt –A- team’,” explained Dare.
He continued: “ We have had eight successful adoptions with ‘adopt-an-athlete’ but we are looking at about 47 athletes that would benefit from this package.
“Also, we have ‘adopt-a-pitch’ and that was how we brought in Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Chief Keshington Adebukunola Adebutu to help us fix the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja and the National Stadium in Lagos; we are going to do the same for the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium in Ibadan; Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna too.
“ We are also looking at a mini stadium or township stadium to be done in each geo-political zone once we have the money; and the last one is to ‘Adopt-A-Team’ and we have seen what Total has done for both the Men ‘s and Women’s national Basketball teams,” declared Dare.
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